Data Visualization Analysis: "Men are from Chelsea, Women are from Park Slope"

Among the keys to a good data visualization are to keep your visualization as simple as possible and to make sure it makes sense with the numbers removed. I believe that the visualizations found in Pudding’s story, “Men are from Chelsea, Women are from Park Slope,” which focuses on the gender segregation of “gayborhoods” in 15 American cities, do well enough in both categories. The visualizations present themselves in this story are clear cut and easy enough to understand that, even without numbers, you can easily grasp what the visualization is telling you. The story itself also gives us the necessary information to accompany those visualizations and is transparent about where that information is coming from. Part of that transparency also includes acknowledging the potential flaws in their sources, which is undoubtedly important as far as accuracy is concerned.

However, despite satisfying the basic requirements of a good data visualization, this set is not without its flaws. While the visualizations themselves are easy enough to understand (as mentioned above), they would have been elevated with more precise figures on how many more gay or lesbian couples there are in each “gayborhood”, or how much more concentrated these populations are in these areas than in others. Additional demographics on intersections between race and sexuality/gender identity would have also been helpful, as race and class tend to play a fairly large role in where populations are most likely to be concentrated. I also feel that the focus on Pride parade routes and gay bars and the use of Yelp as a source of data was a considerable mistake, as the use of a LGBTQ-oriented directory such as The Pink Pages may have offered a more accurate picture of where LGBTQ-oriented businesses and services are concentrated.

To the authors credit, many of these flaws are acknowledged outright by the author, and most of the data used for this visualization comes from reliable sources (including the US Census). Overall, I believe the visualizations present in this story do a solid job on informing the audience about its subject – despite needing some improvements.