Visualizing Superstition With Florida Marriage Data

We’re Not Superstitious, But We Are A Little-Stitious - with when we should get married.

In an effort to explore how superstition affects human behavior, we utilized a dataset from  the Department of Health State of Florida that documents the number of marriages per each individual date (e.g. January 1st, 1989, 373 marriages) starting from January 1989 to May 2022, encompassing 12204 days.

Our data analysis and visualization shows how specific number combinations are highly preferred or clearly avoided by the Florida population, causing marriges number to soar or plunge.

MY ROLE

Data Visualization Designer, Writer

DURATION

10 weeks
(Oct - Dec 2022)

TEAM

Pooja Pandey, Designer, Co-Writer

Tools

Tableau
Figma

Design Process

Literature Review

Explored the concepts of superstition, relevant data analysis research projects , and methodologies.

Alpha Version

Test assumptions, produced static visualizations with Tableau, and begin to form a narrative.

Beta Release

Selected data viz, produced infographics, and created interaction design with Figma and Adobe.

Final Version

Produced a one-page, interactive Figma demonstration prototype with Medium article release.

Figma Visualization

Dataset

Our dataset is retrieved from the Department of Health State of Florida, which listed marriage count numbers from 1989 to May 2022 (ongoing). We collected the data from the last ten years (i.e. 2011-2022), but left out 2020 to alleviate irregular data due to Covid-19.
In total, there are 4169 days with marriage numbers, dating from January 1st, 2011 to May 31st, 2022. We use Tableau as our main tool for creating visualization, and experimented with multiple mixes to seek explanations.

Data Analysis

We manually cleanse our data, and use Tableau to conduct analysis, generate initia visualizations, and identify the most persuasive data visualization.

We then exported the rudimentary graphs as SVG files to Figma and Adobe Illustrator to work on refine visual styles and create interaction design.

Stortelling: Medium Article

Data visualization is just the beginning. We needed a narrative. I wrote a piece on the data insights we analyzed from the dataset and gave it meaning.

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