Learning from Toronto
An experiment in participatory urban data visualization
Graduate Thesis project—part 2
Master of Design, York University
Toronto, 2019
Shortlisted in the 2019 Kantar Information Is Beatiful Award
Winner of the CIBC Fine Arts Graduate Student Award
My graduate thesis research is focused on how urban data visualization can be used to investigate the relationship between people’s perception of concrete phenomena happening in cities, and actual data about them. I chose to explore these issues by focusing on Toronto, where I live, specifically addressing the housing topic—one of the most urgent challenges the city is currently facing.
I developed a prototype for a mobile-first app (see it on the project’s part 1 page) based on an interactive survey in which citizens are asked to visually provide their guess about urban issues, before being presented with visualizations of the actual data on the same topics. I then designed, developed and programmed one interactive visualization for each of the sub-topics addressed in the survey questions.
Check them out below (with live interaction!)
Learning from Toronto
An experiment in participatory urban data visualization
Graduate Thesis project—part 2
Master of Design, York University. Toronto, 2019
Winner of the CIBC Fine Arts Graduate Student Award
My graduate thesis research is focused on how urban data visualization can be used to investigate the relationship between people’s perception of concrete phenomena happening in cities, and actual data about them. I chose to explore these issues by focusing on Toronto, where I live, specifically addressing the housing topic—one of the most urgent challenges the city is currently facing.
I developed a prototype for a mobile-first app (see it on the project’s part 1 page) based on an interactive survey in which citizens are asked to visually provide their guess about urban issues, before being presented with visualizations of the actual data on the same topics. I then designed, developed and programmed one interactive visualization for each of the sub-topics addressed in the survey questions.
Check them out below (Live interaction coming soon!)
Viz #1
Change in Toronto Home Prices 2011-2018
This interactive visualization addresses the topic of the first question in the LFT survey. An area chart depicts the relative change in median home prices for each of the 35 areas used by the Toronto Real Estate Board to subdivide the city. The vertical dimension in the area charts encodes relative change in prices over the previous year. The charts are arranged in a cartogram based on Toronto’s topography.
Viz #1
This interactive visualization addresses the topic of the first question in the LFT survey. An area chart depicts the relative change in median home prices for each of the 35 areas used by the Toronto Real Estate Board to subdivide the city. The vertical dimension in the area charts encodes relative change in prices over the previous year. The charts are arranged in a cartogram based on Toronto’s topography.
Viz #2
Unaffordable Rent in Toronto
This visualization follows up on Question 2 from the interactive survey, depicting the amount of renter households who are spending more than 30% of their total income on shelter costs (the official threshold by which Statistics Canada defines ‘unaffordable housing’). Each census tract is represented through a circle whose area is proportional to the data. Circles are color-coded based on the main districts in the city. You can zoom in the map, hover on visual elements to access more information, and use the interactive features in the left panel to filter the data.
Viz #2
This visualization follows up on Question 2 from the interactive survey, depicting the amount of renter households who are spending more than 30% of their total income on shelter costs (the official threshold by which Statistics Canada defines ‘unaffordable housing’). Each census tract is represented through a circle whose area is proportional to the data. Circles are color-coded based on the main districts in the city. You can zoom in the map, hover on visual elements to access more information, and use the interactive features in the left panel to filter the data.
Viz #3
Distribution of new homes in Toronto
This viz builds on the circular layout of the donut chart in Question 3, in which the districts are arranged around the circle according to their true position in the city, to generate a “compass” visualization that allows you to observe recent trends in housing data from a high-level spatial perspective. The charts have two layers: they grey areas follow the principles of radar charts and portray the most recent data; the spirals are animated radial line charts that depict the evolution of each value, from 2012 to the most recent data available. You can visualize datasets about newly completed homes but also on home prices and rent, two related topics already addressed in the first two questions.
Viz #3
This viz builds on the circular layout of the donut chart in Question 3, in which the districts are arranged around the circle according to their true position in the city, to generate a “compass” visualization that allows you to observe recent trends in housing data from a high-level spatial perspective. The charts have two layers: they grey areas follow the principles of radar charts and portray the most recent data; the spirals are animated radial line charts that depict the evolution of each value, from 2012 to the most recent data available. You can visualize datasets about newly completed homes but also on home prices and rent, two related topics already addressed in the first two questions.
Viz #4
New Homes in Toronto. A Look at Major Urban Streets
Viz #4
Viz #5
TCH’s housing stock: a timeline
Viz #5
Viz #6
Unoccupied homes, households in need
Viz #6
Learning from Toronto (part 2 – visualizations)
Year: 2019
Project type: academic – Graduate Thesis project. Supervisory committee: Angela Norwood, Michael Friendly
Specs: series of interactive, browser-based visualizations developed using HTML, CSS, Javascript, d3.js, QGIS
Data: Toronto Open Data Catalogue – Neighbourhood Profiles, TCH Data; Toronto Real Estate Board – Market Watch Archive; Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation – Housing Completions: By Dwelling Type; Toronto Community Housing – Annual Reports
Code: coming soon!