search

mezerotm / cmv

CMV is a citySDK based map visualizatoin tool
5 stars 5 forks source link

Stop calling census data–'variables' #40

Open mezerotm opened 7 years ago

mezerotm commented 7 years ago

I think we should stop calling them variables, in terms of when trying to explain it to the public. We can obviously still call them variables but I think variables doesn't sound friendly(#38).

hardnett commented 7 years ago

What the primary target audience for the app? If its business professionals, entrepreneurs, etc. Then variable may be the most straightforward and meaningful term.

I looked at the Census site and found this page: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045216/00 which allows someone to browse the data and they are using the term topic instead of variable. I am not convinced that topic is a good word because it's less exact and vague in my mind.

Some other terms that came to mind are demographic attribute, data point, facts (also used on the Census site), parameters

I am brainstorming. So weigh in.

mezerotm commented 7 years ago

WOW!! you just gave use the key to finding out how exactly we are going to give meaning to the variables

I looked at the Census site and found this page: https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/table/PST045216/00

We can use the definitions provided by the census on defining exactly what these variables provide #16 (you find the definition by clicking on the information icon on the on the left of each row)

hardnett commented 7 years ago

Yeah, I used a bit of this in coming up with the Titles for the Graphs. The only problem is that these descriptions are not readily available through the API. I opened an issue with CitySDK to see if they could work on that: https://github.com/uscensusbureau/citysdk/issues/317