Information Visualization
“Employees in Union Square Park”
What we tried to show?
Through the data collected, we hope to show the total number of student employees and the average wage per hour, from the 7 chosen stores in Union Square Park. Our project was to look into all types of businesses around Union Square, which consist of restaurants, clothing retailers, grocery stores, electronic stores, bookstores and coffee shops. We thought finding out the number of student employees at select stores with high volumes of student traffic, would serve as a direct correlation with the Union Square economy. Moreover we tried to find the most economically beneficial workplaces for students.
Why we chose these 7 locations?
- Stores most visited by students in the park.
- Each store represents a different category within the Union Square economy, thus diversifies our data.
Why is it represented in bar and visual graph?
The number of employees graph is represented in a bar graph because we wanted to compare the number of employees working in each shop. For the average wage graph we decided to apply our unique design aspect to the graph, so we chose a visual graph using pictures and coins. One coin represents the dollar, and the amount of wages is represented as the number of coins in the graph.
The interesting points!
When we look at the graph and data we collected, it was interesting to find out that our assumptions regarding the number of employees in each store were extremely incorrect. The most shocking fact was, Whole Foods has 500 employees, and 25 percent are student employees. We did not assume that this many students worked in stores near Union Square. Therefore it was shocking to know approximately 50 percent of stores’ employees are students.
The average wage per hour in stores was $10.75 witch came out to be $2.75 more than minimum wage in NY. We recommend anyone, especially students to work near Union Square park, seeing that part-time (6hrs) employees working in the park make on average “a pack of cigarettes more” than regular employees working out side the park.
Who is interest to see this graph?
- Store Owners: They can solve potential wage problems by looking at the average wage distribution within the park.
- Students seeking employment from high paying local companies.
- Anyone looking for a job.
Research and Development Take on
Our group was to research about economy in Union Square Park. We came up with many different topics such as, real estate, food, shops and enterprises. We tried touch upon park’s economy in many different ways, however we try to find students directly impacting the economy. Therefore we decide to research on students’ employees in the park. Everyone in our group got each assigned students most visiting shops in the park. They did research on the number of total employees, student employees and their average wage. My job was to research Best Buy, and I organize the total research with my group and discuss the observation of our research. I also work as, “time manager” in the group keep contacting team members and ask their process of work. I received the graphs from two of my member’s in-group and also wrote first copy of an observation paragraph and sent it to our team editor, to make final changes.
