Need Ideas: Graphics For Petition Campaign

[jyl]

Braintrust, gather round. I have a question about data visualization.

I am organizing a petition campaign in a neighborhood of 1850 homes. Volunteers from the neighborhood are getting signatures from their neighbors, going door to door. I have an excel file that tracks each address and whether that house' occupants have signed the petition.

I'd like to create a graphic that tracks progress toward our goal for signatures. I'd make this publicly available on a website. Sort of like the "thermometer" or "progress bar" graphic you see in school fundraising campaigns. Goal is to let the neighborhood know how we are doing, show the momentum, let people know that their neighbors are supporters.

One experiment I've done is to upload the spreadsheet to a Google My Maps, which creates a map that looks like this



This is useful for showing the volunteer organizers what neighbors their volunteers should try to speak with, etc. However, I don't want to make this much information available publicly, for privacy reasons and also to avoid giving the opposition data. I'm looking for a graphic that is simpler, without individual house data.

What would you suggest?

Ideas I've mulled include a progress bar for each block (block = both sides of a street between consecutive cross-streets), a progress bar for each group of blocks, pie charts, dials, etc.

How would I implement it?

My website is built on Wix so I can, I think, embed charts to be driven by my spreadsheet. Or I can generate charts in Excel and simply upload images to the website. It would be cool to have the graphics update with every update to the spreadsheet, but a weekly update would be okay too.

Is this worth doing?

Do you think this is actually going to be motivating to the volunteers, to the neighborhood, etc?

Should I rebuild in Access?

I don't know Access, I'm an Excel power user. Should I take the time to rebuild the spreadsheet as an Access database? What would I gain from that?

[Paul_Heery]

Why not just use Excel?
http://www.spreadsheetshoppe.com/thermometer-chart/

[jyl]

That's cool! Yes, I can make a thermometer or progress bar.

But should each block have a progress bar? Every micro-neighborhood? What would be most motivational and interesting for the neighborhood to see?

We are being very grassroots here. Neighbors are speaking to their nearby neighbors, people they probably already know and encounter often. If folks see that some of the people on their block have signed, they might get interested in what the petition is all about, and decide to sign as well. That's the thought, anyway.

[jyl]

I could do something like this

[jyl]

Or this

[Charles Freeborn]

Maybe overthinking a bit. I for one don't like to have my "preferences" out in public.
I'd say a simple bar or pie chart with total houses (1850) and total signatures (add column with sum function and then add a 1 when someone signs). Voila!
See you this evening at LNA mtg?

[jyl]

Originally Posted by Charles Freeborn

Maybe overthinking a bit. I for one don't like to have my "preferences" out in public.
I'd say a simple bar or pie chart with total houses (1850) and total signatures (add column with sum function and then add a 1 when someone signs). Voila!
See you this evening at LNA mtg?

Yes, see you there. You have a PM.

[Holger]

Originally Posted by Charles Freeborn

Maybe overthinking a bit. I for one don't like to have my "preferences" out in public.

^this!
Woah!