By: Eugene Chen
StatisticsEdmonton.com gives people - be they planners, researchers, campaigners, or just everyday citizens - easy access to valuable insights about our city. It's been built to make it very easy to immediately share these insights with others, and also allow anyone with a spreadsheet to build up their own custom visual data maps.
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Overview
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Which neighbourhood has the highest income average? Where are all the young adults living? Which neighbourhoods have the lowest occupancy rates, potentially signaling lower rent?
People can quickly click through to uncover these statistics without mulling through tables of data. It's just a much more pleasant way to understand, interpret, and share these insights. It also makes it possible for the everyday citizen to make use of this information:
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Who can use this?
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<<<The Way We Live (Livability)>>>
- Communities that can now identify specific needs & trends, thus providing the right services
- Newcomers/movers - like the family identifying a suitable neighbourhood with new families (e.g. http://bit.ly/coKQsa )
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<<<The Way We Plan (Municipal Planning, Activism, Campaign Planning, Research)>>>
- Edmonton planners, businesses and stakeholders who can quickly share, research, and relate data
- Political campaigners planning campaigns or estimating projections (e.g. http://bit.ly/93QFn7 )
- The blogger/tweeter who wants a quick, powerful visual to prove a point (e.g. http://bit.ly/anH2FK )
- The researcher who can have a map of their own data (say... number of dogs in Edmonton) just by pasting in a spreadsheet (see political example)
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<<<The Way We Prosper (Economic Development)>>>
- The real estate agent looking to understand zone demographics and property types
- Entrepreneur evaluating best location for marketing campaign/store/restaurant/office based on demographics (see Dan's comment below)
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<<<The Way We Grow (Land Use)>>>
- Communities can now access and understand more about their neighbourhood and determine the best use of their land for their community
- and more (this would be a pretty long list)...
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Features
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- Easy to Share: Shortened (bit.ly) link for every "maptistic" combination to share @ top right "Link" button
- "Plot Your Own" lets business/political campaigns + researchers create custom visualizations
- School breakdown (categories), other city points (like police stations, etc)
- Enormous set of stats & open data, plus both "Totals" and "Ratios" modes for analysis
- User-friendly, intuitive interface by using the Google Maps controls and familiar background maps
- When clicked, Neighbourhoods & Schools have "Lucky Links" or Google Searches to help user learn more
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Suggestions?
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Suggestions and comments are very much welcome, and please feel free to poke around. Site is at http://www.statisticsedmonton.com, or just http://statsedmonton.com .
If you like the app, please pass the word around and vote for it! Thanks!
Nic Cher
very nice tool to help a foreigner like me find a good suburb to live in. Very informative and well planned.Kyle Tan
I like how easy it is to use this. The interface is straightforward, and the integration of Google Maps makes it easy to pick up and get used to.Michael Fagan
Very well done and polished. Great that so many sources of data were integrated together. I especially like the ability to colour thematically by "local ratio" rather than absolute value of the data, it helps highlight the outlier areas.Aldran
Fantastic and innovative. This is the kind of information an organisation needs for market assessment. In this era of business analytics/intelligence, this application will definitely be a highly appreciated tool. Easy-to-use user interface is another plus for this app. This app is "World Class".Eugene Ng
Awesome for analysing potential property investments in the area! Easy to use and most importantly, this site provides relevant information.Chan Shijie
Wow! haven't seen anything like this before! It's really easy to use for an idiot like me! If I were to to arrive in Edmonton, I would know my way like a local!! Haha Well done!!Carolyn Truong
Great website! Only suggestions is if you can make the colors different instead of varying shades, I have a hard time comparing the different shades. Wonderful idea though, this is super useful!Sarah
This is a very informative and user friendly app. I can totally see myself using this.Danny
awesome!Byung-Hoon
this site looks pretty cool. could be used as an important marketing tool!Sean Dunn
Great visualization of statistics. As a former resident of Edmonton, it is interesting to see the demographics around the university area. Great job, and very useful tool.Ben Randall
Very interesting information set to browse through and in a way that makes it super easy to find the information that you want.Nick
This is definitely a useful tool for someone unfamiliar with the city, and even for those of us living here already. Well done!Holly
I can see this as very useful for businesses to easily access relevant information for targeting potential customers.Leah
This is also a cool way to begin research for apartment shopping, or purchasing a residential property. Great for visual learners!Xu Enliang
Very useful. Good job.Bob
This app is certainly useful as a starting point for both large statistics research projects and small party trivia alike. Nice.Corbinx
This was very interesting and easy to use. There would definitely be a large array of people who could benefit from this information. As well, there is a lot of potential for expansion by incorporating other statistics of residents and community services into the application.Steph
This was easy to use and understand. Excellent use and integration of multiple data sources. I can see this as interesting local tool with a variety of applications for a variety of demographics.duneveraskmewhy
This is a great site for new-comers like me who are still wondering around a little lost at times.Kienan Stewart
Useful for both new comers and those that have lived in Edmonton a long time. More data sources over time would be welcome, with the ability to use multiple information points (eg household size and age) into a single map. Keep up the excellent work!Jamie Reid
Love the way the map works. very slick.Amanda
Very practical! Perhaps you have already thought of this, but it might be good to add a crime map. My brother moved to Calgary recently and almost ended up in a very sketchy neighborhood, just because he wasn't familiar with Calgary. I'm pretty sure EPS has maps like this on their website.vibudh
very useful and informative apppoorna
Great job Eugene! I've never visited the area but I think I learnt a few interesting things just through the app :). I'll send some comments in email. Good luck!Grace Tan
think it'll be a great tool for someone who is as curious as me! when is it coming to Singapore? hahaha.Jonathan Chiang
This is awesome....Good Job EugeneLawrence
I think that's a great tool for anyone curious about the area. Very informative. I'd love to see a similar thing for other areas of the world too.Yangchin
Visual speaks a thousand words, Oliver looks v dense. Nice one Eugene.Daryl Chooi
Good stuff there. Perhaps it could include the percentages of the types of houses (apartment blocks, bungalows,etc) in the area (if this is for that purpose)?Dan
Hi Eugene, this is very impressive! I really like the idea and especially how you can get a lot of different information in a very intuitive and user-friendly way. For example, supposing I wanted to open a business that catered to Edmonton visitors it would probably be best to locate it in the 'Downtown' district, probably around 109 St., rather than Whyte Av. as I would have otherwise thought intuitively.Vivek
Eugene, nice job! Very informative. I was impressed with how responsive it is.Frank Bassett
Fantastic app, very informative.kim
User friendly information tool. Awesome!Kawin Luthanachol
It's something really new and practical. Thank you for this.James Soh
这个网站对于我是一个想移民去加拿大Emonton的未来新移民帮助很大,让我能够很容易得到相关的资料及其他宝贵的资讯.若能够再加上该城市的每一个住宅区产业买卖和价格或比较就真的会是锦上添花!无论如何你所没计的网页真是一级捧!Doan
Very nice. I'm actually searching for a house in the upcoming months and this may prove to be a useful tool! :)Worldwide Link Ltd
Awesome! Good information for individual as well as for Corporation. Thank you for this.Sijing
Sounds niceMohammad Ali Mohammad
Ow wow, very easy to use; it hardly took me a minute to understand what was going on. I actually searched for schools for my daughter on this ..... I liked the fact that I could click and see the level (elementary, high, etc), and have a direct web link to the relevant website. I love parks, so I also searched for parks around my home, and found a small park that I did not know of! Five stars from me ..... Thumbs Up!Jane Phuah
Jane Phuah Excellent & very useful information!Graeme W
As a soon to be house buyer, this would be a fantastic tool for me. I would appreciate knowing what kind of living situations my neighbors are in before buying. I know my parents always appreciated living in a neighborhood where most of our neighbors had kids the same age as us.Chris McBride
Great App, Very informative. Excellent for both business and personal use, I would download it.Spondon
great work Eugene!Margaret Ke
Nice tool, how about make one for Waterloo?