Peer Review

[shugamoe]

Firstly, leaflet seems like a really promising interactive map to utilize for a congressional dataset. I've always been a fan of homogeneously sized hexagonal maps, especially for the U.S. where, smaller states becomes much easier to read. I'm not exactly sure what your current maps correspond to, although I might infer that it has something to do with the congressional representatives from that state (House, Senate, both?). In your final project, I would be sure to be explicit about what the colors represent explicitly, with a scale or something, as right now I can only guess that different shades of purple correspond to a mix between Democratic and Republican. . . something. Addtionally, make it clear what map corresponds to what year, as right now there is only line that refers to the '67 dataset, but it is placed between both maps, so I'm not sure which one it corresponds to.

Additionally, try to give readers a little more information about what exactly is in the dataset. The reader (and I) cannot be expected to look at the .xlsx file in your repository to figure out what's going on. I looked at the .xlsx file and there seems to be no shortage of variables. If you're going to utilize a subset of the data, it might be useful to explain to readers what "slice" you are looking at, and how the maps enable an ideal way to explore that data. I like that you mention possibly putting in the ability to filter the dataset, I think this would enable more streamlined n-wise comparisons between states, as right now, especially if states are far away geographically, it might be a hassle to mouse between those states to compare information.

Another thing, you might consider doing is tying in the visualization in with your thesis, since they share the same dataset. The abstract of your thesis, if applicable to this mapping visualization would be a great way of motivating the "exploratory mindset" in your readers, giving them a soft way to see if the results of your thesis are correct. (I might be reaching a bit here, your thesis might not be easily tied in with your visualization).

Lastly, you might be able to add one or two more visualizations that are not maps by focusing on the congressional members themselves, perhaps their voting records on "important" bills, where you could see the voting record for the party and what not. You could have a searchable section for congress members and bills to see more information about them visualized. Now I'm not exactly sure what this might entail, but a cursory look at your .xlsx file shows me that this dataset can utilize more than maps.