Problem Set 4: Mini Project

The objectives of the project are:

to integrate the R and Tableau skills that you have learned so far in the course
to analyze data with a question or insight in mind
to communicate your insight through a webpage

Prompt

You are the analysts tapped to investigate trends in sales data from three branches from 2017 through 2019. You are not given much direction, but the boss (decision maker) wants to use data to make better decisions. First, you should explore the data (conduct exploratory data analysis). Your goal is to identify an insight worth sharing with management. Once you find an insight, develop your data story.

R: Data Processing

You are given the data in three separate files (one for each year). You need to append the datasets (or bind them together) to produce a single dataset that you can output for Tableau to read.
There was a problem integrating the E-wallet payment system data with the rest of the dataset. The gross_income and gross_margin_percentage values are missing for transactions with E-wallet payments. Use other information in the dataset to fill in the missing values (labeled as “NA”) by calculating these fields. You can check your work by comparing your calculated values with those present in the dataset.
Use R to write a csv file that your can read into Tableau.

Tableau: Data Visualization

Use Tableau to produce at least three visualizations that help you tell your data story. These can be static or interactive visualizations. The visualizations should adhere to the guidelines for better data visualizations.

Google sites: Webpage

You will present your analysis in a webpage report. The webpage should contain a written narrative and data visualizations that support your narrative. We expect the written narrative to be 500 to 750 words.

Here are some questions to consider as you engage in your analysis:

What are the sales trends over time? Are the patterns stable across branches/years?
What products generate the most sales? Which products yield the highest gross income? Does this vary by location?
How is customer satisfaction trending? Does this vary by location or product?

Here are some questions to consider as you develop the webpage (not in any particular order):

What is your insight? use data visuals to explain why something is the way it is
What is the action or change your insight implies?
What are your key visuals? Do they support a consistent narrative?
Does your webpage contain the data story elements? Question or compelling hook, Characters and setting, Preliminaries, Answer (or insight), Next steps
Who is the audience?
What are the shortcomings of your analysis? How might you alter your data collection processes to revisit your question in the future?

How to Submit

You should create a new webpage on your Google site titled Unit 0 Mini Project. This webpage should include a write up of your analysis including a brief description of any data processing steps. Generate a log file from your R code and submit that to Canvas. Submit the link to your Google site webpage in Canvas.