Inspiration
Our inspiration comes from looking at the difference in treatment between females and males in the workforce. Being in Data Analytics, we realised the importance of charts and graphs and how they translate a greater story across readers rather than the usual boring statistics. This led us to wanting to create a platform to spread awareness using charts and visualisations. As girls in computing, we do not see how someone's gender affect their ability to do something that people presume a FEMALE can't do. Gender stereotyping leading to differential treatment (eg. lower pay) and under representation of women in the workforce, especially in management positions. This is something that is real and as university students going into the workforce, it is a concern for us. Therefore, we hope to change the world by creating something impactful and reduce gender inequality, despite it being a simple concept. :)
What it does
SeeQUAL shows us the statistics of gender inequality across Asia using visualisations to spread awareness of the issue. It is made to be interactive by allowing users to select the category, types and countries of the field they are into. Upon choosing, they will be led to a survey as well as the visualisation. It also has a data collection function which enables organisations to collect information with regards to gender issues, such as through questions to the user (eg. What is the percentage of women in political power in Country X? / Do you prefer a male or female as your superior, or either?), adding to their organizational data and allowing them to address the issues based on current perceptions.
How we built it
We used html, javascript, jQuery, css and BootStrap templates for our website’s aesthetic. We also used text editors such as Sublime Text and Atom to write our codes. For the visualisations, we used Google Charts api and Google Sheets where we collect users feedbacks as well as draw the data to make the charts.
Challenges I ran into
Challenges that we faced are:
- Unable to find sufficient data for the countries
- Linking the google forms and charts to create the visual
- Ability to filter users who have already entered their feedbacks before viewing the charts
- Unable to show the feedback questions before showing the charts and making it compulsory for users to answer them before proceeding
- Unable to do a count of each options per feedback question (admins have to do this manually via google sheets)
- Ability to customise each chart individually (Current all the charts are column charts which might not be the best way to visual the data)
- Data used are not updated in real time (The datastore has to be manually updated)
- The usage of php scripts to enhance our website usability (mainly to connect our website to a database server)
- Time management for the whole project, juggling of schoolwork and an external project
Accomplishments that I'm proud of
Translating the concepts and ideas that we visualized in our minds into the actual website, such as:
- Customizing the carousel (sliding images, with a static button)
- Using jQuery for the pop-up modal to display the stories and to show the visualizations as selected by the user
- Collecting data submitted by users with a google form
What I learned
- Skills: using coding in HTML, CSS and Javascript, editing codes from Bootstrap and integration of Google API
- Working in a team: Hearing each others' ideas, and integrating and improving them.
What's next for SeeQUAL
SeeQUAL is a mock-up and it's not perfect yet, if possible here are the additions that we would like to add:
- Sharing the stories to social media if people feel empowered.
- Having more updated data (dynamic data that would change the charts) and cover a wider scope of gender inequality
- Having other kinds of visualisation instead of bar charts as it is hard coded now.
- Allowing questions to be generated
- Reaction bar to the articles or stories to increase interactivity
We hope that SeeQUAL would get the attention of Non-Governmental organisations. It would be a useful platform for them to collect data and spread awareness. Currently, they have the greatest attention of people regarding issues like this. Therefore, if they are able to use it to their advantage, they can tailor their efforts to better reduce inequality.
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