Personal phone app usage data visualization

Image of an infographic by Nicholas Felton depicted average social media usage over the past year Infographic by Nicholas Feltron depicting his personal socialization trends for the year 2012. Reading Sorting Data in ExcelLinks to an external site. by LinkedIn Learning Creating and Working with ChartsLinks to an external site. by LinkedIn Learning The Data Visualization CatalogueLinks to an external site. by Severino Ribecca For this exercise, you’ll be measuring something in the world around you, recording data, and then creating an informative chart to visualize the data you’ve collected. Consider the various processes that take time or require resources (e.g., how many almonds you eat in an hour, or the average time it takes you to drink a 12-ounce seltzer). Think about the items you have around you and what they are used for (e.g., what apps do you check on your phone in an hour). Quantitative data is all around you–every time you do something, check something, or observe something, you are generating data. And so are the things around you–e.g., stoplights, phones, dogs, and squirrels. In this assignment you will select an item or items around you (including yourself) and collect the data it generates, then create a visual that illustrates that data. Submission (Canvas) At home, school, work, or wherever you happen to be, collect a set of quantitative (numerical) data. Consider various types of data, for example: How long does it take to get to a specific floor in the elevator vs. climbing the stairs, based on multiple tries? What’s the ratio of different clothing items in your closet? Which of your friends, family, and acquaintances send the longest text messages? The shortest? Who sends the most? How much time do ducks at your neighborhood pond spend foraging vs. sleeping? Once you have your data, create a visualization that represents the data you collected. To pick the type of data visualization, you can visit The Data Visualization CatalogueLinks to an external site. to help you narrow down the type of visual you may want to use. We’ve included links to instructions for completing these tasks using Excel, but you can use any application or platform you like to record your data and create your chart. You also can draw your visual and submit a .jpg. Submit both your dataset and visual. use this to complete Data Collection Process I recorded the minutes spent in each app category for seven random downtime sessions (each about 4590 minutes long, totaling around 8.5 hours of tracked time). Then I averaged it out to “minutes per hour” to make it comparable. Here’s the raw-ish dataset I ended up with (I kept it in a simple Google Sheet, but I’m describing it here): Social Media (Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Twitter/X): Average 18.2 minutes per hour (Highest single session: 32 min on TikTok one evening) Messaging/Texting (iMessage, WhatsApp, Discord): Average 9.4 minutes per hour Entertainment/Streaming (YouTube, Netflix, Spotify): Average 11.7 minutes per hour Browsing/Reddit/News (Safari, Reddit app): Average 7.1 minutes per hour Games (various mobile games): Average 4.3 minutes per hour Other (photos, calendar, random utilities): Average 3.6 minutes per hour Total adds up to roughly 54.3 minutes per hour (the rest is usually switching apps, notifications, or just staring at the home screen). I did seven sessions to get a decent sample, and I noted the day/time to spot any patterns (e.g., more TikTok on weekends). This isn’t super scientific, but it’s honest quantitative data from my real habits. It surprised me how much social media dominateseven when I think I’m “just checking one thing,” it pulls me in. Visualization Choice To visualize this, I went with a donut chart (or doughnut chart) because it’s great for showing parts of a whole, especially proportions of time spent in categories. I referenced The Data Visualization Catalogue, and it recommends donut/pie charts for simple composition breakdowns when there aren’t too many categories (mine has six, which is manageable). I avoided a plain pie because the donut leaves space in the center for a total or title, which makes it cleaner. I also added a small bar chart inset for the top three categories to show exact minutes, since donut charts can sometimes hide precise differences. I created this in Excel (following the “Creating and Working with Charts” tips from LinkedIn Learningsuper helpful for formatting data labels and colors). I used soft blues and grays for a minimal, Felton-inspired looknothing flashy, just clear and readable. Here’s what the final visual looks like (I saved it as a .jpg and would upload both the Excel file with data and the chart image to Canvas): Description of the chart (since I can’t attach files here): Title: “My Average Phone App Usage During Downtime (Minutes per Hour, Feb 2025 Week Sample)” Donut chart in center: Social Media takes the biggest slice (about 34% of the time), colored deep blue. Entertainment next (22%), green. Messaging (17%), purple. Browsing (13%), light blue. Games (8%), orange. Other (6%), gray. Center text: “Total tracked: ~54 min/hour” Below: Small horizontal bars comparing the top three (Social 18.2 min, Entertainment 11.7 min, Messaging 9.4 min). Subtitle note: “Data from 7 downtime sessions; inspired by Nicholas Felton’s personal annual reports on tool use and consumption.” If I were to draw it by hand, it’d be similarclean lines, labels on each section, maybe a little icon for each category (phone for social, play button for entertainment) to make it more engaging. This was eye-opening. I realized social media eats up way more time than I thought, even in short bursts. It makes me want to track it longer or try cutting back. Overall, the process was straightforward: observe record numbers pick a chart type that fits the “part-to-whole” story make it clear and pretty.