Average PriceAverage Zestimate

Discover Boston was designed and built by Alain Ibrahim and Mike Schaffner, for CS 171 at Harvard, Spring 2013.

The five main components of this dashboard-style visualization are:

1. The Overhead Map, which allows the user to efficiently compare different zip codes' locations and general measures such as number of homes for sale (or sold), as well as average price of those homes. It also allows a user to click a specific zip code for more details (see #3) and to reveal those listings on the scatterplot as well as the timeline.
2. The Price-per-SqFt Scatterplot shows all of the listings in the area (filtered by the Controls), and is also linked to the Overhead Map. Upon selecting a zip code from the map, colored circles are overlaid on the gray Boston-area sales, with the colored circles representing the data for that particular zip code.
3. The Zip Code Bar Charts appear upon selecting a zip code from the map, displaying the colored bars for zip code Average Price and Zestimate Price to better inform the viewer of the properties of that zip code relative to all of Boston.
4. The Timeline at the bottom, which shows a frequency chart of weekly sales in the Boston area. It is also linked to the zip code selection, so that the zip code sales (colored to match the other views) are overlaid on the background of the gray Boston-area sales.
5. The Filters/Controls, which can be toggled from the top, are linked to all of the other views of the visualization.

We believe that all of these components, when combined, enable the general principles of interactive visualizations:

1. Overhead View First
2. Zoom and Filter
3. Details on Demand

We welcome feedback, criticism, and ideas for future work.
Contact us at:

• alain_ibrahim@hotmail.com
• maschaffner@gmail.com