Finding your Passion Project
A personal case study with pinball analytics
Ryan Callihan
A Passion Project!?
"A Passion Project is something you work on that gives you satisfaction, happiness, and puts you into a state of flow. It's your tiny contribution to the world, large or small."
Pinball
Pinball everywhere!
#data17
The Roots of Pinball
Louis XIV of France
Bagatelle
BallyHoo 1933
Japanese Pachinko
Japanese Pachinko
Montegue Redgrave, 1871
Pinball in the 1940's
Unique Pinball Manufacturers over Time
1947 New York City
"The man who saved pinball", 1976
- the Las Vegas mafia
- Al Winter
- Seattle Teamsters
- Tom “Blubber” Maloney
- Portland Teamsters
VS
Stan Terry
James "Big Jim" Elkin
1992
Creepy. Kooky. Spooky. Ooky.
Pinballytics
Data Process
- Get data from Pinball Maps API
- Prepare/Blend/Clean data for analysis
- Export to Tableau
Viz Design Process
- Data Exploration
- Mock up, iterate
- Build in Tableau, iterate
Python - Get JSON from PinballMap API
Alteryx
Many JSON + spatial --> .Hyper
Pinball Density
The Age and Make of the Remaining Pinball Machines
3 C's of Dashboard Design
V1
V2
V3
+
V4
Was it worth it?
- SO much learned
- Contribution to the community
- Something to tinker with
- Something to share
But someone already did it :(
- Use updated data
- Make a regional or more focused analysis
- Tell a better story
- Work directly with stakeholders
Who cares! Make it better!
