Family First: American Holiday Spending Has Shifted Away from Friends and Coworkers (2004–2021)

Step one: the visualization

For this assignment, I decided to look at The Average Holiday Spending By Americans. The original visualization is a bar chart showing how much Americans have spent on holiday gifts over time. It comes from the MakeoverMonday 2022/W52 dataset, which is publicly available through Data World. I selected this visualization because, while it is simple and easy to read, it felt too broad and did not tell much of a story. The chart shows the general trend that holiday spending has increased, but it does not break down why certain years saw dips or spikes, why they are recording this data demonstration of a comparison between data. I wanted to explore whether a redesign could highlight what categories people are prioritizing (family, friends, coworkers, others) because the website emphasied many times that Americans over the years are buying less gifts for their coworkers and friends. I believed I could transform the visualization from a broad overview into something more insightful and meaningful for both general readers and retail-related audiences.

Step two: the critique

The chart is straightforward to interpret at a glance, which works well for a general audience. The x and y axes are clear, the use of bold text on key elements like the title and year helps draw attention, and the color of the bars is not distracting. What does not work as well is the title, which is too vague and does not explain what the visualization is measuring. It would be stronger if it were changed to something like “Average American Spending on Christmas (2002–2023).” I also noted that while the graph highlights the overall upward trend in spending, it misses an important opportunity to tell a story about what Americans are buying and how priorities have shifted.

The primary audience for this visualization is likely general readers of blogs or newspapers. Because it is simple and avoids technical jargon, these audiences can easily interpret the message that Christmas spending has grown over time. However, the visualization is less useful for audiences like retail stores who would need more detail for planning and inventory. For them, the visualization is too broad and does not offer enough insight into consumer behavior.

In my redesign, I plan to focus on telling a clearer story with the data by breaking spending into categories such as family, friends, and coworkers. A multi-line chart with distinct colors for each group will help highlight the shift toward family spending and away from friends and coworkers. I also want to add annotations for key years like the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, as well as adjust the y-axis to make trends easier to see. I am excited to experiment with color coding, direct line labels, and a more descriptive title so the audience can quickly grasp both the overall spending trend and the deeper story about changing priorities.

Step three: Sketch a solution

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Step four: Test the solution

Questions to ask:

What do you think of the overall design
What are its strengths and weaknesses?
Do you think it would be a good idea to redirect the story since the data did not look into any comparisons but it did talk a lot about how much people spend on coworkers, family, and friends? - If yes –> what should I work on or how can I redirect the story line - If No –> what aspects of the original design did I miss or is a good idea to add?
Are the titles informative or misleading?
How can I use color in this?
- is a line graph a good idea for this design?
How many years should I keep?

Results:

Results

Question	Interview 1	Interview 2
What do you think of the overall design?	They thought the design was improved because it included all categories, which gave more depth than the original broad chart.	They liked that you highlighted crucial years like the recession and COVID-19, making dips in the data easier to understand.
What are its strengths and weaknesses?	Strength: shows family, friends, coworkers separately instead of lumping together. Weakness: be more mindful of how you categorize and explain the relevancy of each group.	Strength: adding historical context improved clarity. Weakness: could use more color to emphasize the story.
Do you think it would be a good idea to redirect the story?	Yes, they liked the deeper dive into categories. Recommended clarifying why each group matters to the story.	Yes, adding context makes it more meaningful. They suggested keeping the focus on family vs. others to make the story sharper.
Are the titles informative or misleading?	They thought the title should be clearer in showing the focus on categories rather than just overall spending.	They found the title informative, especially once you added reference to key years.
How can I use color in this?	Suggested using color strategically to separate categories but not overdo it.	Recommended adding color if you go with the second sketch to make it easier to follow trends.
Is a line graph a good idea for this design?	Yes, especially since it shows comparisons over time better than bars.	Yes, the line graph helps demonstrate dips and growth more clearly.
How many years should I keep?	Suggested keeping recent years but being careful not to cut off too much context.	Thought you could shorten the range (last 10 years) for relevance while still marking major events like 2008 and 2020.

Synthesis:

All participants agreed that using a line graph is a better design choice than a bar chart because it highlights dips and growth more clearly over time. They also consistently pointed out that color should be used more strategically to separate categories and to draw attention to key comparisons, especially if I go with my second sketch. Another strong theme was that breaking out spending by category (family, friends, coworkers) made the story much stronger than the original broad chart, though I need to be careful in how I categorize and frame the relevance of each group.

Step five: build the solution

You can view my final interactive visualization here: Assignment 1 — MakeoverMonday (Tableau Public)

My redesign shifts the focus from a single broad spending trend to a more nuanced story about how holiday spending priorities have changed from 2004 to 2021. Instead of a bar series, I created a multi-line chart that shows spending broken down by category (Family, Friends, Coworkers, and Other). I used color strategically to highlight family spending in bold while muting the other categories, since the main story is that family spending dominates and continues to grow, while spending on friends and coworkers has stagnated or declined.

To improve readability, I added labels at the end of each line so the audience does not need to rely on a legend. I also included annotations for key years (the 2008 recession and the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020) to explain why dips or unusual patterns occurred. A more descriptive title and subtitle help frame the story and clarify that the figures are in USD and not adjusted for inflation.

Reflections on the Process

Overall, this project taught me how important it is to go beyond simply reproducing a dataset and instead design for clarity and insight. The critique process pushed me to analyze not just aesthetics but also the usefulness and completeness of the original chart. Sketching ideas helped me think about different ways to emphasize the story, while peer feedback confirmed that breaking out categories and adding event context made the visualization more meaningful.

In the final redesign, I tried to balance accuracy with storytelling. By focusing on family vs. other categories, and by using annotations and color emphasis, the visualization now highlights a clear message: Americans increasingly spend more on family for Christmas, while gifts for friends and coworkers have declined.

References

“Tableau Tutorial.” GeeksforGeeks, 19 Aug. 2025, https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/tableau/tableau-tutorial/. Accessed Sep 14, 2025. MakeoverMonday: Average Holiday Spending by Americans, Data.World, 2022, https://data.world/makeovermonday/2022w52. Accessed Sep 13, 2025. “MakeoverMonday.” MakeoverMonday, https://makeovermonday.co.uk/. Accessed Sep 13, 2025. Duarte, Fabio. “How Much Do Americans Spend On Christmas? (Latest Data).” ExplodingTopics.com, 24 Feb. 2025, https://explodingtopics.com/blog/christmas-spending-stats. Accessed Sep 13, 2025.

AI acknowledgements

Provide step-by-step guidance for Tableau tasks, such as adding reference lines, creating end-of-line labels, and reshaping the dataset into long format.

Sabrina-Rodriguez-Portfolio