The Rise of Tech Companies in Scotland
Scotland’s digital technology sector is expected to grow twice as fast as the Scottish economy overall in the years to 2024, according to a new report by Skills Development Scotland and the Scottish government backed Digital Technologies Skills Group. The tech sector accounted for 5% of the Scottish economy’s business base. The sector now employs 2% of the national workforce.
It is estimated that Scotland has up to 12,800 tech job opportunities annually- a 16% increase over previous year demand. The report also found that more than 60,000 people were employed in tech businesses across Scotland.
With a simple dataset on the prevalence of tech companies in Scotland, this week’s makeover is easy as butter on toast.
The original viz is a map of Scotland showcasing where tech companies are located using size and color for visualizing purposes. The bigger the size of the circle, the greater the concentration of companies in that location. Color is used to differentiate between different locations.
What worked for the visualization?
1. The location and number of companies in each location are explicitly mentioned enhancing understanding of the viz.
2. The data source is clearly mentioned.
3. The title of the viz is self-explanatory.
What did not work for the visualization:
1. The use of so many colors to highlight each location is unnecessary. It distracts the user.
2. The use of circles, more specifically size of the circle to display concentration of companies is poorly used. For e.g.: Aberdeenshire and Glasgow seem to have the same number of companies at first sight. The numbers on the other hand say that Glasgow has 2.1 times the number of companies in Aberdeenshire.
3. The viz looks very cluttered.
My interpretation:
1. The use of the map of Scotland with the added feature of explaining where there is a greater concentration of companies using a diverging color palette made sense to me. It enhanced the visual appeal of the numbers and created more structure in the infographic through the presence of a legend that explained the connection between color and numbers.
2. A synchronous color-coded bar chart representing categorical data with the height of each column showing the number of companies located in each region added more depth to the analysis.
3. Of the 1843 companies, 1328 companies are located in Midlothian, Glasgow and Aberdeenshire. These three counties accounted for 71% of all tech companies in Scotland.
4. 32.4%, 26.7% and 12.2% of all tech companies in Scotland are found in Midlothian, Glasgow and Aberdeenshire, respectively.
5. Borders ranks the lowest with only 1.5% of digital companies located in its region.
What do you think of this digital surge in a land known for its Scottish whisky and bagpipes? How would you visualize it?
