INFO 526 — Data Analysis and Visualization

Assignment 5: Dashboard Reports — Iowa Liquor Sales

Course

INFO 526 — Data Analysis and Visualization
Master’s in MIS/ML program, University of Arizona

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Objective

To create static dashboard reports that summarize KPIs for Iowa liquor sales using the Smaller_Iowa_Liquor_Sales.csv dataset.
The goal is to help a fictional distillery decide which alcohol products to prioritize for maximizing sales and which to avoid due to poor performance.

Each dashboard presents two graphics side by side with captions to provide a coherent narrative.

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Methods

1. Data Cleaning

   • Dropped unnecessary location columns (Address, City, Zip.Code, County).
   • Converted Date to datetime.
   • Removed rows with missing Category.Name.
   • Standardized column names (e.g., Category.Name → Category_Name).
   • Converted key string columns (Category_Name, Vendor_Name, Item_Description) to categorical type.
   • Ensured numeric columns are positive and properly typed.

2. Dashboard Construction

   • Positive Dashboard: Highlights best-performing products and vendors.
   • Negative Dashboard: Highlights underperforming products and vendors.
   • Each dashboard contains two charts side by side with a narrative caption.

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Deliverables

Positive Dashboard

• Chart 1: Top 20 Best-Selling Products (by bottles sold).
• Chart 2: Top 10 Best-Selling Vendors (by bottles sold).
• Narrative: Shows the strongest opportunities for the distillery, identifying both leading products and the vendors driving sales growth.

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Negative Dashboard

• Chart 1: Bottom 20 Least-Selling Products (by bottles sold).
• Chart 2: Bottom 10 Weakest Vendors (by bottles sold).
• Narrative: Identifies products and suppliers that contribute minimally to sales and should not be prioritized by the distillery.

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Repo Structure

data-analysis-visualization-assignment-5/
├── .gitignore
├── Dataset/                 # <- Empty folder, dataset must be added manually
├── README.md
├── notebooks/
│   ├── Negative_Dashboard.png
│   ├── Positive_Dashboard.png
│   └── Week_6_Graded_Assessment_5.ipynb
└── requirements.txt

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Dataset Instructions

The Iowa Liquor Sales dataset (Smaller_Iowa_Liquor_Sales.csv) is too large to host on GitHub (174 MB exceeds the 100 MB limit).

To run the analysis:

1. Download the dataset from the course materials or the official Iowa data portal (if provided by the instructor).
2. Place the file in the following location in your repo:

Dataset/Smaller_Iowa_Liquor_Sales.csv

3. Open and run the Jupyter notebook Week_6_Graded_Assessment_5.ipynb to regenerate the dashboards.

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Key Insights

• Positive KPIs: Whiskey, Vodka, and Rum categories dominate sales, with top vendors like Jim Beam and Diageo driving large volumes.
• Negative KPIs: Certain niche products and vendors contribute negligible sales and should be avoided to optimize production.

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