Hello again Fabric Community and Judges!
I am personally interested in this dashboard because my girlfriend and I have a goal to visit all the National Parks in the US. We've visited 8 of the 63 total National Parks so far and this dashboard was really eye opening and expanded my appreciation of the parks. To my delight, I found a dataset from the National Parks Service that tracks visitor data for all the parks all the way back to 1979, in which every park began reporting monthly statistics. The data quality is *chefs kiss* immaculate. This is the source for the NPS data.
https://www.nps.gov/subjects/socialscience/visitor-use-statistics-dashboard.htm The query builder lets you choose the fields and time frames for the export.
I combined this data with images and descriptions scraped from wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_parks_of_the_United_States
Data collection & presentation
The data from the parks service is in .csv format. I wrote a short python script to scrape and clean the park descriptions and preview images from Wikipedia. All visuals are core Power BI visuals. I chose visuals that I personally felt would be helpful in understanding the visitation trends and popularity of the parks and included a helpful guide that suggests a National Park to visit based on certain criteria.
Design choices
For the report JSON theme file, I used natural tones with and earthy and organic feel to reflect the tones found in outdoor landscapes. Natioanl Parks have a rich history and are meant to be preserved for generations, so I avoided trendy colors to make it more timeless and appropriate.
Accesibility
Tab order and alt text was set in Power BI, and I ensured the dashboard passed multiple accessibility test by using the free browser plugin Skilltide.
Land recognition
It’s important to acknowledge that these parks exist on the ancestral lands of Indigenous peoples who have lived, traveled, and cared for them for thousands of years. Many of the places we visit today hold deep cultural and spiritual significance, and Indigenous communities continue to have lasting connections to these landscapes.
We recognize the original stewards of these lands and the importance of preserving their histories, stories, and ongoing contributions to conservation.
Jon Sandmann
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