I am always looking for new ways to present data and information. And while I often use a programming language like R to visualize geographic data, I recently came across Jonathan Schwabish's post on Interactive Tile Grid Maps in Excel. Eager to add this technique to my visualization toolkit, I set out to design an interactive tile grid map that displays the percentage of children in (United States) families that received public assistance for the years 2013 – 2017.

Using Schwabish’s tutorial as a guide along with my trusty codebook method and several built-in Excel features (Bar Chart, Data Validation, if statements, VLOOKUP), I produced a visually stunning display that is both informative and engaging.

You can also read my blog post on how to create a static tile grid map in Excel.