Welcome to the Onyx Data March 2025 Challenge!

Webinars

Learn more about ZoomCharts visuals & gain a knowledge advantage in the contest by joining the upcoming webinars! You'll also get the chance to your ask questions and get expert answers in the Q&A section.

Upcoming webinars

Workshop: Practical Tips for Visualizing Crime Data

11th March, 2025

07:00 AM - EDT

Explore top crime data visualizing strategies - what works, what doesn’t. Discover new techniques and gain fresh insights to enhance your understanding of crime trends and patterns!

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Crime Data Analysis: Top 5 Power BI Reports & Expert Insights

28th March, 2025

09:00 AM - EDT

See the top crime data reports and what makes them stand out. Learn from the best, get inspired, and discover what sets the winners apart!

Learn more

How to participate? 

1. Register for the challenge: 

• Download the DataDNA Challenge dataset either on this Challenge page or from Onyx Data website. 
• Register for DataDNA ZoomCharts Mini Challenge.
• Activate your free Drill Down Visuals Developer License for Power BI. Read license setup instructions.

2. Build your report in Power BI: 

• Set up an account in Power BI using the assigned license details (if you have participated in ZoomCharts Challenges in the past, you can use the same account you set up before).
• Use the account to access the full library of custom ZoomCharts Drill Down visuals. 
• Use the dataset to build a Power BI report including at least 2 ZoomCharts Drill Down Visuals in one report page. 

3. Improve your report and learn new skills: 

• To learn more about applying ZoomCharts visuals in your reports, participate in the challenge workshop. 
• If you have any questions or need advice, you can book a free individual consultation. 
• Check out the submissions from past challenges for inspiration. 

4. Submit your challenge entry: 

• Submit your report in .pbix format for validation. 
• If your submission doesn’t match the challenge criteria, you will be notified by email indicating the reason. Don't worry if this happens! You can fix the issue and resubmit your report. 
• Together with validation confirmation you will receive a publish to web link that you can use to add the report to your portfolio or publicly share online. 
• All validated entries will receive personalized feedback from the evaluation team. You can use this feedback to revise your report and resubmit it before the deadline. Feel free to resubmit your entry as many times as necessary before the deadline. 

5. Finalize your participation to compete for the prize: 

• Post the final version of your submission as a single image on your LinkedIn profile, including the tags @ZoomCharts and @OnyxData, as well as the hashtags #dataDNA and #builtwithzoomcharts.
• After posting the report on LinkedIn, please complete this form.
• Follow ZoomCharts on LinkedIn 
• Follow Onyx Data on LinkedIn 
• All participants of ZoomCharts Mini Challenge who have filled in the form are also valid to compete in the main Onyx Data DataDNA challenge for a chance to win additional prizes. Read more here. 

6. Attend challenge closing webinar to hear the results: 

• The submissions are evaluated by ZoomCharts team (see "Judging criteria" for more info). The submissions of Top 5 ZoomCharts Mini Challenge finalists are analyzed live during the challenge closing webinar to share the best practices and learning opportunities with the community.
• The author of the best report is rewarded with a $300 Amazon gift card from ZoomCharts. 

Context for a Data Visualization Challenge

Washington, D.C. has long focused on crime prevention and community safety. This dataset provides detailed insights into crime patterns, allowing analysts to explore crime frequency, geographical hotspots, trends over time, and crime severity. Participants in this challenge will leverage Power BI or other BI tools to visualize crime trends and derive actionable insights for law enforcement, policymakers, and the general public.

Your challenge is to create an interactive dashboard that helps answer key questions such as:

• What are the most common crimes committed in each district?
• How does crime vary by time of day and location?
• Are there any noticeable trends in violent vs. property crimes?
• Which neighbourhoods have the highest crime rates, and what types of crimes are most prevalent?
• What is the impact of different crime methods (e.g., firearm-related incidents)?

Suggested Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

To make sense of the data, participants should consider the following KPIs:

1. Total Crimes Reported – Number of crimes committed in a given time period.
2. Crimes by Time of Day – Distribution of crimes by shift (Midnight, Day, Evening).
3. Top 5 Crime Types – Most frequently occurring offenses.
4. Crime Severity Index – Weighting crimes based on UCR ranking to assess overall risk.
5. Crime by Neighbourhood – Number of reported crimes per neighbourhood cluster.
6. Hotspot Analysis – Geographical visualization of crime density.
7. Weapon-Related Crimes – Percentage of crimes involving firearms.
8. Time to Resolution – Average duration from crime occurrence to report filing.
9. Trends Over Time – Year-over-year or month-over-month crime trends.
10. Crime Rate by Police District – Total crimes per district to assess law enforcement efficiency.

Data Dictionary

The dataset contains records of crimes reported in Washington, D.C., including details such as the time, location, offense type, and method. Below are the key fields and their descriptions:

SHIFT - Time of day when the crime occurred (Midnight, Day, Evening).

BLOCK - Street block where the incident was reported.

LONGITUDE - Longitude coordinate of the crime location.

LATITUDE - Latitude coordinate of the crime location.

START_DATE - Date and time the crime occurred.

END_DATE - Date and time when the incident was closed or resolved.

NEIGHBORHOOD_CLUSTER - Cluster ID representing the neighbourhood where the crime occurred.

PSA - Police Service Area responsible for the location.

SECTOR - Police sector where the crime was reported.

CCN - Case control number assigned to the crime report.

OFFENSEKEY - Categorized crime classification, including major and subcategories.

REPORT_DAT - Date when the crime was officially reported.

OCTO_RECORD_ID - Unique identifier for the record in the dataset.

CENSUS_TRACT - Census tract ID where the crime took place.

BLOCK_GROUP - Census block group ID for demographic analysis.

VOTING_PRECINCT - Electoral precinct associated with the location.

METHOD - Method used in the crime (e.g., gun, others).

WARD - City council district where the crime occurred.

BID - Business Improvement District, if applicable.

LOCATION - Geographical coordinates in (latitude, longitude) format.

OFFENSE - Type of crime committed (e.g., theft, homicide, robbery).

DISTRICT - Police district overseeing the location.

YEAR - Year the crime occurred.

OFFENSEGROUP - Crime classification (Violent or Property).

ANC - Advisory Neighbourhood Commission ID.

OFFENSE-TEXT - Descriptive text of the crime.

UCR-RANK - Uniform Crime Reporting (UCR) rank, indicating severity.

Technical requirements

• Build your report using only Power BI
• The number of pages in the report is not limited
• At least one report page has to contain a minimum of 2 ZoomCharts Drill Down Visuals. See a practical guide on Drill Down Visuals here

Judging criteria

Each report is evaluated based on three main criteria: intuitiveness, insightfulness, and interactivity. These factors ensure that the reports are not only accurate and functional, but also meet the target audience's needs and are ready to be presented to the end-users. 

1. Intuitive: How clear and easy it is to understand the report at a glance? (max 15 points)
   • Is the report visually appealing?
   • Choice of charts and visual elements
   • Does the report tell a story?
   • Is it not overwhelming to the user?
   • Choice of tooltips, titles, and legends
     
     
2. Interactive: How engaging and seamless is the report exploration and interaction with data? (max 15 points)
   • Clear navigation that allows user to explore the report
   • Use of slicers and other interactive elements
   • Smooth cross-chart integration
   • Is report optimized for touch devices?
   • Are tutorials and guiding elements helpful to the user?
     
     
3. Insightful: How accurate, complete, and meaningful is the data in driving decisions? (max 15 points)
   • Depth of analysis
   • Data cleaning and preparation
   • Does data show up accurately in the report?
   • Is report optimized for quicker loading time?
   • Does the report provide deeper exploration of data (drill-down)?

Dataset

My license

1:1 mentoring sessions

You can book a personal session with Senior Product Expert at ZoomCharts, Aivis Pavlovs, to gain practical knowledge about Drill Down Visuals and how they can be used to enhance data storytelling in a report.