Places Rated Calculator
This simple tool was developed for a client that wanted more control over the results from the famous Places Rated Almanac. Places Rated is a hardcopy book that compares major metropolitan areas (379 in total across the US) in 10 different categories. The printed volume itself ranks each of the metropolitan areas from best (ranking #1) to worst (ranking #379) in each category. An explanation of the characteristics used to develop each ranking are also provided. When the results are presented to the user in the book, each of the categories is given equivalent weight. The rankings for each category are simply summed to give the overall score for that metropolitan area.
Our client wished to assign a relative importance to each category before computing the results. For example, it may be desired to give “Housing” a heavier weight than “Ambience”. The tool we created allows the user to input a weighting factor for each category (or even a zero-weighting factor) before calculating the overall results.
Additional Features
In addition, we provide the user the option of selecting the population bin desired for the results. For example, perhaps only cities with less than 1 million population should be considered. We also provide the user the ability to select the individual regions of the country and/or specific states to be included in the analysis. This is something that the original Places Rated Almanac could not do. The results are shown in a sorted table from “best” (lowest overall weighted score) to “worst”.
The user can rerun the analysis multiple times by changing a single parameter without having to reenter the basic information with each run. Watch the video below to see how this tool operates. Spreadsheet Alchemy can create any type of user interface and perform simple to complex calculations given any comprehensive data base of information that your organization may have (such as the Places Rated data).