Geo325: Business Geographics
Lesson 7 ~ Using Ixpress by Claritas

Lesson Overview: In this lesson we will evaluate a "proposed" business location using IXpress. IXpress is a powerful software package that contains vast consumer spending behavior, demographic information,and buying power data. It is built on top of MapInfo, so some of the commands will be familiar. The most valuable aspect of IXpress, though, is the extensive datasets that come with the program, information that is not available through public sources.

IXPress includes a "wizard"which will walk us through the steps. We will:

1. create a study area with concentric rings;
2. map our proposed location at the center of that study area;
3. select a data category that relates to our business idea;
4. create a thematic map using this data; and format a layout and report.

For the demonstation we will evaluate a pizza store on High Street in West Chester. For your work, you may evalutate the pizza store as well, or choose something that relates to your class project.

Before you Begin. Prepare for this lesson as for previous lessons. Create a folder on your storage disk. Name it Lesson7 or similar. Launch IXpress by double clicking on the IXpress icon on the desktop.  (See image right.) At the Welcome Box, click on New Project Wizard.

Step 1: Create A Study Area

In the Study Area Wizard Dialog, under the  Study Area Type box, select Use a Map to define polygon, circle, or drive time and click Next.

In the Map Set window, click on the drop-down arrow and select WCU Default Map Set. Click Next.

We will now define our study area as a circle, with its center at our proposed business location. In the Mapped Study Area Type window, select Circle. Click Next. In the Mapped Circle window, select Address or Location. Click Next.

In the Locate Address or Location window, select the Table tab (if it is not already selected). In the Map Table drop-down, select Streets_Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington. In the Address Column box, make sure Name is selected.

Still in the Locate Address or Location window, select the Address or Location tab and type the name of your business location. If you haven't yet selected your business, you can use Papa John's at 701 South High Street.

 

Now set the symbol to be used on our map for our business location. Click on the Symbol Style button ( ) to change the symbol for your business. A circle or star works well. As before, select a bright color and a larger size, so that your symbol will stand out against other layers. When you have the symbol the way you like it, click Ok.

Now back in the Locate Address or Location window, click Find. Ixpress will now find your business location, zoom to that location and draw one or several circles around the business.

In the Study Area Wizard dialog box, in the area for "Circle Site Name", enter a name for your site. It defaults to the address you entered, but it would be better if you labelled the site with the name of the business. Type that name here.

IXPress now wants to know how large the study area should be and how many study area rings we want. How far do you think potential customers would travel for your business?  In the Mapped Circle window, set your circle ranges to distances that make sense for your business. If you have not yet selected a business location, use 0-1, 1-3 and 3-5 miles. Make all the rings the same color. Your window should look similar to the one below.

Click Next. Click Next.

Step 2: Connect to a Demographic Database

The next task is to connect to information about the people in our study area. In the Database window for the Demographic database, select Ixpress 2006, Discovery Series Plus (or Ixpress 2004, Professional/PRIZM). Click Next.

We will not set a Target List or SiteScore, so click Next for the next window.

We will create a thematic map, so at the next window, check the box next to Thematic Map and then pick Boundary Thematic for the type. Click Next.

We will now select a category to map, and possibly also a subcategory. Under Thematic Variable, click on the drop-down next to Category and select an appropriate category for the store you are interested in. Take some time to click on the various categories in the list and see what subcategories come up; you might see some that are especially relevant to your business. When you have explored them a bit, select your choices by clicking on your major category and then a subcategory. Since our store is a pizza parlour, we will select "Consumer Buying Power: Food Away From Home." From our subcategory we will choose Lunch - Fast Food. This will show us how much money people in our study area area spending on fast food during lunchtime. Click Next. Pick Count or total and click Next.

Still working on our Thematic Map, for the Search Target Type drop-down, choose Census Tract. Underneath that box, for Map Boundary Layer, select Open Maps. Make sure that both Search Target Type and Map Boundary Layer show "Census Tract". Leave the Target Data Mapping Method as By Geographic Location of Data Points. Your dialog box should look like the one below.

Click Next.

The next window will allow us to choose colors and ranges for the thematic map. As always, we want values in our legend to go from low to high and colors to go from light to dark, representing smaller to larger values. Click on the drop-down under Order Ranges and select Low to High. For Color Ramp click on an option that goes from light to dark, for example, light orange to dark orange. Click Next.

Skip the next dialog (Export Pointfile) by clicking Next.

In the next dialog, make sure that Census Tract is selected as the Target Type. Click Search Now.

You now have a study area defined with three circles, your proposed business location is marked with a star (or other symbol) and the total amounts spent on Lunch - Fast Food (or other information) around that business location is mapped according to values in the data. Yippie!

Now let's add a scale bar. It's slightly different in iXPRESS than MapInfo. On Map in the menu, Add Scale Bar. Accept the default length for the scale bar. The scalebar will be in the lower left; that position is fine for this exercise. If the scale bar is too large or small after you place it, go to Map, Remove Scalebar, then add it again using a different length.

Lastly, let's make the legend clear, as to what we mapped. On the menu, select Map and then Modify Thematic.  Edit the Legend and make the title say what you mapped, e.g., "Amount Spent on Fast Food". Make the subtitle say "by Census Tract."

Step 4: Create a Layout of Our Map

IXPress creates a draft layout for you. We will now fine tune that layout. Click on the Layout Tab near the top of the your window. Click where it says Double click here for footer, and hit delete on the keyboard.

Position graphics objects like the map area and the legend to make your map look nice. Add a north arrow. See Lesson 2.

Modify the title by double-clicking the text that says "Double-click here for title" to something appropriate for your data, make the size of the title 24 pts and bold. Add your name, data and class number and section. Add a box around this text so it stands out over the streets.

To save your work in iXPress, go to file, then Save Project . Make sure you change the directory to your storage/zip disk. Type a name and click save.

Step 5: Make a Report.

Click on the Profile tab . Click on File, Print. Under Report Header, type your name in the first blank. For report layout select Landscape. For the categories you'd like to print, select the category you used to create the thematic map (Consumer Buying Power: Food Away From Home). Click Print.

Lesson documentation updated 01/15/08; Ellen Bryson.
The Center for Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis at West Chester University.