Being the home of the Rideau Canal, Ottawa is very well equipped when it comes to options for public skating. However, conditions are’t always ideal for skating so I decided to see how people plan their outings while skating. I used data from the city of Ottawa website to see how many people were searching for info on public skating.

The graph above shows hits on the city of Ottawa from people searching for public skating schedules and for the rink of dreams during the month of January. Given the warm weather this December, January seemed more appropriate. I used the data to show that people were not only actively looking for information about rinks, but they were looking for information about specific rinks.

I then checked the exit percentage on those websites to see who left the website on those pages. I’m assuming they left because they found what they were looking for, so I can infer they came to the website looking for information about skating.

Using this analysis I can inform my feature article and ask more specific questions about how people plan their skating excursions. By proving that using the internet in this way is actually thing, I leave the door open to examine other sources on the internet people use should I decide to revisit the issue.