The “Seattle Freeze” is a phenomenon experienced by many newcomers to Western Washington. Coined by Julia Sommerfeld in a 2005 Seattle Times article, the phrase describes the general hesitancy among members of the Pacific Northwest population to form interpersonal relationships. A survey conducted by the Seattle Times found that 40% of Washington and Oregon respondents had no interest in making new friends. In college, this tendency of self-isolation can be especially detrimental, as social interaction is arguably one of the most important parts of the college experience. Naturally, as students at the University of Washington, we wanted to find a cure to this isolation. This website documents the results of our final project for HONORS 394A (Autumn 2025), in which we surveyed students on campus and applied Critical-Creative Geovisualization techniques to develop and share insights about friendships at the University of Washington. A total of 100 responses were collected, including data like friendship duration and location of first meeting, as well as qualitative information like photos and meeting stories. We compiled this data using Epicollect5, and represented the information insights we uncovered in three interactive digital maps (below) and an infographic (above).
All Responses
The interactive map below allows for the exploration of all survey response data, including qualitative data like photos and meeting stories. This information gives viewers the power to discover their own insights, possibly different from ours.
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The interactive map below is a heatmap of all the locations where people first met their friends on campus. Darker areas indicate locations with more reported meetings, highlighting common spaces for social connection.
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To better emphasize long-lasting friendships, the interactive heatmap below is weighted exponentially based on friendship duration. This means that longer friendships have a larger impact on the map, shifting the results slightly.
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