WHY DATA VISUALIZATION IS IMPORTANT

IN DELIVERING ACTIONABLE INSIGHT

Iain Curtain

Edgewater Ranzal

Agenda

• Introduction

• Design examples

• Understanding the customer

• What makes good design

• How to apply this to reporting

• Summary and examples

• Questions

About

Customer Sample

Design Examples

- Lots of images

- Attention not drawn

to specific items

- Too much color

- Visuals used when

charts or data could

convey messages

better

- Waste of valuable

screen real estate

Design Examples

- 3-D rendering

makes it harder to

interpret the values

- Forecasted Units

and Dollars lines

connect the regions,

when they are

distinct data points

- Dollars and Year

Ago Dollars are

stacked, when they

are also distinct

values

- Excessive use of

the word ‘Region’

Design Examples

- Recent example of

visuals over

substance and

meaning

- Very difficult to

determine

correlation between

circle sizes

Design Examples

- Dark images and

background distract

the viewer

- Cannot determine

trends with only 2

data points

- Confusing as 2010

values are not

circles

- Visuals used when

charts or data could

convey messages

better

Customer Maturity

Foundation

Operations

Mgmt Reports

Dashboards

Scorecards

Customers are on a

reporting journey and

determining what their

requirements and

future plans are

important in

understanding where

they are, what their

needs are and where

they think they are

going.

You must satisfy the

pre-requisites before

climbing up the

pyramid.

Customer Maturity

Area 1 Area 2 Area 3

Main

tain

cu

rrent

busin

ess

opera

tions

Are

as to g

row

Consider 3 different

part of the organization

at different stages of

maturity:

- Finance = Area 1

- Logistics = Area 2

- Manufacturing =

Area 3

User Requirements

• Talk to users

• Listen to users

• Ask why, why, why?

Good design concepts

• Memory limits

• Encoding data for rapid perception

• Gestalt principles of perception

Memory Limits

• Iconic memory – visual cues, pre-conscious

/pre-attentive processing

• Short term memory – conscious

processing, 3-9 chunks only

• Long term memory

Data Encoding

1723957695026398027384956012

9847536970898726547867925019

2005928976548102985079827158

0297456478597069873940588698

5726327189506972915069871256

2783789

- How many 3’s can

you find?

- As there is no

encoding of data,

we process

sequentially –

attentive processing

- very slow!

Data Encoding

1723957695026398027384956012

9847536970898726547867925019

2005928976548102985079827158

0297456478597069873940588698

5726327189506972915069871256

2783789

- 7 is the correct

answer

- Much easier to see

when data is in a

different color, the

same goes for

bolding, size, shape

and orientation

changes as well

Gestalt Principles

• Proximity

• Similarity

• Enclosure

Here we see:

- 2 groups rather than

7 blogs

- 2 different sets

within the groups

- 2 further groups

within the groups

Gestalt Principles

• Closure

• Continuity

• Connection

Our minds:

- Close

- Continue

- Link

even though these can

be seen as discrete

items.

Applying concepts

• Focus on the value add you are showing by organising

and minimising the data shown.

• Arrange information in a way that makes sense, making

sure that the important data stands out.

Edward R Tufte

• Tufte provided lots of thought around how we view and

perceive data

Data Ink Ratio

• Key concepts: reduce non data ink from graphics, focus

on the values

• Reduce graphic paraphernalia (chartjunk)

Chartjunk

• Which of these has clutter

and unnecessary items?

• Which is easier to see the

data?

“We can easily see patterns

presented in certain ways, but if they

are presented in other ways they

become invisible.”

Colin Ware

Information Visualization -

Perception for Design, 2000

Colin Ware

Colin Ware

• Color

• Form

We distinguish the

items if different in

terms of:

- Color – either hue or

intensity

- Form – can also be

size, shape,

orientation

Colin Ware

• Position

• Motion

We distinguish the

items if different in

terms of:

- Position

- Motion:

flashing/moving

should only be used

for real time data or

issues requiring

immediate attention

Stephen Few

• Combined previous theories and melded with current

designs and dashboard and communication ideas

Stephen Few

This simple example

shows how we can’t

easily compute size

variations in area.

The large circle is 16

time larger.

Pie and area charts

should not be used as

we cannot quickly

recognize the

differences.

How does this help us?

• Simplify – reduce the data presented

• Simplify – concentrate on important

information

• Simplify – remove unnecessary color and

distractions

Examples

Top example is very

difficult to read and

interpret numbers.

Bottom report is

cleaner and can easily

see the items without

distracting border and

shading.

Examples

Top example is very

distracting and difficult

to focus on areas that

need attention.

Bottom report is much

cleaner and easier to

see items needing

attention.

Design Examples

Much easier to

compare the different

market capitalizations

when presented as a

bar chart.

Also much easier to

see the best/worse if

ordered.

Design Examples

Design Examples

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In charting the previous

graphic, it’s obvious

that there is no

relationship between

the years or countries.

Maybe a table would

have been better?

“Graphical excellence is that which

gives the viewer the greatest

number of ideas in the shortest time,

with the least ink in the smallest

space.”

Edward R Tufte

The Visual Display of

Quantitative Information, 1983

Iain Curtain

Consultant

iain.curtain@ranzal.com

http://thinsliced.wordpress.com/

202 683 0874

www.ranzal.com