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Week 6

Data
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Visualization and
Reporting
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Recapping week 5
§ Multidimensionality of data

§ OLAP vs OLTP
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Today’s agenda

- Data visualization
- Business reporting
- Tableau task
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Why Data Visualisation?

§ A picture is worth a
thousand words
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Why Data Visualisation?

“It refers to the notion that a complex idea can be

conveyed with just a single picture, this picture
conveys its meaning or essence more effectively
than a description does.” (Wikipedia)

Human brain better processes information through

charts and graphs

Visualizing large amounts of complex data is easier

than poring over spreadsheets or reports
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History of Data Visualisation

§ The concept of using pictures to understand data has been around for centuries

§ Maps and graphs from 17th century

§ Invention of pie chart in early 1800s.

§ Several decades later, one of the most cited examples of statistical graphics
occurred when Charles Minard (a French civil Engineer) mapped Napoleon’s
invasion of Russia.

§ The map depicted the size of the army as well as the path of Napoleon’s retreat
from Moscow – and tied that information to temperature and time scales for a
more in-depth understanding of the event.
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The First Pie Chart Created by William
Playfair in 1801

William Playfair is widely

credited as the inventor
of the modern chart,
having created the first
line and pie charts.
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Decimation of Napoleon’s Army During the
1812 Russian Campaign

§ Arguably the most popular multi-dimensional chart by Charles Joseph Minard in1861

§ Captures multivariate complexity (size of army, location, direction, temperature, and time).

§ 422,000 departed, 100,000 reached, 10,000 returned

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Progression of Data Visualisation

1900s
more formal attitude toward visualization
focus on color, value scales, and labeling
Publication of the book Semiologie Graphique

Emergence of Internet as the medium for

information visualization à raising visual
literacy
Incorporate interaction, animation, 3D
graphics-rendering, virtual worlds, real-time
data feed

2000s
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Data Visualisation Challenges

§ Data visualisation can be tricky task as different rules apply to

different tasks.

§ Ask yourself five questions

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Question 1: Am I
presenting the outcome
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or the details leading to

the outcome?
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Question 2: Am I using the right kind of graph?
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Question 3: What message am I trying to convey?
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Question 4: Do my visuals accurately reflect the
numbers?
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Question 5: Are my data memorable?

§ Visual metaphors help cement the information in the audience

mind

§ Metaphors tie your insights to something audience already knows

and cares about.

A video clip
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z Position
The eight
visual Mark/shape

variables Size (length area and volume)

Brightness

Color

Orientation

Texture

Motion
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Position
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z z The Eight Visual Variables – Shape/Mark

Shape/mark

This visualization uses shapes to distinguish between different car types in a plot comparing highway
and horsepower. Clusters are clearly visible, as well as some outliers.
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The Eight Visual Variables – Size (Length, Area and Vol
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Size (length,
area and
volume)

This is a visualization of the 1993 car models data set, showing engine size versus fuel
Size is mapped to maximum price charged.
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The Eight Visual Variables – Brightness
Brightness

Another visualization of the 1993 car models data set, this time illustrating the use
convey car width (the darker the points, the wider the vehicle).
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The Eight Visual Variables – Color

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Color

A visualization of the 1993 car models, showing the use of color to display the car’s length
length is also associated with the y-axis and is plotted against wheelbase. In this figure, blu
indicates a shorter length, while yellow indicates a longer length.
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z z The Eight Visual Variables – Orientation

Orientation

Sample visualization of the 1993 car models data set depicting using highway m
versus fuel tank capacity (position) with the additional data variable, midrange
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The Eight Visual Variables – Texture
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Texture

Example visualization using texture to provide additional information about the 1

data set, showing the relationship between wheelbase versus horsepower (posit
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Motion

The Eight Visual Variables – Motion

• Can be associated with any of the other visual variables

Example : Gapminder
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Interaction types below will be demonstrated

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Interactive in a Tableau exercise today
Analysis with
Visualisation
Interaction Types

• Select: mark something as interesting

• Explore: show me something else
• Reconfigure: show me a different arrangement [same type]
• Encode: show me a different representation [different type]
• Abstract/Elaborate: show me less or more detail
• Filter: show me something conditionally
• Connect: Show me related items
• Some other things: history, annotate, extract
References:
J.S. Yi, Y.A. Kange, J.T. Sasko, J.A. Jacko. 2007. Toward a deeper understanding of the role of interaction in information visualization. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer
Graphics. 13:6
B. Shneiderman. 1996. The eyes have it: A task by data type taxonomy for information visualizations. Proceedings of the 1996 IEEE Sympoium on Visual Languages, VL '96.
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PERFORMANCE
DASHBOARD

§ Performance dashboards
are commonly used in
BPM software suites and
BI platforms

§ Dashboards provide visual

displays of important
information that is
consolidated and arranged
on a single screen so that
information can be
digested at a single glance
and easily drilled in and
further explored
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Performance dashboard
§ Dashboard design

§ The fundamental challenge of dashboard design is to display all

the required information on a single screen, clearly and without
distraction, in a manner that can be assimilated quickly

§ Three layers of information

§ Monitoring: Graphical, Abstracted data to monitor key

performance metrics

§ Analysis: Summarized dimensional data to analyze the root cause

of issue

§ Management: Detail operational data that identify what actions to

be taken.
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Dashboard design competition 2012

§ A class monitoring system

§ Selection criteria

§ 91 entries

§ Which one dashboard is

winner and why?
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VA- “…we make a good chart is to … see
what could not be seen before” (HBR,
2016
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z VA: “ To move people to feel …” (HBR, 2016)

Your
Mother
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z To move people to feel…

Your
Husband’s/Wife’s
Mother
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Patterns of visual (mis) representations

§ Different forms of visualization have the power to distort information by:

§ Positioning
§ Different scale/perspective
§ De-contextualisation
§ Clutter
§ Inappropriate use of graphs and charts
§ Colour
§ Emphasis
§ Etc.
§ Basic visual grammar involves learning about different patterns of visualization
§ Ethics of data visualization focuses on intentional and unintentional misrepresentation
and misinterpretation of information
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Visual ethics…

(Schwabish, 2014)
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Biased
presentation? – Or
just the facts?

§ The standard required

an increase in mileage
from 18 to 27.5, an
increase of 53%. The
magnitude of increase
shown in the graph is
783%, which results in a lie
factor of 14.8! [Friendly,
2005]
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What does this mean for the design and use of IS?
nProviding information in a format that does not match
the user’s task
nProviding too much information, so important items do
not stand out, or too little, so that important items are
summarised away
nImproper use of colours and highlighting to draw user
attention to unimportant items
nImproper use of chart scaling
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How to Visualize Badly
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z Poor use of a bar chart. Better use of a scatterplot.

http://www.idvbook.com

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Upside down ethics: messing with DV
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Case study

Saudi Telecom Company Excels with Information

Visualization
Questions for Discussion
1. Why do you think telecommunication companies are among
the prime users of information visualization tools?
2. How did Saudi Telecom use information visualization?
3. What were their challenges, the proposed solution, and the
obtained results?
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z A written document that contains information
What is regarding business matters.

Business
Report Purpose: to improve managerial decisions

Source: data from inside and outside the

organization (via the use of ETL)

Format: text + tables + graphs/charts

Distribution: in-print, email, portal/intranet

Data acquisition à Information generation à

Decision making à Process management
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Business Reporting

Business Functions

UOB 1.0 X UOB 2.1 X UOB 3.0

Data UOB 2.2

Transactional Records
Exception Event
Symbol Count Description
Action
Machine
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Failure (decision)

DEPLOYMENT CHART

PHASE 1 PHASE 2 PHASE 3 PHASE 4 PHASE 5

DEPT 1

DEPT 2

DEPT 3

Data
DEPT 4

4 5
2 3
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Repositories
Decision
Information
Maker
(reporting)
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Types of Metric
• Help manage business performance
through metrics (SLAs for externals;
Business Management
Reports
KPIs for internals)
• Can be used as part of Six Sigma
Report and/or TQM

Dashboard- • Graphical presentation of several

performance indicators in a single
Type Reports page using dials/gauges

Balanced • Include financial, customer, business

Scorecard- process, and learning & growth
indicators
Type Reports
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Components of Business Reporting
System
§ Common characteristics
§ OLTP (online transaction processing)
§ ERP, POS, SCM, RFID, Sensors, Web, …
§ Data supply (volume, variety, velocity, …)
§ ETL
§ Data storage
§ Business logic
§ Publication medium
§ Assurance
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Tableau: Dashboard demonstration

§ Tableau demo
§ Tableau task
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Next week
§ Business performance management