Data Visualization and Analytics

Module : 3
• In recent times, more and more data piles up.
• These dense data are unfocused and less readable.
• So we need data visualization to understood them.
• Visualization is more intuitive and meaningful, and it is very important to use
appropriate charts to visualize data.
• Data visualization is presenting structured or unstructured data graphically to
present info hidden in data to people.
• Researches show that people remember around 80% of things they see but
only 20% of what they have read.
• Brain can remember images a million times faster than abstract words.
• Thus visualizing data can deepen people’s memory of information.
• Data visualization by graphs or charts
• It is the commonly used data visualization type.
• 1) Bar Chart
• When to use bar charts?
• Bar charts are mostly used for:
• Data changes over time,
• comparison of different data, and
• the relationship between parts and whole.
• Vertical bar charts ：
• Best for showing chronological data
• Stacked bar charts: They are used when comparing relationships
between parts and whole, and can be applied to discrete data and
continuous data.
• Horizontal bar charts: We can use it when there are many data
categories and the label is long
• 100% Stacked: use it when only paying attention to the partial-whole
relationship while the total value of each group is not important.
• How to design it?
• 1.Use horizontal text labels: Do not use horizontal or vertical lines of
text to make sure the labels are easy to read.
• 2. Column spacing should be appropriate: Spacing should be 1/2 the
width of the column.
• 3. The numerical value of the Y coordinate should start from 0: If we
set the origin of coordinates beyond zero, we can not express the
whole value accurately.
• 4. Keep the color scheme consistent: It is better to use same color. If
we need to emphasize the data, we can use another striking color to
highlight it.
5. Arrange the category properly: Sort by initial of the
word.
• 2) Pie Chart - When to use pie charts?
• Pie charts can easily express the relationship between parts and the whole,
which is suitable for discrete data and continuous data.
• This approach is most attractive and understandable when the amount of data
is small.
Ring pie chart: We can put the most important element in
the middle.
• How to design it?
• 1.Position the slices correctly ：  there are 2 design ideas.
• Plan A: Place largest part at 12 o ‘clock in a clockwise direction. Then, place
second largest at 12 o ‘clock in an anticlockwise direction. Arrange rest
counterclockwise.
• Plan B: Place the largest part at 12 o ‘clock in a clockwise direction. Arrange the
rest clockwise as shown.
• 2. Better no more than five categories:
• It is difficult to distinguish regions on the chart when the data
percentage is too small.
• If there are too many categories, put unimportant ones in ‘other’
category.
• 3. Don’t use multiple pie charts to show comparison 
• relationship: 
• Use bar charts rather than pie charts to compare data.
4. Make sure percentages add up to 100%
• 3) Line Chart
• When to use line charts?
• Line charts are used to show time series relationships and persistent data.
• It’s a good indicator of trends, accumulations, decreases, and changes.
 How to design it?
1.No more than four lines: 
 2. Only use full lines: 
Dotted lines are distracting.
• 3. Coordinate axes should include zero ref. lines: 
• Although the line chart does not need to start with a zero baseline, the
chart should try to include it.
• If some small ranges are meaningful, we can shorten the ratio to highlight
them.
4. Display text labels at the end of the line directly ：
• 5. The height of the line should be similar to the scale of the chart: 
• The maximum height of the line chart should be 2/3 of the Y-axis.
• 4) Area Chart
• When to use area charts?
• The area charts can show the time series relation of the data, and the area
charts can show the quantity clearly.
• Stacked area chart: It is used to visualize the relationship between the part and
the whole, and to show the contribution of the part to the total amount.
• 100% stacked: It is used to show the relationship between parts and
whole.
• Especially when the specific value of the whole quantity is not
important.
• How to design it?
• 1.Be readable: In stacked area charts, put the most variable data at
the top, the least variable data at the bottom.
2. The Y-axis starts at 0 ： The data would be more precise.
 3. Don’t display discrete data ：
Display the stable data like temperature rather than
unstable data.
4. Don’t show more than 4 groups of data categories
Too many categories will make charts difficult to read.
 5. Use transparent colors flexibly: 
Try to make sure we don’t use overlap.
If overlap is unavoidable, use transparent colors
• 5) Scatter Plot
• When to use scatter plots?
• It shows the relationship between two sets of variables.
• Correlation can be shown when data volume is large.
 How to design it?
1.The Y-axis starts at 0: 
2. Include multiple groups of variables: 
Use size and color to add variable
 3. Use trend line: 
The trend line can display trend and correlation.
4. No more than two trendlines:
• 6) Bubble Chart
• When to use bubble charts?
• When we want to show comparisons and rankings.
• Bubble scatter plot: to display additional variables
Bubble map: To visualize the regional data
 How to design it?
1.Ensure the text label is clear :
2. The bubble size should be appropriate:
3. Don’t use strange shapes
• Gauge - A gauge in data is a kind of materialized chart.
• Scale represents the metric, the pointer represents the dimension, and the
pointer angle represents the value.
• It can visually represent progress or actual situation of an indicator. Gauge is
for comparison between intervals.
It can also be made into a ring or a tube type, indicating
the ratio
Application Scenario: clock, ratio display
• Radar Chart - Radar charts are used to compare multiple quantized variables,
such as seeing which variables have similar values, or if there are extreme
values.
• They help to observe which variables have higher or lower values and suitable
for demonstrating job performance.
• The radar chart also has a stacked column style that can be used for two-way
comparison between classification and series, while also representing the
proportion.
• Application Scenario: Dimension analysis, series comparison, series weight
analysis
• Frame Diagram - The frame diagram is a visual means of presenting the
hierarchy in the form of a tree structure, which clearly shows the hierarchical
relationship.
• Application Scenario: hierarchy display, process display
• Funnel Chart - The funnel chart shows the proportion of each stage and visually
reflects the size of each module. It’s suitable for comparing rankings.
 Funnel chart can also be used for comparison.
• We arrange multiple funnel charts horizontally and the data contrast is
also very clear.
• Application Scenario: data ranking, ratio, standard value comparison
• Word Cloud Chart
• It is a visual representation of text data.
• It is a cloud-like color graphic composed of vocabulary.
• It is used to display a large amount of text data and can quickly help
users to perceive the most prominent text.
• The word cloud chart requires a large amount of data, and the degree
of discrimination of the data is relatively large, otherwise the effect is
not obvious.
• And it is not suitable for accurate analysis.
• Application Scenario: keyword search
• Gantt Chart - The Gantt chart visually shows the timing of the mission, the actual progress and
the comparison with the requirements.
• So managers can easily understand the progress of a task (project).
• Application Scenario: project progress, state changes over time, project process.
• Application Scenario: comparison and distribution of data
• Map - The map is divided into three types: regional map, point map, and flow
map.
• (1) Regional Map
• It is a map that uses color to represent the distribution of a certain range of
values on a map partition.
• Point Map - A point map is a method of representing the geographical
distribution of data by plotting points of the same size on a geographical
background. The distribution of points makes it easy to grasp overall distribution
of data, but it is not suitable when we need to observe a single specific data.
Application Scenario: distribution of data
• But if we replace the point with the bubble, then the point map can
not only show the distribution but also roughly compare the size of the
data in each region.
• Flow Map
• The flow map displays the interaction data between the outflow area
and the inflow area.
• It is usually expressed by the line connecting the geometric centers of
gravity of the spatial elements.
• The width or color of the line indicates the flow value.
• Flow maps help to illustrate the distribution of geographic migration,
and the use of dynamic flow lines reduces visual clutter.
• Application Scenario: flow, distribution and comparison of data
• 7) Heat Map - When to use heat maps?
• Heat maps can display classified data, using a strong sense of color
contrast to represent geographic areas or data lists.
 How to design it?
1.Use simple map outline: Distinct outline is distracting.
• 2. Select the appropriate data range ： The data range should be
between 3 and 5 groups. The data that out of range is denoted by
+/-.
3. The pattern should be simple :
• 4. Use appropriate color: Intense color will lead to vision burden.
Use monochrome, and adjust the shades to distinguish the regions is
better.
Box and Whisker Plot
• A Box and Whisker Plot (or Box Plot) is a convenient way of visually
displaying the data distribution through their quartiles.
• The lines extending parallel from the boxes are known as the
“whiskers”, which are used to indicate variability outside the upper
and lower quartiles.
• Outliers are sometimes plotted as individual dots that are in-line with
whiskers. Box Plots can be drawn either vertically or horizontally.
• Although Box Plots may seem primitive in comparison to
a Histogram or Density Plot, they have the advantage of taking up less
space, which is useful when comparing distributions between many
groups or datasets.
• Types of observations one can make from viewing a Box Plot:
• What the key values are, such as: the average, median 25th percentile etc.
• If there are any outliers and what their values are.
• Is the data symmetrical.
• How tightly is the data grouped.
• If the data is skewed and if so, in what direction.
• Use box and whisker plots when we have multiple data sets from independent
sources that are related to each other in some way.
• Examples include:
• Test scores between schools or classrooms
• Data from before and after a process change
• Similar features on one part, such as camshaft lobes
• Data from duplicate machines manufacturing the same products
 Tree Map
• Treemaps are an alternative way of visualising the hierarchical structure
of a Tree Diagram while also displaying quantities for each category via
area size.
• Each category is assigned a rectangle area with their subcategory
rectangles nested inside of it.
• When a quantity is assigned to a category, its area size is displayed in
proportion to that quantity and to the other quantities within the same
parent category in a part-to-whole relationship.
• Also, the area size of the parent category is the total of its subcategories.
• If no quantity is assigned to a subcategory, then it's area is divided
equally amongst the other subcategories within its parent category
• The way rectangles are divided and ordered into sub-rectangles is
dependent on the tiling algorithm used.
• Many tiling algorithms have been developed, but the "squarified algorithm"
which keeps each rectangle as square as possible is the one commonly used.
• Ben Shneiderman originally developed Treemaps as a way of visualising a
vast file directory on a computer, without taking up too much space on the
screen.
• This makes Treemaps a more compact and space-efficient option for
displaying hierarchies, that gives a quick overview of the structure.
• Treemaps are also great at comparing the proportions between categories
via their area size.
• The downside to a Treemap is that it doesn't show the hierarchal levels as
clearly as other charts that visualise hierarchal data (such as a Tree Diagram
or Sunburst Diagram).
• Heat Map
• A heat map (or heatmap) is a data visualization technique that shows magnitude
of a phenomenon as color in two dimensions. The variation in color may be
by intensity, giving obvious visual cues to the reader about how the
phenomenon is clustered or varies over space.
• There are two fundamentally different categories of heat maps: the cluster heat
map and the spatial heat map.
• In a cluster heat map, magnitudes are laid out into a matrix of fixed cell size
whose rows and columns are discrete phenomena and categories, and the
sorting of rows and columns is intentional and somewhat arbitrary, with the goal
of suggesting clusters or portraying them as discovered via statistical analysis.
• The size of the cell is arbitrary but large enough to be clearly visible. By contrast,
the position of a magnitude in a spatial heat map is forced by the location of the
magnitude in that space, and there is no notion of cells; the phenomenon is
considered to vary continuously.
• What is a website heat map?
• They visualize the most popular (hot) and unpopular (cold) elements of a webpage using
colors on a scale from red to blue.
• By aggregating user behavior, heatmaps facilitate data analysis and give an at-a-glance
understanding of how people interact with an individual website page—what they click
on, scroll through, or ignore—which helps identify trends and optimize for further
engagement.
• Types of heatmap
• Heat map is really an umbrella term for different heatmapping tools:
scroll maps, click maps, and move maps.
• Knowing the difference is handy, as each type helps you investigate a
slightly different aspect of our website performance.
• A click heatmap shows where our users click (or tap on mobile). We
can use them to see whether key clickable items are being clicked on.
• A scroll heatmap lets us see how far down a page a user scrolls. We
can use them to spot pages that are too long or not compelling to scroll
through.
• A move heatmap shows where our users’ cursors move while
navigating our website. We can use them to find spread-out cursor
activity that could indicate distraction rather than focus.
• The Circle Map
• It is used for defining things in context.
• This map enables learners to generate relevant information about a
topic as represented in the center circle.
• It is used to brainstorm ideas and for showing prior knowledge.
• The inner-circle contains the item to be defined.
• Words Or Phrases Used To Define This Item Are Placed In The Outer
Circle.
• The Square Surrounding Is For The “Frame Of Reference” Or How Do
You Know This Information, What Source Of Influence.
• A Frame Of Reference Can Be Used With Any Of The Maps.
• How to Create a Circle Map?
• Draw the center circle and write into this the central idea – what it is that you
want to define
• Draw the outer circle
• Between the inner and outer circles, write down everything that you know
about the focus
• Draw a square outside the outer circle – this is called the Frame of Reference.
• We can put a question into the Frame – e.g. how do we know what we know?
• This can test out the sources of someone’s prior knowledge.
• The responses to the question in the Frame of Reference are written between
the outer circle and the Frame
• Example: What do you know about red roses?
• 5 Data Visualization Types Commonly Used and Examples
• Data visualization by area & size
• Differentiate the length, height or area of the same type of graphics (such as
columns, rings, spiders, etc.) to show contrast between index values of different
indicators.
• This allows viewers to see the data compare them.
• When making such data visualization, mathematical formulas are used to
express accurate scales. 
• Examples ： a: Check-in for City Class
• This Check-in City Class histogram shows the proportion of students in different
regions.
• From Figure below, we can perceive absolute proportion of students in Beijing,
Guangzhou, and Shanghai at first.
• b: Federal Budget Map

• As shown in the above figure, in the US federal budget map, the flow
of funds is clearly expressed in different currency flows, and the
proportion of each amount.
• c: Enterprise Ability Model Spider Diagram

• As shown above, through the spider map, we can see that the
company’s ability in profitability and risk control capability is nearly
100 points, which can be said to be outstanding.
• Data visualization by color
• It is a common method of data visualization design to express the strength and size of the
index value by the depth of the color.
• User can see at which part of indicator data value is prominent.
• Examples ： a: Click Heatmap
• As shown below, via tracking mouse movements and creating the heat map from the mouse
log, the user behavior is visualized by it.
• b. Earthquake heatmap
• The heat map below shows the seismic intensity of each place on the map and
distribution of the seismic intensity.
• Data visualization by image
• By using images and icons that have real meaning, we can display data and
charts more realistically, and can easily convey the meaning of the data. 
• For example, the graph below shows the proportions of each with a male and
female icon as a background.
• At a glance, we can identify the men or women 
• Data visualization by the concept
• By translating abstract data into familiar, easy-to-perceive data, users
can understand meaning of graphics.
• Examples ：
• a: What is Unstructured Data? Everyone knows that the iceberg
suspended in the sea is just the tip of the iceberg.
• The iceberg below the sea is the vast majority of the iceberg.
• Explaining the amount of data of unstructured data and structural data
and describing the characteristics of unstructured data through the
form of conceptual transformation is very vivid and makes it easier to
understand unknown and difficult concepts.
• b: Infographics are most extensive representation of concept
visualization
• It is a clipped compound of “information” and “graphics”, which
represents information, data or knowledge intended to present
information quickly and clearly.
• There are many types of infographics,
• Some most popular kinds are:
• They are Statistical infographics, Informational infographics, Timeline
infographics, Process infographics, Geographic infographics,
Comparison infographics, Hierarchical infographics, List infographics,
and Resume infographics.
• By the year 2000, with the rise of HTML 5 and CSS3, infographics are
created in a variety of media with a number of software tools.
• They have penetrated into our lives and have played an active role in
various fields.
• Business started to use infographics to communicate with and attract
potential customers, which is a kind of content marketing, thus possibly
boosting a company’s revenues.
• Many courses that teach students use infographics
• This helps them to understand contents more deeply.
• Due to social media, infographics become very popular.
• Such infographics are shared by users of social networks such as
Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+ and Reddit, and almost cover all
topics.
• Data Visualization Dashboards
• today, having the ability to monitor multiple key performance indicators
(KPIs) and metrics is crucial to succeeding in business.
• No one has the time to analyze and interpret large amounts of data
manually.
• By investing in robust data visualization software, our organization can
streamline its data collection, analysis, and collaboration with dashboards
that help users to quickly digest critical information and make smart
business decisions in real time.
• A dashboard is a data visualization tool that tracks, analyzes, and displays
KPIs, metrics, and critical data points.
• Dashboards empower both technical and non-technical users to
understand and leverage business intelligence to make more informed
decisions.
• Users actively participate in the analytics process by compiling data and
visualizing trends or occurrences, and uncovering an objective view of
performance metrics that can be immediately understood.
• Dashboards feature visualized data via charts, tables, and gauges.
Viewers use these visualizations to monitor the health of the
organization against established goals and industry benchmarks.
• The benefits of using dashboards
• Visualize multiple KPIs at once
• Most organizations utilize a variety of services to track KPIs and
metrics, including marketing automation platforms, email marketing
platforms, CRM tools, and many more.
• Monitoring and analyzing the data from each of these tools individually
wastes precious time and resources.
• Using a data visualization dashboard, users receive a bird’s eye view of
the data from each of these platforms in one centralized location, with
the ability to quickly understand what it means for the business.
• The user can then drill down deeper into any aspect of the data,
comparing it to established KPIs, which help us to understand what’s
working and where there’s room for improvement.
• Make data easier to understand
• You don’t need to be a data scientist to use and understand a
dashboard.
• The average user can quickly scan data visualization dashboards,
obtaining a high-level view of key data points without painstakingly
sorting through spreadsheets, emails, or documents for the answers
to critical business questions.
• Increase accessibility and collaboration
• Dashboards make it easy for teams to collaborate whether everyone works in
the office, virtually, or out in the field.
• Cloud-based dashboard tools update in real time and are accessible from any
browsers. They help keep everyone on the same page and working toward
the same goals.
• Users can also create a link to their dashboards that can be shared with
stakeholders inside and outside of the organization.
• Create reports on the fly
• In today’s fast-paced global business environment, it’s critical to ditch the old
habit of generating reports at the end of the month, quarter, or year.
• By utilizing dashboards that update in real time, your organization can make
swift changes before they have a chance to cause significant harm to the
business.
• Here’s some examples of common dashboards and how they are used
across business units.
• MARKETING
• Use dashboards to track the performance of your digital marketing
programs—including social media engagement, SEO, web traffic, and
email open rates—or better understand how your marketing funnel is
performing by tracking leads generated across various channels.
• SALES 
• Use a dashboard to understand the performance of individual
salespeople, or track closed or lost deals, pipeline conversion rates,
scheduled demos and more to help the sales team understand how
they are performing and where they can best direct their efforts to hit
company targets.
• EXECUTIVE
• Decision-makers typically use dashboards to track company goals,
catch trends early, inform strategy, and understand whether business
efforts are paying off.
• Data visualization software provides a real-time overview of business
processes, help to control the workflow of a company, and use
dashboards to visualize multiple KPIs in one place.
• Real-time data visualization dashboards help you to concentrate on
important KPIs via interactive charts, graphs, and tables that represent
the current state of your company and empower you to make data-
driven decisions that provide a competitive edge.
• What is Storyboarding and Why Should You Do It?
• A storyboard is a written and graphic representation of our story and typically
involves a series of sketches to pre-visualize how our story will unfold. In one word,
it’s a blueprint.
• This technique was developed by Walt Disney for his classic cartoon Mickey Mouse
in the 1920s.
• The animators would first create detailed sketches of the characters and show the
progression of the story.
• These sketches were tacked up to the bulletin and Walt Disney and his team would
then review the entire flow of the story, move the sketches around and finalize the
perfect storyline!
• Storyboarding can be simplified in case of designing a PowerPoint presentation.
• You don’t have to draw the kind of visual you want for your slide, you can simply
write it down. Why do that even?
• Why add an extra step to the entire process?
• Storyboards help you to visualize the structure of your presentation-
beginning, middle and end.
• It gives you the opportunity and space to think-out your presentation,
it's flow and content. Starting straight in PowerPoint murders that
ability of the intellect.
• It gives you creative ideas. The array of tools provided in PowerPoint
will not set your creative juices flowing. A piece of paper will.
• Storyboards act as your sketchpad where you can dump all the ideas
and choose the best ones.
• Storyboarding lets you focus on the idea and not the tool. 
• Storyboarding saves you a LOT of time. Rather than visualize all the
information in your head, you can draw it out on paper, make quick
changes and replicate the final idea quickly in PowerPoint.