Thursday, March 5, 2015

DATA PRESENTATION & VISUALIZATION METHODS

Data visualization is the method of consolidating data into one collective, illustrative graphic. Traditionally, data visualization has been used for quantitative work but ways to represent qualitative work have shown to be equally as powerful. Data visualization excels in capturing a viewer’s attention and holding it through storytelling. It addresses a complex problem that could be easily looked over, and simplifies it using design. Naturally, a new market for business has emerged. By taking the data and turning it into visual content, users are more likely to engage with and share it.
The three industries over which I will be analyzing the use to date visualization are:
  • Financial Management
  • HealthCare Management
  • E-commerce

 Financial Management
Financial Management essentially deals with numbers and more numbers. Storing all of them in an excel file and then massaging the data to come to a meaningful conclusion is tedious, confusing and prone to human error.

Recommendation:
Executive Dashboard
This executive dashboard displays financial metrics and sales metrics such as Margin by Month, Sales Distribution, Monthly Support Expenses, Monthly Revenue, etc.

Column charts, just like bar graphs, serve dashboard readers by helping them visualize categorical data and comparing it side by side. The main purpose of both the column and line chart remains the same, even when they are combined. Columns are best used to represent categorical data, while lines displays the distribution of data over time (trend).


Key Visualizations:
Gauges: To visually depict the range of expenses
Maps, Area charts: To visually depict the sales distribution across locations
Line charts: To analyze the Margin, Revenue and Expenses.

Healthcare Management:
Anyone who has been a patient in a hospital will probably agree that the experience has room for improvement. Much of that sentiment stems from the fact that hospitals are complex production facilities. Instrumentation and the proper use of data and knowledge can make a real difference when it comes to improving patient care.



Recommendation:

Hospital executives can get a better picture of what's going on from the operation’s point of view and can gain additional insights and better understanding through analysis of ”what if” scenarios: What if we discharge all mothers of newborn babies a day early? How many beds will then be available? How will it affect readmission? What will be the associated costs? Is there a subgroup for which earlier discharge provides higher benefits? Using a dashboard that incorporates wide variety of graphs, meters and displays, healthcare administrators can make informed short-term tactical decisions while gaining insight into how their decisions will affect various outcomes, staff groups, and finances.

Key Visualization:
Pie Charts: To analyze top insurance payers.
Stack Bars: To compare utilization between Doctors and Nurses and the department utilization.
Gauges: To track patient wait time by date and hour.


E-commerce
In the competitive ecommerce market, companies have to keep a real-time track of their product performance classified regionally, their top performing stores, channels etcetera. If all of this data is displayed individually, it is difficult to comprehend it and it is overwhelming too. An analyst will have to look through multiple files to assess the data via store, location, and product. As the filter criteria to analyze increases, the number of files increases too. In such an event, it is also highly probable that some data may be misread or misanalysed.


Recommendation:
Dashboards and e-commerce analytics provide visibility for different departments to see information that’s relevant to them. Distributors can use these tools to improve decision-making because they paint a big picture of the data.
Viewing this data in the form of a geo map and a bar chart will be easier and more meaningful.


Key Visualizations:
Waterfall Chart: helps in understanding the cumulative effect of sequentially introduced positive or negative values
Geo Map: For a visually appealing overview of sales by region.
Stacked Bar Chart: To depict the region wise top performing stores in a state


Conclusion
Data is often meaningless without context and visually representing information offers audiences important context for understanding the information. It helps that data visualization and aesthetics often come hand-in-hand. Designed information can help viewers, especially those visual learners, cut through unnecessary details to make sense of the world.


References:

http://www.birst.com/learn/resources/visualization-gallery#
http://www.sweetspotintelligence.com/en/2014/10/09/focus-visualizations-combo-charts/
http://www.dashboardinsight.com/articles/new-concepts-in-business-intelligence/big-data-what-it-means-for-data-visualization-and-dashboard-applications.aspx
http://www.conceptdraw.com/How-To-Guide/data-visualization-solutions