Data Visualization

Lecture Notes Unit III B

Lea B. Villanueva
Course Facilitator
B. Data Visualization
Introduction
• Data visualization involves:
• Creating a summary table for the data
• Generating charts to help interpret, analyze, and learn from the data
• Uses of data visualization:
• Helpful for identifying data errors
• Reduces the size of your data set by highlighting important relationships
and trends in the data

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Overview of Data Visualization
Data-ink ratio: Measures the proportion of what Tufte terms “data-ink”
to the total amount of ink used in a table or chart
• Edward R. Tufte first described the data-ink ratio
• Helpful for creating effective tables and charts for data visualization
• Data-ink: Ink used in a table or chart that is necessary to convey the meaning of the data
to the audience
• Non-data-ink: Ink used in a table or chart that serves no useful purpose in conveying the
data to the audience

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Table 3.1: Example of a Low Data-Ink Ratio Table
Figure 3.3: Example of a Low Data-Ink Ratio Chart

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 Tables
Table Design Principles
Crosstabulation
Pivot Tables in Excel
Recommended Pivot Table in Excel
Tables
Tables should be used when:
1. The reader needs to refer to specific numerical values
2. The reader needs to make precise comparisons between
different values and not just relative comparisons
3. The values being displayed have different units or very
different magnitudes

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Table 3.3: Table Showing Exact Values for Costs and Revenues by Month for Gossamer
Industries
Figure 3.5: Line Chart of Monthly Costs and Revenues at Gossamer Industries

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Figure 3.6: Combined Line Chart and Table for Monthly Costs and Revenues at
Gossamer Industries

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Tables
Table Design Principles
• Avoid using vertical lines in a table unless they are necessary for
clarity
• Horizontal lines are generally necessary only for separating column
titles from data values or when indicating that a calculation has taken
place

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Comparing Different Table Designs

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Tables
• Crosstabulation: A useful type of table for describing data of two
variables
• PivotTable: A crosstabulation in Microsoft Excel

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Quality Rating and Meal Price for 300 Los Angeles Restaurants

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Crosstabulation of Quality Rating and Meal Price for 300 Los
Angeles Restaurants

The greatest number of restaurants in the sample (64) have a very good rating and
a meal price in the $20–29 range
Only two restaurants have an excellent rating and a meal price in the $10–19 range
The right and bottom margins of the crosstabulation give the frequency of quality
rating and meal price separately

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Excel Worksheet Containing Restaurant Data

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 Initial PivotTable Field List and PivotTable Field Report for the
Restaurant Data
Completed PivotTable Field List and A Portion of the PivotTable
Report for the Restaurant Data (Columns H:AK are Hidden)

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Final PivotTable Report for the Restaurant Data

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PivotTable Report for the Restaurant Data with
Average Wait Times Added

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 Charts
Scatter Charts
Recommended Charts in Excel
Line Charts
Bar Charts and Column Charts
A Note on Pie Charts and Three Dimensional Charts

Bubble Charts
Heat Maps
Additional Charts for Multiple Variables
PivotCharts in Excel
Charts
• Charts (or graphs): Visual methods of displaying data
• Scatter chart: Graphical presentation of the relationship between
two quantitative variables
• Trendline: A line that provides an approximation of the relationship
between the variables
• Line chart: A line connects the points in the chart
• Useful for time series data collected over a period of time (minutes, hours,
days, years, etc.)

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Table 3.8: Sample Data for the San Francisco Electronics Store

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Figure 3.17: Scatter Chart for the San Francisco Electronics Store

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Table 3.9: Monthly Sales Data of Air
Compressors at Kirkland Industries

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Figure 3.19: Scatter Chart and Line Chart for Monthly Sales Data at
Kirkland Industries

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Table 3.10: Regional Sales Data by Month for Air Compressors at
Kirkland Industries

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Figure 3.21: Line Chart of Regional Sales Data at Kirkland Industries

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Charts
Sparkline: Special type of line chart
• Minimalist type of line chart that can be placed directly into a
cell in Excel
• Contain no axes; they display only the line for the data
• Take up very little space and they can be effectively used to
provide information on overall trends for time series data

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Charts
• Bar Charts: Use horizontal bars to display the magnitude of the
quantitative variable
• Column Charts: Use vertical bars to display the magnitude of the
quantitative variable
• Bar and column charts are very helpful in making comparisons
between categorical variables

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Figure 3.23:
Bar Charts for Accounts Managed Data

Gentry manages the greatest number of accounts and Williams

the fewest

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Charts
• Pie charts: Common form of chart used to compare categorical data
• Bubble chart:
• Graphical means of visualizing three variables in a two-dimensional
graph
• Sometimes a preferred alternative to a 3-D graph
• Heat map: A two-dimensional graphical representation of data that
uses different shades of color to indicate magnitude

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Charts
Additional Charts for Multiple Variables
• Stacked column chart: Allows the reader to compare the relative
values of quantitative variables for the same category in a bar
chart
• Clustered column (or bar) chart: An alternative chart to stacked
column chart for comparing quantitative variables
• Scatter chart matrix: Useful chart for displaying multiple
variables

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Charts
PivotCharts in Excel
PivotChart: To summarize and analyze data with both a
crosstabulation and charting, Excel pairs PivotCharts with
PivotTables

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Figure 3.32: PivotTable and PivotChart for the Restaurant Data

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Advanced Data Visualization
• Advanced Charts
• Geographic Information Systems Charts

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Advanced Data Visualization
• Parallel-coordinates plot: Chart for examining data with more than
two variables
• Includes a different vertical axis for each variable
• Each observation is represented by drawing a line on the parallel
coordinates plot connecting each vertical axis
• The height of the line on each vertical axis represents the value taken by
that observation for the variable corresponding to the vertical axis
• Treemap: Useful for visualizing hierarchical data along multiple
dimensions

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Figure 3.33: Parallel Coordinates Plot for
Baseball Data

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part.
 Figure 3.34: SmartMoney’s Map of the Market as
an Example of a Treemap

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Advanced Data Visualization
Geographic Information Systems Charts
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS): A system that merges
maps and statistics to present data collected over different
geographies
• Helps in interpreting data and observing patterns

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Figure 3.35:
GIS Chart for Cincinnati Zoo Member Data

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Data Dashboards
• Data dashboard: Data visualization tool that illustrates multiple
metrics and automatically updates these metrics as new data
become available
• Key performance indicators (KPIs) in dashboards:
• Automobile dashboard: Current speed, Fuel level, and oil pressure
• Business dashboard: Financial position, inventory on hand, customer
service metrics

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Data Dashboards
Principles of Effective Data Dashboards
• Should provide timely summary information on KPIs that are important to
the user
• Should present all KPIs as a single screen that a user can quickly scan to
understand the business’s current state of operations
• The KPIs displayed in the data dashboard should convey meaning to its user
and be related to the decisions the user makes
• A data dashboard should call attention to unusual measures that may
require attention
• Color should be used to call attention to specific values to differentiate
categorical variables, but the use of color should be restrained

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END OF PRESENTATION

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