Data Exploration III

Week 9

Fundamentals of Data Analytics

 Outline

● Data Visualization
● Types of Charts and Graphs
● Principles for Visualization Design
● Things to Avoid in Visualization
● Information Dashboard

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 Data Visualization

Fundamentals of Data Analytics

 What is Data Visualization?
● Data visualization is a graphical representation of quantitative information
and data by using visual elements like graphs, charts, and maps.

● Data visualization convert large and small data sets into visuals, which is
easy to understand and process for humans.

● Data visualization tools provide accessible ways to understand outliers,

patterns, and trends in the data.

● In the world of Big Data, the data visualization tools and technologies are
required to analyze vast amounts of information.

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 Uses of Data Visualization

1. Support reasoning about information 2. Inform and persuade others

(Analysis) (Communication)
● Finding relationships ● Capture attention, engage
● Discover Structure ● Tell a story visually
● Quantifying values and influences ● Focus on certain aspects,
● Should be part of query or analyze and omit others
cycle

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 Data Visualization based on Data Types

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 Types of Charts and Graphs

Fundamentals of Data Analytics

 Why Charts & Graphs are Important in Visualization
● Chart and graphs are better at answering certain types of questions

● End users has a better understanding of the data with more simple interface

● But, some graphs can be complex and crowded. Therefore, a short

description of the types of charts and/or graphs commonly found in business
analytics tools

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 Basic Charts and Graphs
These are the basic charts and graphs that are commonly used for visualization:
● Line Chart
● Bar Chart
● Pie Chart
● Scatter Plot
● Bubble Chart

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 Line Chart

● Frequently used for time

series data visualization
● Used to show time-dependent
changes in the values of some
measure

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 Bar Chart
● Effective to visual nominal and
numerical data

● Can quickly see comparative results

and trends within data

● Often used to compare data across

multiple categories

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 Pie Chart

● Only used to show proportions of a

specific measure

● If the number of categories to show is

more than just a few (say more than
four), one should seriously consider
using a bar chart

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 Scatter Plot
● Used to explore the relationship between two or three variables (in 2-D or 2-D visuals)

● This plot is effective to explore the existence of trends, concentrations, and outliers

● In a two-variable graph, this plot can illustrate the correlation between the variables

● Having more than three variables, the visualization will be more than three dimensions

Exam Score vs Hours Studied

120

100
Exam Score

80

60

40

20

0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12
Hours Studied

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 Bubble Chart
● Enhanced versions of scatter plots
● in a bubble chart, the x-axis, y-axis, and bubble size can represent three different data
points

Image so urce: https://www.mekko graphics.com/resources/char ts-by-typ e/b ubble/

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 Specialized Charts and Graphs
These charts are derivation of basic charts as special cases or they are relatively
new and are specific to a problem type and/or an application area:
● Histogram
● Gantt Chart
● Pert Chart
● Geographic Map
● Bullet
● Heat Map
● Highlight Table
● Tree Map

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 Histogram
● Like bar chart, but different
● Histograms are used to show the frequency distribution of variable or several
variables

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 Box Plot
● Useful for summarizing data distributions, identifying skewness, and spotting potential
outliers.

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 Heat Map

● To illustrate the comparison of continuous values

across two categories using different colors.

● The goal is to help the user quickly see where the

intersection of the categories is strongest and
weakest in terms of numerical values of the
measure being analyzed.

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 Which the Best Chart or Graph for a Given Task?

A Taxonomy of
Charts and
Graphs

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 Principles for Visualization Design

Fundamentals of Data Analytics

 Data Visualization Principles
Edward Tufte (An American Statistician and Yale Professor) states that useful
data visualizations consist of complex ideas, which are communicated with:
● Clarity
● Precision
● Efficiency

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 Principles 1: Simplify
● Tables and charts
● Reduce chartjunk/tablejunk; increase data-ink ratio
● Lessons from perception: Limit the number of objects displayed at once

● Beware:
● Gratuitous 3D
● Shadows
● Gratuitous animation

● How do you tell if a feature is gratuitous?

Ask whether using it reveals more information.

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 Simplify by using Interactive Chart Design
● With interactive charts you can keep things very simple by hiding and
dynamically revealing important structure.
● On an interactive chart, you reveal the information most useful for navigating
the chart.

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 Principles 2: Understand Magnitudes
(128, 128, 128) (144, 144, 144)

Which is brighter?

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 Visualization Design Principles

Easy to Noticeable Difference

● JND (Weber’s Law)

I
S = k
I

● Ratios more important than magnitude

● Most continuous variations in stimuli are perceived in discrete steps

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 Visualization Design Principles

Principles 2: Understand Magnitudes

Most accurate Position scale

Length

Slope

Angle

Area

Volume

Least accurate Color hue-saturation-density

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 Visualization Design Principles

Principles 3: Use Color

● Choose colors based on the information you want to convey
○ Sequential
○ Diverging
○ Categorical

● Use online resources to discover and record your color schemes

○ Color Brewer
○ Kuler
○ Colour Lovers

● Where possible, use your organization’s palette

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 Visualization Design Principles

Principles 3: Use Color

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 Principles 4: Use Structure
● Gestalt Psychology principles (1912):

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 Principles 3: Use Structure

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 Things to Avoid in Visualization

Fundamentals of Data Analytics

 Spaghetti Plot

● Too many lines displayed

together in one chart makes
the graphic is hard to read

● Some improvements to tackle

Spaghetti Plot problem:
○ Target a specific group
○ Use small multiples

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 Improve Spaghetti Plot

Use small multiples

Target a specific group

Image so urce: https://www.data-to-viz.com/caveat/spa ghetti.html

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 Chart Clutter
● Unnecessary or distracting visual ● Clutter comes in the form of:
elements will tend to reduce ○ Dark/heavy gridlines
effectiveness of visualization ○ Unnecessary icons or pictures
○ Unnecessary dimension

Image so urce: https://www.data-to-viz.com/caveat/declutter.html

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 Avoid 3D Visualization
● Using 3D visualization when don’t have the third variable is not
recommended

● It will distort the perception of the data

Image so urce: https://www.data-to-viz.com/caveat/3d.html

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 Information Dashboard

Fundamentals of Data Analytics

 Visualization with Dashboard
● Dashboard 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

● Dashboards are used in a wide variety

of businesses for a wide variety of reason

● For example, executive dashboard to

monitor general performance of
marketing, sales, finance, and support
departments.

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 Dashboard Design
● According to Eckerson (2006), a well-known expert on BI in general and dashboards

● in particular, the most distinctive feature of a dashboard is its three layers of information:
1. Monitoring: Graphical, abstracted data to monitor key performance metrics.
2. Analysis: Summarized dimensional data to analyze the root cause of problems.
3. Management: Detailed operational data that identify what actions to take to resolve
a problem.

● Because of these layers, dashboards pack a lot if information into s single screen

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 Well-Designed Dashboard

Characteristics of well-designed dashboard:

● Use visual components to highlight, at a glance, the data and exceptions
that require to action
● Transparent to the user, minimal training and easy to use
● Combine data from a variety of a systems into a single, summarized,
unified view
● Enable drill-down to underlying data sources of reports
● Present a dynamic, real-world view with timely data refreshes and enable
end user to stay up to date

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 Matplotlib Hands On

Fundamentals of Data Analytics

 Dataset
https://www.kaggle.com/code/sanikamal/data-visualization-using-matplotlib

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 References
● Tufte, E.R. and Graves-Morris, P.R., 1983. The visual display of quantitative information (Vol. 2, No. 9).
Cheshire, CT: Graphics press.
● UCLA Library. (n.d.). How to cite datasets and statistics. UCLA Library Research Guides. Retrieved from
https://guides.library.ucla.edu/c.php?g=180624&p=9224430
● Sharda, R., Delen, D., & Turban, E. (2020). Business intelligence, analytics, and data science: A
managerial perspective (4th ed.). Pearson.
● Introduction to Data Science Fall 2015. (n.d.). https://bcourses.berkeley.edu/courses/1377158

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 Thank You

Fundamentals of Data Analytics