Data Visualization

Module 1 - Introduction to Data Visualization

Learning Objectives
➔ What is Data Visualization?
➔ Benefits of Data Visualization
➔ Excel Vs BI Tools
➔ What is Tableau?
➔ Why Tableau over Power BI?
➔ Roles & Terminology
➔ Tableau Architecture
➔ Tableau Interface
What is Data Visualization?
➔ Data visualization is the process of using visual elements like charts, graphs,
or maps to represent data.
➔ It translates complex, high-volume, or numerical data into a visual
representation that is easier to process.
➔ Modern businesses typically process large volumes of data from various data
sources, such as the following:
◆ Websites
◆ Smart devices
◆ Internal data collection systems
◆ Social media
What is Data Visualization?
➔ But raw data can be hard to comprehend and use.
➔ Hence, data scientists and analysts prepare and present data in the right
context.
➔ They give it a visual form so that decision-makers can identify the
relationships between data and detect hidden patterns or trends.
➔ Data visualization creates stories that advance business intelligence and
support data-driven decision-making and strategic planning.
Benefits of Data Visualization
➔ Strategic decision-making
➔ Improved customer service
➔ Tracking trends
Excel Vs BI Tools

Excel BI Tools

➔ Manual extraction of data and ➔ Automatic extraction of data and

preparing reports. preparing reports based on setting a
➔ The capacity of excel is limited to 1 time.
million records as it cannot handle ➔ BI tools are made to work with BIG
data.
BIG data.
➔ BI tools provide advanced security
➔ Excel is not so secure and have
measures which makes really hard to
chances of getting easily hacked. hack.
➔ We don’t have feature of providing ➔ We have feature called Row Level
access to only those users that need Security (RLS) restricts the data
to see data. which certain users can only see.
Excel Vs BI Tools

Excel BI Tools

➔ Creates confusion among the excel ➔ In BI tools, this chaos is not present
reports as multiple reports can be as the data is presented as a single
made and shared. truth.
➔ More advanced visuals are not ➔ Contains more advanced visuals.
present..
What is Tableau?
➔ Tableau is an excellent data visualization and business intelligence tool used
for reporting and analyzing vast volumes of data.
➔ It is an American company that started in 2003—in June 2019, Salesforce
acquired Tableau.
➔ Tableau supports powerful data discovery and exploration that enables users
to answer important questions in seconds
➔ No prior programming knowledge is needed; users without relevant
experience can start immediately with creating visualizations using Tableau
➔ It can connect to several data sources and enables users to create reports by
joining and blending different datasets.
Why Tableau over PowerBI?
➔ Power BI Desktop can be used with limited features for free and allows you to
connect to multiple data sources to transform and visualize your data.
➔ Tableau Public is a free version of Tableau that allows users to explore and
visualize data and then share it publicly with Tableau Public community
online.
➔ Power BI does not natively support macOS, which can be a limitation for
some users.
➔ Tableau is available on multiple platforms, including Windows and macOS.
➔ Power BI can experience performance issues with extremely large datasets.
➔ Tableau tends to perform better than Power BI with very large datasets.
Roles & Terminology
➔ Project: Any data visualisation creation activity to be consistent with the idea
of a project.
➔ Visualiser: The person making the visualisation.
➔ Viewer: This is the role assigned to the recipient, the person who is viewing
and/or using your visualisation product.
➔ Raw data: Also known as primary data, this is data that has not been
subjected to statistical treatment or any other transformation to prepare it for
usage.
➔ Dataset: A dataset is a collection of data values upon which a visualisation is
based.
➔ Tabulation: A table of data is based on rows and columns. The rows are the
records – instances of things – and the columns are the variables – details
about the things.
Roles & Terminology
➔ Variables: Variables are related items of data held in a dataset that describe
a characteristic of those records. It might be the names, dates of birth,
genders and salaries of a department of employees.
➔ Series: A series of values is essentially a row (or column, depending on table
layout) of related values in a table.
➔ Data source: Used to describe the origin of data or information used to
construct the analysis presented.
➔ Storytelling - The art of using data to create a compelling narrative that's
easy to understand
Tableau Architecture
➔ Live
◆ A live connection in Tableau is a direct link to the data source.
◆ It allows Tableau to query the data in real time, ensuring that the most up-to-date information
is always displayed.
◆ If your analysis requires real-time data, a live connection is the preferred choice.
➔ Extract
◆ An extract in Tableau is a snapshot of the data pulled from the data source at a specific point
in time.
◆ This data is stored locally in a highly optimized format, allowing for fast querying and offline
access.
◆ If the data source is slow or the dataset is large, extracts can offer better performance due to
their optimized storage format.
Tableau Architecture - File Types
➔ Every tableau workbook contains three things
◆ Data
◆ Data Source
◆ Visualization
➔ These three things can provide a combination of five file types
◆ To send only data we use Hyper(.hyper)
◆ To send only data source without data we use Tableau Data Source (.tds)
◆ To send both data as well as data source we use Tableau Packaged Data Source (.tdsx)
◆ To send only data source and visualization we use Tableau Workbook (.twb)
◆ To send all three together we use Tableau Packaged Workbook(.twbx)
Tableau Architecture - File Types
Tableau Public Architecture
Tableau Interface

Workbook
 Data Source Page

Tableau Interface
Start Page

Workspace Page
Tableau Interface
Data Source Name

Data

Data Model

Metadata Grid

Data Grid
Tableau Interface
Sheet - It is a single view of data

Dashboard - It is a collection of multiple sheets displayed together for comparison

Story - It is a sequence of sheets or dashboards arranged to tell a narrative by

presenting information step-by-step, essentially creating a data-driven story.
End of Module 1
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