Unit 5: Data Visualization and Reporting

5a. Apply data visualization techniques such as dashboards, reports, and charts to support effective communication

  • How do data visualization techniques enhance the ability of decision-makers to understand complex datasets?
  • What are the roles of dashboards, reports, and charts in data visualization?
  • Why is it important for technical writing related to data visualization to avoid vague, hyperbolic, or ambiguous language?

Data visualization techniques are extremely useful in presenting results from a BI system because they transform complex datasets into intuitive and visually appealing formats. This makes it easier for decision-makers to quickly grasp insights and trends by leveraging the human brain's ability to process visual information more efficiently than textual data.

Data visualization techniques are invaluable for presenting results from a business intelligence system because they convert complex datasets into intuitive and visually appealing formats. The human brain is very good at processing visual information. Visualizations tap into this capability by presenting data in a way that enhances human comprehension and retention. For example, line charts can illustrate trends over time, and bar charts can compare quantities across different categories. By transforming complex numerical data into visual formats, we can reduce cognitive load and enable users to quickly grasp the essence of the information.

Dashboards, reports, and charts each serve distinct purposes within data visualization. Dashboards are visual interfaces that aggregate and display key performance indicators to provide an at-a-glance view of key metrics and real-time data. Reports, which are structured documents that present and summarize data, analysis, and findings in a clear and organized format, can go deeper into data analysis. Charts that display data visually are versatile tools used for specific comparisons and trend analyses. The choice of which visualization technique to use depends on the context (the circumstances, background, or setting in which information, events, or data are situated) and the specific insights that need to be communicated. 

Technical writing requires exactness. This style avoids vague, overly broad, or exaggerated language. Subjective or ambiguous terms are unsuitable. The aim is to use words and phrases that cannot be interpreted in multiple ways, ensuring clear and unambiguous communication.

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5b. Analyze the effectiveness of BI insights through data visualization

  • How does a BI dashboard enhance managerial decision-making?
  • How can heat maps and bubble charts be used to represent data?
  • What are the capabilities of Tableau Desktop?

A BI dashboard supports managerial decision-making by presenting information clearly and comprehensively to facilitate the decision-maker's ability to gain insights from the data.

Tableau is widely used to create data visualizations. Tableau Desktop is the core product designed for in-depth data analysis and visualization. Tableau Desktop enables users to connect to a wide range of data sources, from spreadsheets to cloud databases. It provides robust tools for creating interactive and visually compelling charts, graphs, and dashboards.

When we create a two-dimensional data visualization, we call it a heat map. Colors represent the values of the individual cells in the heat map. The color variation may be by hue or intensity. Heatmaps can be very useful for visualizing data in some types of applications. Bubble charts are another commonly used technique for presenting data. 

Text is a special kind of data that involves written or printed words and characters, and text mining is a specialized technique to retrieve text data from large, unstructured data repositories such as legal codes. However, once we have mined the text data, we must now think about how we can deduce meaning from the text. This can be a real challenge. We could, of course, simply read all the text, but this could be very time-consuming and requires a great deal of specialized expertise. New techniques are being developed to rapidly retrieve meaning from text-based data to address these challenges. One of these techniques, word clouds, can be particularly useful for quickly gaining a sense of what meaning is conveyed by text.

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5c. Apply common data visualizations such as charts, heatmaps, tree maps, waterfall charts, and bubble charts

  • What are some of the common visualizations, and how would they be applied?
  • How can visualizations support more nuanced decision-making?
  • How do specialized visualizations like heat maps, tree maps, waterfall charts, and bubble charts differ in their approach to representing data?

Common data visualizations include charts, heat maps, tree maps, waterfall charts, and bubble charts. Each serves distinct purposes in data analysis and communication. Charts, such as line, bar, and pie charts, are fundamental tools for displaying data in a structured and comprehensible manner. Line charts illustrate trends over time, making them ideal for tracking changes and identifying patterns. Bar charts compare different categories or groups, providing a clear visual representation of magnitude and differences. Pie charts, circular graphics divided into slices to illustrate numerical proportions, while effective for showing proportions within a whole, are best used when illustrating relative percentages. These basic chart types are versatile and widely used for their simplicity and clarity in presenting straightforward data comparisons and trends.

Heat maps, tree maps, waterfall charts, and bubble charts offer more specialized ways to visualize data. Heat maps use color to represent data values across a matrix, making them useful for identifying patterns and anomalies in large datasets. Treemaps display hierarchical data in nested rectangles, where the size and color of each rectangle indicate the relative size and category. Waterfall charts visualize sequential data, illustrating how an initial value is affected by a series of positive or negative values, and are particularly useful for analyzing financial performance or project progress. Bubble charts combine three dimensions of data into a single visualization, using the size and color of bubbles to represent different data points and their relationships, which is valuable for identifying correlations and distributions. Each of these visualizations provides a specific lens through which to analyze and interpret data, facilitating more nuanced and effective decision-making.

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5d. Apply common visualizations of textual information, such as word clouds and semantic networks

  • How do word clouds and semantic networks differ in their approach to visualizing textual information?
  • What role does storyboarding play in visualizing and planning sequences in creative projects?
  • In what ways can sentiment analysis enhance the process of storyboarding?

Visualizing textual information through techniques like word clouds and semantic networks can help quickly convey key themes and relationships in large datasets. Word clouds highlight important terms based on their frequency, while semantic networks illustrate connections between concepts, facilitating a deeper understanding of the underlying text.

Storyboarding is a technique used in various creative fields to visualize and plan the sequence of events or interactions. Storyboarding involves creating a series of sketches or frames representing key scenes or moments in a narrative. Sentiment analysis techniques could be used to analyze the emotional tone of the story being depicted in the storyboard. For example, sentiment analysis could be used in advertising to analyze customer reviews or social media comments about a product. The insights gained could then be used to inform the creation of a storyboard for a new advertising campaign so that the narrative resonates with the target audience and evokes the desired emotional response.

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Unit 5 Vocabulary

This vocabulary list includes terms you will need to know to successfully complete the final exam.

  • bar chart
  • bubble chart
  • chart
  • context
  • dashboard
  • data visualization
  • heat map
  • line chart
  • pie chart
  • report
  • storyboarding
  • Tableau
  • technical writing
  • text
  • treemap
  • waterfall chart
  • word cloud
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