Business Analytics

Week #12
Lecture #12

Instructed By:
Engr. Azfar Ghani

IQRA UNIVERSITY
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
Overview of Data Visualization

• Effective Design Techniques

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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
Table 3.1: Example of a Low Data-Ink Ratio Table
Figure 3.3: Example of a Low Data-Ink Ratio Chart
 Table 3.2: Increasing the Data-Ink Ratio by Removing Unnecessary Gridlines
Figure 3.4: Increasing the Data-Ink Ratio by Adding Labels to Axes and
Removing Unnecessary Lines and Labels
Tables

• Table Design Principles

• Cross-tabulation
• Pivot Tables in Excel
• Recommended Pivot Table in Excel
Tables

• Tables should be used when:

• The reader needs to refer to specific numerical values
• The reader needs to make precise comparisons between different values and
not just relative comparisons
• The values being displayed have different units or very different magnitudes
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
Figure 3.6: Combined Line Chart and Table for Monthly Costs and Revenues at
Gossamer Industries
Table 3.4: Table Displaying Head Count, Costs, and Revenues at Gossamer Industries
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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Figure 3.7: Comparing Different Table Designs
Table 3.5: Larger Table Showing Revenues by Location for 12 Months of Data
Tables

• Crosstabulation: A useful type of table for describing data of two variables

• PivotTable: A crosstabulation in Microsoft Excel

Table 3.6: Quality Rating and Meal Price for 300 Los Angeles Restaurants
Table 3.7: 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
Figure 3.8: Excel Worksheet Containing Restaurant Data
Figure 3.9: Initial PivotTable Field List and PivotTable Field Report for the Restaurant
Data
Figure 3.10: Completed PivotTable Field List and A Portion of the PivotTable Re-
port for the Restaurant Data (Columns H:AK are Hidden)
Figure 3.11: Final PivotTable Report for the Restaurant Data
Figure 3.12: Percent Frequency Distribution as a PivotTable for the Restaurant Data
Figure 3.13: PivotTable Report for the Restaurant Data with Average Wait Times Added
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.)
Table 3.8: Sample Data for the San Francisco Electronics Store
Figure 3.17: Scatter Chart for the San Francisco Electronics Store
Table 3.9: Monthly Sales Data of Air Compressors at Kirkland Industries
Figure 3.19: Scatter Chart and Line Chart for Monthly Sales Data at Kirkland Industries
Table 3.10: Regional Sales Data by Month for Air Compressors at Kirkland Industries
Figure 3.21: Line Chart of Regional Sales Data at Kirkland Industries
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
Figure 3.22: Sparklines for the Regional Sales Data at Kirkland Industries
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
Figure 3.23: Bar Charts for Accounts Managed Data

Gentry manages the greatest number of accounts and Williams the fewest
Figure 3.24: Sorted Bar Chart for Accounts Managed Data
Figure 3.25: Bar Chart with Data Labels for Accounts Managed Data
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
Figure 3.21: Pie Chart of Accounts Managed
Table 3.11: Sample Data on Billionaires per Country
Figure 3.27: Bubble Chart Comparing Billionaires by Country
Figure 3.27: Bubble Chart Comparing Billionaires by Country
Figure 3.28: Heat Map and Sparklines for Same-Store Sales Data
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

Figure 3.25: Stacked-Column Chart for Regional Sales Data for Kirkland Industries
Figure 3.30: Comparing Stacked-, Clustered-, and Multiple-Column Charts for the
Regional Sales Data for Kirkland Industries
Table 3.12: Data for New York City Subboroughs
Figure 3.31: Scatter-Chart Matrix for New York City Rent Data
Charts

• PivotCharts in Excel

PivotChart:
To summarize and analyze data with both a cross-tabulation and charting, Ex-
cel pairs PivotCharts with PivotTables
Figure 3.32: PivotTable and PivotChart for the Restaurant Data
Data Dashboards
• Principles of Effective Data Dashboards
• Application of Data Dashboards
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
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
Figure 3.36: Data Dashboard for the Grogan Oil Information Technology Call Center
Summary
• we covered techniques and tools related to data visualization
• We discussed several important techniques for enhancing visual presentation
• We explained that tables can be preferable to charts for data visualization when the
user needs to know exact numerical values
• We presented many charts in detail for data visualization, including scatter charts, line
charts, bar and column charts, bubble charts, and heat maps