Why? Because a picture is worth a thousand words. Data visualization can be a powerful and effective way to make sense of data and communicate what information that data provides. Today’s organizations have an ever expanding volume of data that is rapidly becoming more complex. This makes generating useful insights and understanding relationships in data more difficult. Applying data visualization techniques, if done correctly, allows users to more rapidly understand relationships, identify patterns and trends, and point out exceptions in their data. A greater understanding then leads to more informed business decisions.
To better understand the benefits of data visualization let’s look at a simple example. Say a corporation wants to understand the population distribution across the United States to better understand where to open up regional sales offices. This information has long been available in spreadsheets (Figure 1). Displaying population density on a map can be considered an early form of data visualization (Figure 2). However, a powerful way to see density and major cities in a graphical view is presented in Figure 3. This graphic can also be dynamic, allowing users to mouse over to get detailed information on cities.
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3: Time Magazine (http://www.time.com/time/covers/20061030/where_we_live/)
This simple example highlights the benefits of data visualization but there are endless opportunities to use this technique. The key is understanding the questions that the business is trying to answer, and matching that with the right visualization technique to present the data.
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Focusing on visualization without nailing the central business issue at hand is risky and can be inefficient. Thinking through how a key metric changes over time, how a key metric varies across a population, or how related factors vary with respect to a key metric are simple frameworks that can be used to drive more value and impact from visualization. Once you sort this out then applying the best visual representation becomes much easier!