Visual Analytics

by

10th & 11th March 2016

Coming up
To be covered
Visual Analytics basics
Design Thinking
Applied Design Thinking in Visual Analytics
Visual Analytics in Websites
Visual Analytics Tools Interface and Demo Tableau & Power maps
To be assessed
1. Group Activity Analyse Chicago Data visually
2. Visual Analytics Written Test (Theory)

(10 Marks)
(40 marks)

10th Mar
11th Mar

Fastest way to explore and understand data

Gartner c

vouches its a

five B.I. trend

Every company adopting the terms

Visual analytics

Data visualization

Charts and dashboards tools

claim the Visual analytics label.

So whats is real visual analytics?

Is this Visual Analytics : Cosmos Bank, Taiwan

What Visual Analytics is not

Lets start with what visual analysis is not:
Any graphical depiction of data alone is not visual analytics
Virtually any software application can produce a chart, gauge or dashboard.

While charts and dashboards are indeed visualizations, they leave out three critical
steps of visual analytics
A chart, for instance, shows conclusions, but not the thoughts behind it.
Nor can users use a chart to ask questions and think further.
In a chart, the thinking has taken place already and the resulting visualizations are
little more than a show.

Visual Analytics
Visual analytics offers something much more profound.Visual analytics is the
process of analytical reasoning facilitated by interactive visual interfaces
Three critical steps in Visual Analytics :

Exploration
Analysis
Collaboration

Visual Analytics
Visual analytics is a means of exploring and understanding data. It supports
and accelerates the analysis process itself.You can ask a question, get the
answer, and ask follow-up questionsall within visual interfaces.
A story unfolds from one visual summary to another.You maintain your
train of thought without taking your eyes off the data. Later, you can
retrace the story to rethink, explore further and share.
In short, visual analytics allows you to go in any direction with your
thoughts while leveraging your visual perceptual system to guide you down
the most useful paths.

Data Visualisation
Visualizations allow our brains to digest large amounts of data in
a comprehensive and understandable way.

Visualisation trends favour simple

Simple is viral!

Visualisation trends : Intuitive and connect

The best visualisations are not always online

Elements of Visual Analytics applications

What is Visual Analytics?

Visual analytics is the representation and

presentation of data that exploits our
visual perception abilities in order to
amplify cognition.
- Andy Kirk, author of Data
Visualization: a successful
design process

Lets Look at Some Data

I
x

II

III

IV

10

8.04

10

9.14

10

7.46

6.58

6.95

8.14

6.77

5.76

13

7.58

13

8.74

13

12.74

7.71

8.81

8.77

7.11

8.84

11

8.33

11

9.26

11

7.81

8.47

14

9.96

14

8.1

14

8.84

7.04

7.24

6.13

6.08

5.25

4.26

3.1

5.39

19

12.5

12

10.84

12

9.13

12

8.15

5.56

4.82

7.26

6.42

7.91

5.68

4.74

5.73

6.89

Lets Look at Some Data

I
x

II

III

IV

10

8.04

10

9.14

10

7.46

6.58

6.95

8.14

6.77

5.76

13

7.58

13

8.74

13

12.74

7.71

8.81

8.77

7.11

8.84

11

8.33

11

9.26

11

7.81

8.47

14

9.96

14

8.1

14

8.84

7.04

7.24

6.13

6.08

5.25

4.26

3.1

5.39

19

12.5

12

10.84

12

9.13

12

8.15

5.56

4.82

7.26

6.42

7.91

5.68

4.74

5.73

6.89

Property

Value

Mean of x in each case

9 (exact)

Variance of x in each case

11 (exact)

Mean of y in each case

7.50 (to 2 decimal places)

Variance of y in each case

4.122 or 4.127 (to 3 decimal places)

Correlation between x and y

0.816 (to 3 decimal places)
in each case
Linear regression line in each y = 3.00 + 0.500x (to 2 and 3 decimal
places, respectively)
case

Lets Look at Some Data Visually

Anscombes Quartet
Source: Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anscombe%27s_quartet

Agenda
1. Human Perception and Cognition
2. Visual Analysis Cycle
3. Visualization Best Practices

Human Perception &

Cognition

Humans Are Slow at Mental Math

34
X 72
------------------

Were Faster When We Use the World

34
X 72
------------------

68
23180
------------------

2448

Much Faster
34
X 72
------------------

68
23180
------------------

2448

Were Faster When We Can See Data

Were Faster When We Can See Data

Were Faster When We Can See Data

Introduction
to Design
Thinking

Design Thinking Process | FIREFLY

Design Thinking Process | FIREFLY

Arresting conclusion: Mothers or Hospital staff do not care

about user manuals or how the machine was intended to be
used
This does not mean that mothers or staff are is ignorant, or irresponsible
but that they care about their babies or want to treat as many babies as
possible

US Department of Energy | IDEO

Case Study

Stylish & efficient

windows

Retail displays of
energy-efficient
lighting

Informational &
educational
tools

After an intensive period of field research, in which the IDEO teams

sampled consumer opinions in Mobile, Dallas, Phoenix, Boston, Juneau, and
Detroit, it came to an arresting conclusion: people do not care
about energy efficiency (this was the design teams insight through
observation). This does not mean that the public is ignorant, profligate, or
irresponsible but that Energy efficiency is an abstraction that is at best a
means of achieving goals that people really do care about: comfort,
style, community.

Characteristics of
Design Thinking
What is the essence of Design Thinking?

FINDING SIMPLICITY IN
COMPLEXITY

FINDING SIMPLICITY IN
COMPLEXITY
BEAUTY AS WELL AS
FUNCTIONALITY

FINDING SIMPLICITY IN
COMPLEXITY
BEAUTY AS WELL AS
FUNCTIONALITY
IMPROVING QUALITY OF
EXPERIENCE

FINDING SIMPLICITY IN
COMPLEXITY
BEAUTY AS WELL AS
FUNCTIONALITY
IMPROVING QUALITY OF
EXPERIENCE
CREATING ELEGANT SOLUTIONS

FINDING SIMPLICITY IN
COMPLEXITY
BEAUTY AS WELL AS
FUNCTIONALITY
IMPROVING QUALITY OF
EXPERIENCE
CREATING ELEGANT SOLUTIONS

SERVING THE NEEDS OF THE

PEOPLE

FINDING SIMPLICITY IN
COMPLEXITY
BEAUTY AS WELL AS
FUNCTIONALITY
IMPROVING QUALITY OF
EXPERIENCE
CREATING ELEGANT SOLUTIONS

SERVING THE NEEDS OF THE

PEOPLE

Who is a
Design Thinker?
Behaviours & Actions

OBSERVATION

OBSERVATION
IMMERSION

O B S E RVAT I O N
IMMERSION
EMPATHY

O B S E RVAT I O N
IMMERSION
E M PAT H Y
OPTIMISM

O B S E RVAT I O
NIM M E R S I O N
E M PAT H Y
OPTIMISM

Mindset of a Design Thinker

Human centered

Action oriented

Shows, doesnt
tell

Radically
collaborative

Culture of
experimentation

Mindful of the
process

DESIGN THINKING

People do not always

do what
you think they do.
you tell them to do.
they think they do.
they say they do.
Observation and asking
why makes you find
out what people
really do and need.

INSPIRATION empathy map

Take home from design thinking

Preattentive Visual Attributes

8% 0.5%

Disaster : Start overlapping shades of colours that have similar

brightness values but have the potential to seriously clash.

This can make eyes of colour blind people

water. Reds and blues, purples and reds, pinks
and blues or any combination is a disaster

Isn't it amazing that a heavily used product by none

other than Google, used by millions of websites and
users. It shows that everyone, big and small, makes these
mistakes.
Design thinking in Presenting Visual Analytics and
Visualisations can prevent this.

Applied Visual Analytics

Visual Analytic in Website usability

Click tracking

Heat maps in site design?

24% clicks at he wrong place, simple design change

and 122% increase in conversions in this site

The Cycle of Visual

Analysis

The Cycle of Visual Analysis

Supporting the Cycle

Interactive: allow people to easily and incrementally change the data and
how they are looking at it
Expressive: there is no single view for all tasks and all data
Unified: leverage the revolutionary changes in database technology
Direct: make the tool disappear so the user can directly interact with the
data
click

click

Applying Design Thinking in Visualization

Best Practices Overview

1.
2.
3.
4.

Representing data for humans

Color
Maps
Creating dashboards

Types of Data

Qualitative (nominal / categorical)

Arizona, New York, Texas

Sarah, John, Maria

Coors, Bud Light, Stella Artois

Qualitative (ordinal)

Gold, silver, bronze

Excellent health, good health, poor health

Love it, like it, hate it

Quantitative

Weight (10 lbs, 20 lbs, 5000 lbs)

Cost ($50, $100, $0.05)

Discount (5%, 10%, 12.8%)

How Do Humans Like Their Data?

How Do Humans Like Their Data?

Position

More
important

Color
Size
Shape

Less
important

How Do Humans Like Their Data?

Time: on an x-axis
Location: on a map
Comparing values: bar
chart
Exploring relationships:
scatter plot
Relative proportions:
treemap

How Do Humans Like Their Data?

Orient data so people can read it easily
Good

Better

Color Me Impressed
Color perception is relative, not absolute

Color Me Impressed
Provide a consistent background

Color Me Impressed
Humans can only distinguish ~8 colors
This is not helpful.

Color Me Impressed
Humans can only distinguish ~8 colors

This is helpful.

Color Me Impressed
For quantitative data, color intensity and
diverging color palettes work well

Mapping to Insight
Use maps when location is relevant

Mapping to Insight
Use maps when location is relevant

Mapping to Insight
Use filled maps (choropleth's) for defined
areas and only ONE measure

Mapping to Insight
Dont use maps just because you can

Dashboards
Dashboards bring together multiple views

5 second usability test

A five second test is a usability testing method in which the
participant is exposed to an image or visualisation for five
seconds.
The image is then removed and the participant is asked
questions about what they remember seeing. The test is
used for evaluating how well a visualisation communicates
the purpose and content within.

Dashboards
Dashboards should pass the 5-second test

Dashboarding for the 5-second Test

Most important view

goes on top or top-left
Legends go near their
views
Avoid using multiple
color schemes on a
single dashboard
Use 5 views or fewer
in dashboards
Provide interactivity

Dashboarding for the 5-second Test

Use your words!
Titles
Axes
Key facts and figures
Units
Remove extra digits
in numbers
Great tooltips