Descriptive analytics

• Data visualization


  It incorporates raw information into a visual medium or representation

  
• Data visualization


  • A way to explore increased volumes of data to understand trends, pattern, and make decisions
  • A powerful way to simplify the increasing size and complexity of information
• How to present data visually


  • Making data engaging and easily digestible
  • Identifying trends and outliers within a set of data
  • Telling a story found within the data
  • Reinforcing an argument or opinion
  • Highlighting the important parts of a set of data
• Making data engaging and easily digestible


  • Data visualization allows us to frame the data differently by using illustrations, charts, descriptive text, and engaging design
  • Visualization also allows us to group and organize data based on categories and themes, which can make it easier to break down into understandable chunks
• Identifying trends and outliers within a set of data


  • Google Search Console that shows the change in Google searches for "toilet paper". In March 2020 there was a huge increase in searches for toilet paper.

  
• Telling a story found within the data


  • Numbers on their own don't tend to evoke an emotional response
  • Data visualization can tell a story that gives significance to the data
  • Designers use techniques like color theory, illustrations, design style and visual cues to appeal to the emotions of readers, and put faces to numbers

  
• Telling a story found within the data


  • Visualizing the data: Women's representation in society
• Reinforcing an argument or opinion


  • An effective infographic or chart can make your argument more robust and reinforce your creativity
  • You can use comparison visualizations to compare sides of an argument, different theories, product/service options, pros and cons, and more
• Highlighting the important parts of a set of data


  • Designers use visual cues to direct the eye to different places on a page
  • Visual cues are shapes, symbols, and colors that point to a specific part of the data visualization, or that make a specific part stand out

  
• Select the right type of chart for your data
• Bad graphs - ineffective graphs
• 6 lessons on how you'll learn to tell stories with data


  • Understand the context
  • Choose an appropriate visual display
  • Eliminate clutter
  • Focus attention where you want it
  • Think like a designer
  • Tell a story

  
• Understand the context


  • Exploratory analysis is what you do to understand the data and figure out what might be noteworthy or interesting to highlight to others
  • Explanatory analysis means you have a specific thing you want to explain, a specific story you want to tell
• Understand the context - WHO


  • Who are you communicating to?
  • Be more specific you can be about who your audience is (decision-makers)
  • Establish a relationship with your audience and how you expect that they will perceive you
• Understand the context - WHAT


  • What do you want your audience to know or do?
  • Suggest possible next steps, identify your mechanisms, and tone
• Understand the context - HOW


  How can you use data to help make your point?
• Choose an appropriate visual display


  • Simple text
  • Tables
  • Heatmaps
  • Scatterplot
  • Line graphs
  • Bar graphs
  • Slopegraph
  • Square area chart
  • Avoid pie chart
  • Combi charts
• Eliminate clutter


  • Remove chart border
  • Remove gridlines
  • Remove data markers
  • Clean up axis labels
  • Label data directly
  • Leverage consistent color
• Focus attention where you want it


  • Preattentive attributes signal where to look
  • Sample preattentive attributes: Bold, Italic, Colors, Size, Spaces, Underline, Outline

  
• Think like a designer


  Remember 4As: Affordances, Accessibility, Aesthetic, Acceptance
• Tell a story


  • Storytelling in plays has a clear beginning, middle, and end
  • Storytelling in cinemas can persuade people through conventional rhetoric and story
  • Storytelling in written words: Find a subject you care about, Do not ramble, Keep it simple, Have the guts to cut, Sound like yourself, Say what you meant to say, Pity the readers