How to improve data visualization for business intelligence by applying advanced information density techniques.
Presented by Andry Layarda to the Vancouver Power BI User Group on September 13, 2018.
Learn more at https://www.3agsystems.com/
2. AGENDA
1. Introduction to Data Visualization Concepts
2. Information Density
3. Example
4. Conclusion
3. DATA VISUALIZATION CONCEPTS
Sources:
https://www.csc2.ncsu.edu/faculty/healey/PP/
https://www.broadinstitute.org/data-visualization-initiative
https://www.ibcs.com/
THE SCIENCE
• The effectiveness principle (Mackinlay,
1986)
• The ability for humans to perceive visual
input (Steven’s Psychophysical Power
Law)
• Ranking effectiveness of visualizations
(Weber’s Law)
• The development of graphical methods
(Cleveland & McGill, 1983)
• Human perception in visualization
(Healey)
THE GUIDELINESTHE METHODOLOGY
SAY Convey a message
UNIFY Apply semantic notation
CONDENSE Increase information density
CHECK Ensure visual integrity
EXPRESS Choose proper visualization
SIMPLIFY Avoid clutter
STRUCTURE Organize content
41. Advaiya Weekly Planning Summary
Sales revenue ($), Mark-down Contribution (%), Average Unit Retail Price ($), Unit Available
DIVISION DIVISION
DEPARTMENT DEPARTMENT
Boys 3.9M 34% 11.2 Boys 4.1M +35K 1.1M +128K
Boys Knts/Sweaters 1.4M 51% 7.7 Boys Knts/Sweaters 1.4M 0.7M
Boys Pants 0.8M 35% 13.2 Boys Pants 0.7M 0.2M
Boys Shirts 1.3M 14% 16.1 Boys Shirts 1.5M 0.1M
Boys Woven Items 0.4M 36% 16.6 Boys Woven Items 0.3M 0.1M
Girls 5.0M 34% 11.8 Girls 5.6M +1.3M 1.3M -157K
Girls Active Knits 1.7M 31% 11.7 Girls Active Knits 1.9M 0.4M
Girls Outerwear 1.6M 37% 9.3 Girls Outerwear 2.2M 0.6M
Girls Pants 0.8M 50% 17.0 Girls Pants 0.5M 0.1M
Girls Tops 0.9M 19% 15.4 Girls Tops 1.1M 0.2M
Kids/BBY/Matrnty Red 0.0M 35% 15.6 Kids/BBY/Matrnty Red
Mens 8.4M 36% 19.8 Mens 8.1M +255K 1.5M +245K
Mens Denim 2.0M 12% 32.1 Mens Denim 1.7M 0.1M
Mens Knits 2.5M 44% 12.3 Mens Knits 3.2M 0.8M
Mens Outerwear 0.5M 57% 33.8 Mens Outerwear 0.1M 0.1M
Mens Pants 1.2M 27% 21.9 Mens Pants 0.9M 0.2M
Mens Sweaters 0.4M 66% 15.8 Mens Sweaters 0.2M 0.2M
Mens Tops 1.7M 10% 28.1 Mens Tops 2.1M 0.1M
Womens 16.1M 41% 16.8 Womens 11.8M +1.1M 4.4M +1.4M
Womens Dresses 3.6M 25% 28.5 Womens Dresses 2.3M 0.6M
Womens Knits 4.8M 49% 10.6 Womens Knits 5.6M 2.2M
Womens Pants 1.7M 30% 21.0 Womens Pants 0.8M 0.2M
Womens Shirts 1.9M 71% 13.2 Womens Shirts 0.8M 0.8M
Womens Sweaters 0.7M 46% 33.5 Womens Sweaters 0.2M 0.1M
Womens Tops 3.4M 23% 25.7 Womens Tops 2.1M 0.4M
Total 33.3M 35% 15.5 Total 29.6M +2.6M 8.3M +1.6M
+21k +4% +3
Inventory Metrics$ Metrics
Sales Revenue Mark-Down % to Sales Avg. Unit Retail Price Units Regular Units Mark-Down
+240k +1% +3
-927k +6% +4
-116k +6% +2
-782k +7% +3
+371k
+174k
-87k
-218k
+137k
+17k
-87k
-46k
+72k
-90k
+6k
-111k
-63k
-741k
+108k
-258k
+71k
+149k
+178k
-364k
+12
+6
-2
-2
+9
-2
-3
-5
+7
-7
+19
+24
+1
-5
+6
+9
+19
-8
+17
+3
-4
+2
+3
+4
+6
+2
+3
+4
+4
+3
+9
+3
+2
+5
+2
+6
+3
+1
+5
+1
+6
+6
-93k
+57k
+80k
-9k
+278k
-81k
+11k
-87k
-25k
+159k
+310k
+886k
+86k
+54k
+41k
-325k
+220k
+59k
-100k
-51k
+615k
+616k
+39k
+13k
+212k
-188k
-81k
-100k
-57k
+295k
+12k
-17k
-14k
+26k
+377k
+896k
-23k
+89k
+22k
-3k
42. POP OUT
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF PARALLEL PROCESSING
C.G. Healty, Perception in Visualization, https://www.csc2.ncsu.edu/faculty/healey/PP/
Colour & Shape
Serial
Colour Shape Size Tilt
47. VISUAL CHANNELS
RANKED FROM MOST TO LEAST EFFECTIVE
CATEGORICAL (what, where)
1. Planar Position
2. Colour Hue
3. Shape
4. Stipple Pattern
QUANTITATIVE OR ORDINAL (how much)
1. Position on Common Scale
2. Position on Unaligned Scale
3. Length (1D Size)
4. Tilt & Angle
5. Area (2D Size)
6. Curvature
7. Volume (3D Size)
8. Lightness (B&W)
9. Colour Saturation
10. Stipple Density
GROUPING
1. Containment
2. Connection
3. Similarity
4. Proximity
Tamara Munzer, Keynote on Visualization Principles, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgOF8R6YL2U
Editor's Notes
We’ve broken down our study of data visualizations into three parts:
1. The methodology: How to apply different principles to data visualization design
2. The guidelines: Rules for what types of charts to use
3. The science: Explanations as to why these techniques and principles work and why they are non-arbitrary
Today I’m going to be focusing on a small subset in the methodology section, and that’s the concept of increasing information density.
3AG name = analytics accessible to anyone globally – find ways to make it accessible – another aspect is how to present the data in a way that’s natural for human beings to consume.
We’ve broken down our study of data visualizations into three parts:
1. The methodology: (WHAT) How to apply different principles to data visualization design
2. The guidelines: (HOW) Rules for what types of charts to use
3. The science: (WHY) Explanations as to why these techniques and principles work and why they are non-arbitrary
Today I’m going to be focusing on a small subset in the methodology section, and that’s the concept of increasing information density.
Information density refers to the count of identifiable numerical values in a given unit of space.
An effective visualization contains high information density and maximizes the amount of identifiable information.
An example here is a music sheet. When you’re first learning piano, having large spaces between noes make it a bit easier to follow along and learn. Once you become more advanced, however, there is very little value in having the notes spaced so far apart. This is the same piece of music with many more notes on the same sheet of paper. You can see here that the entire page of music on the left fits into this area. We say that the information density on the right piece of paper is higher than the left. We are fitting more information in the same amount of space. Not only does the musician save effort from flipping pages, you also can see how the music piece shapes out all in one place.
The management team of a large organization frequently reviews a collection of Power BI reports to understand how the business is performing in different areas of operation.
The majority of the time is spent clicking through each report..
applying filters to process the information..
Clicking to hierarchy
Interacting with the data…
before they can finally can process all the information and strategize their plan for the week
There are 5 principles to Information Density.
Here is a view of one of the report that a management team use on their weekly planning meeting. It’s a report that shows the sales revenue comparison between this year vs last year by each division, a regular vs mark-down percentage of sales contribution, and the average unit retail price of this retail company. There are also a filter drop-down on the top-right for each divisions
While this view is not bad, there are several areas we can improve. The first step is to understand what the goal of this report. The weekly planning meeting happens at the beginning of each week for 1.5 hours with a COO and 4 managers from each divisions. The main goal is to look at the relative performance of each divisions, so they can improve sales and better manage inventory.
So let’s apply the first principle of information density which is…
Do we really need all these spaces? there are a lot of information to digest for each divisions, the team need to focus on the key elements essential for their meeting.
Imagine when you go to a movie and you are served with a huge production company’s logo for the entire movie. Do you think it is necessary?
Now let’s see maximize space even further by looking at it’s component. This chart is comparing division sales for this year vs last year and showing the change
Do you agree that this is the same information as the one before?
Now let’s look the other two charts. These are about percentage of mark-down this year vs last year. You can either compare this year regular vs last year regular or compare this year mark-down vs last year mark-down.
Do you agree that this are the same information as the other two charts’ were representing?
Now let’s look at this last chart
And create more space
Principle number two is add elements
What we did was keeping the essential elements and creating more space so we can add elements that matter for weekly planning meeting.
It is to look at the relative performance of each divisions and find opportunity to improve sales. Now let’s add elements
Here we add variance calculation to show change.
This allows the team reviewing the performance spots the change easily.
Let’s apply the third principle which is add data
We start with this
And add the corresponding division. We are keeping the visualization parallel so that we can process more information and focus on what matters
The key is to absorb as much information as possible without sacrificing readability
Once we make it smaller, we have so much space left? Think about this page as an extremely valuable asset such as gold or a money generating machine; you want to make use of each spaces for the correct purpose.
So what is next?
Here is another page of the report. It reports the available units this year vs last year, the available units by department, and the available units for regular vs markdown.
With all the space we have, let’s incorporate the available units into this page
This way the COO and the divisions managers can easily process this information on sales revenue performance vs the commodity or inventory they have at the same time.
Even with all these information, there is some space left! What should we do?
The opportunity is endless.
20 departments
4 divisions
6 metrices
20 departments
4 divisions
6 metrices
Can be consumed in parallel within 1.5 hours meeting, and the operation team can focus on strategy, improvement, execution, and issues
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The way humans perceive information is built into our system