Iain Curtain, Edgewater Ranzal senior consultant, presented "Delivering Actionable Insight - Using Visualization and Perception Techniques to Enhance User Understanding" at KScope14.

1. Delivering Actionable Insight
Using Visualization and Perception
Techniques to Enhance User Understanding
● Iain Curtain
● Edgewater Ranzal

2. • Introduction
• Actionable Insight
• Organizational Approach
• Usability
• What makes good design
• Summary and examples
• Questions
Agenda

3. Focus
Services
People
Methodology
Customers
Partnership
15 Years
700+ clients
1000+ projects
About Edgewater Ranzal

4. Dashboards & Scorecards, Financial
Analytics & Reporting, Operational Analytics,
What-if Analysis, Query & Reporting, Visual
Exploration
Financial performance, Legal,
Segment & Mgmt Reporting, Financial
Close
HFM Optimization, Performance Lab
SOX Compliance Support
Strategic Finance, Planning,
Budgeting, Forecasting, Workforce
Planning, Capital Planning, Project
Financial Planning
Data Integration, Financial Data
Management, Data Warehousing,
Master Data Management &DRM,
ETL Services, Automation
Project/Program Mgmt, EPM
Road Maps, Application
Reviews, Business
Requirements, Process
Change, Documentation
Installation, Upgrades,
Migration, System
Monitoring, Backup and
Recovery, Disaster
Recovery, Load Testing,
Hardware Sizing, Exalytics
Benchmarking
Consolidation
Business
Intelligence
Enterprise
Planning
Infrastructure
Training &
Support Services
Project
Management
Data
Services
Costing &
Profitability
Mgmt
Support Services – Infrastructure &
Application Support Contracts
Key Teach Course Delivery: Planning, Essbase,
Financial Reporting, Smart View, HPCM, HFM,
FDM, DRM, OBIEE
Custom Training Delivery: Process & Reporting
HPCM Standard & Detailed
Models, Waterfall Allocations,
Activity Based Costing,
Customer, Product & LOB
Profitability
We offer a full spectrum of EPM/BI Services

5. About Edgewater

6. Customer Sample

7. • Make smarter operational, strategic
and tactical decisions
Actionable Insight

8. Actionable Insight
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Revenue
Expenses
Opex
Profit

9. Actionable Insight
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Revenue Expenses Opex
Q1
Q2
Q3
Q4

10. Actionable Insight
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Revenue
Expenses
Opex
Profit

11. Actionable Insight
38
40
42
44
46
48
50
52
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Revenue - Actual
Revenue - Budget

12. Actionable Insight
-1
-0.5
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Revenue - B/(W)
Revenue - B/(W)

13. Actionable Insight

14. • Common Pitfalls:
• Managing to averages
• Relying on experience and intuition for decision
making
• Inefficient data analysis
• Inability to access and derive insight from new data
sources
Actionable Insight

15. • Common Platform
• Usability
• Cognitive Science
Actionable Insight

16. Organizational Approach
Foundation
Operations
Mgmt Reports
Dashboards
Scorecards

17. Organization Maturity
Area 1 Area 2 Area 3
Maintain
current
business
operations
Areas
to
grow

18. • Change Management involved?
• Can users work effectively?
• Single version of the truth?
Building User Participation

19. • Talk to users
• Listen to users
• Ask why, why, why?
User Requirements

20. • How do users use the system
• How do they navigate
• Watch and learn
Usability

21. Design Examples

22. Design Examples

23. Design Examples

24. Design Examples

25. Design Examples

26. • Memory limits
• Encoding data for rapid perception
• Gestalt principles of perception
Good design concepts

27. • Iconic memory
• Short term memory
• Long term memory
Memory Limits

28. 172395769402639802738495601
298474369708987264317867923
039200492897654810298607982
725802974164783970698739405
886985726327189606972914069
87125627837895
Data Encoding

29. 172395769402639802738495601
298474369708987264317867923
039200492897654810298607982
725802974164783970698739405
886985726327189606972914069
87125627837895
Data Encoding

30. Gestalt Principles
• Proximity
• Similarity
• Enclosure

31. Gestalt Principles
• Closure
• Continuity
• Connection

32. • Focus on the value add you are showing
by organising and minimising the data
shown.
• Arrange information in a way that makes
sense, making sure that the important
data stands out.
Applying concepts

33. Applying concepts

34. Edward R Tufte

35. Data Ink Ratio

36. Chart Junk

37. Chart Junk

38. Chart Junk

39. Chart Junk

40. Chart Junk

41. Chart Junk

42. Chart Junk

43. “We can easily see patterns
presented in certain ways, but if
they are presented in other
ways they become invisible.”
Colin Ware
Information Visualization -
Perception for Design, 2000
Colin Ware

44. “…at any given instant, we
apprehend only a tiny amount
of the information in our
surroundings …”
Colin Ware
Visual Thinking for Design,
2008
Colin Ware

45. Colin Ware
• Color
• Form

46. Colin Ware
• Position
• Motion

47. Stephen Few

48. Stephen Few

49. l Simplify
l Simplify
l Simplify
How does this help us?

50. Examples

51. Examples

52. Examples

53. • Align
• Gain Actionable Insight
• Optimize Operations
• Review Metrics Regularly
Summary

54. “Graphical excellence is that which
gives the viewer the greatest
number of ideas in the shortest time,
with the least ink in the smallest
space.”
Edward R Tufte
The Visual Display of
Quantitative Information, 1983

55. Iain Curtain
Senior Consultant
icurtain@ranzal.com
ranzal.com
thinsliced.wordpress.com
ranzal.wordpress.com/
Questions?

56. More Info
• Usability
http://uxmag.com/
• Stephen Few
http://www.perceptualedge.com/
• Edward Tufte
http://www.edwardtufte.com