Data fields can either be measures or dimensions. This presentation provides an overview of these data types and what you want to know before you begin visualizing your data.

1. © Juice Inc. 2019. All rights reserved.
DATA INGREDIENTS Before you get cooking, you need
to understand the ingredients you
are working with.
Data ingredients come in two
varieties:
Measures
Dimensions
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MEASURES
The data values that measure performance.
You tend to sum or average measures.
Sales volume
# Customers
# Staff
Product price
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E.g.
Sum
Average (weighted?)
Percentile
Rank
Boolean
Combined with
another measure
CALCULATE
What mathematical
operations do you apply
to the data before you
show the values?
E.g.
Higher is good.
Below average is bad.
Greater than goal is
good.
The only good value is
zero.
GOOD/BAD
How do you evaluate
whether the measure
result is good or bad for
the organization?
E.g.
Bounce rate is one of a
set of visitor traffic
performance measures
RELATIONS
Does this measure
relate to other
measures?
E.g.
Currency
Decimal/precision
Date format
FORMAT
How should the
measure values be
presented in your
visuals?
DEFINE
A common definition
that everyone in the
organization can agree
on
E.g.
Sales = Revenue
collected after
discounts and
commissions.
Excludes taxes.

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DIMENSIONS
The data values that describe an
attribute. The ways to slice & dice your
measures.
Location
Gender
Age
Date
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DEFINE
A common definition
that everyone in the
organization can agree
on
E.g.
Customers = Unique
people or
organizations who
have purchased a
product within the last
2 years
E.g.
Individual
Hierarchy
Buckets
AGGREGATE
When the dimension is
displayed, are there
ways that the entities
are aggregated?
E.g.
Income buckets
Age buckets
Alphabetical
ORDERING
Are the dimensional
entities/buckets shown
in a specific order?
E.g.
Age is one of a set of
demographic
characteristics of
customers
RELATIONS
Does this dimension
relate to other
measures?
E.g.
Long vs. short labels
Singular vs. plural
LABELING
How should the
dimension values
labeled?

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CAN A MEASURE ALSO BE A DIMENSION?
Average — Age — Buckets
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Measures Dimensions
Win rate — Win/loss — Games won vs. lost
Average days — Overdue — Overdue payments

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DATE/TIME. THE MOST CHALLENGING DIMENSION.
What does the date/time actually
represent?
Does your your audience want pre-
selected date ranges? E.g. last 7
days, last 30 days, etc.
What buckets (and how are they
defined)? Weeks, months,
quarters, years?
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WHY DO WE NEED TO KNOW OUR INGREDIENTS?
Measures
How does our audience measure
success?
Dimensions
How can we explore measures to break
it down into actionable pieces?