Data visualization is the art and science used to present data that may belong to a time series, statistic results, reports from a company’s Enterprise Resource Planning System, Customer Relation Management System or any other type of storytelling structure that uses a visual display.
Data visualization is used to portray data in multiple ways to make possible the discovery of outliers, tendencies, patterns, and potential narratives and stories that may exist in the raw data being analyzed. Data visualization makes possible the communication and description of data in a way that is easy to comprehend by the intended audience. Data visualization may also be used to display categorical or numerical data, with their results shown on an image, and it allows the audience to further explore and create insights from the data.
The importance of knowing who, what, and how
Data visualization creates a meaningful connection between the data and what is being shown to the audience. However, to achieve meaningful communication with the audience it is necessary to understand who the audience is, what the message is, and how we will convey the message. According to Knaflic, understanding who, what, and how allows analysts and researchers to correctly put the data into context and create the connection between the data and its patterns and relationships.
How to understand your audience
When using data, analysts and researchers must be able to answer the question of who the target audience is to provide them with the best communication possible. When working with data, it is of utter importance to know the audience so that their needs for understanding the data can be met. It is important to note that this may mean having separate ways of communicating with different audiences about the same data set. To resonate with the audience, one must try to be a storyteller, not just present data and random facts and leave the audience to their fate. The audience must be given a path to follow, and the ideas must be coherently weaved together through the use of graphs and charts that are adequate for those who will be the end consumers.
How to communicate the What
Data visualization should communicate the insights found on a data set, and it should be able to do so by presenting the data with clarity, transparency, and in an ethical manner. The central message or the What of data visualization must be created having in mind the reality of the data, but also the needs of the target audience. It is important to provide a senior manager with strategic data visualizations, and an analyst with tactical data visualizations. However, the action that the audience may take will be dependent on meeting these standards and also on the visualization’s ability to assign meaning to the raw data.
How to answer the How question
To create powerful data visualizations the author must decide the correct amount of context they want to provide and how much data needs to be provided to sustain the storytelling process. The right data must be used in the right graphs, and principles of visual perception must be followed. Then, the author will be able to use powerful charts that allow the audience to discover patterns in the data and to generate insights from it.
Ethical implications of data visualization
A common refrain prays that data is the new oil. This phrase, attributed to Clive Humby, a British mathematician, has generated a fair deal of discussion in multiple circles, particularly since technology companies such as Amazon, Google, and Netflix are constantly gathering all kinds of data points from the visitors to their pages. What companies and people do with the data they gather needs to be aligned with society’s well-being and must also be done in a manner that protects the user. Data may be the new oil but extracting it and using it requires the application of ethical standards.
It is essential to create charts and graphs that are neutral, apolitical, and unbiased so that audiences do not become manipulated by reports that show data that is skewed to present a point of view or that is right but not correctly represented. Because of this need to remain neutral and because of the power that a chart may exert over a certain audience, researchers or analysts producing visualizations have a moral obligation to remain neutral and to provide data in the clearest and most transparent way.
Moving Forward
With Bright Future you can learn how to build effective and powerful visualizations using Qlik and Tableau. Make sure to check our courses syllabi as we have solutions that will help you improve your professional growth in the fields of Business Intelligence, Data Literacy, and Data Analytics.
Sitka Mendoza
August 29th, 2022
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