Data Visualization

Maestría en Tecnología Informática y de

Comunicaciones (TIC) - UADE
October 2021
 Module Organization - Lectures

1. Introduction to Big Data (22/10)

2. Minimum Viable Products (23/10) Init of the Final Eval. Work

3. Data Architecture & Integration (29/10)

4.
4. Data Viz + Data Science with Simulation Model (30/10) Lecture by Nahuel Romera

5. Data Science and Machine Learning (05/11) Lecture by Dr. Tomas Tecce

6. Case/Guided discussion (06/11) Final Evaluation Work Cont'd

7. The Chief Data Officer: strategy and governance (12/11) Final Evaluation Work Cont'd

8. Effective Communications: Data-Driven Storytelling (13/11) Lecture by Mg. Giuliana Marsili

9. Closing discussion and Final Evaluation (19/11)

GonzaloZarza.me
 Agenda

1. Introduction to Data Visualization

Real examples
How does it work?
Useful Tools

2. Which chart or graph is right for you?

3. Open Discussion and Questions

4. References

GonzaloZarza.me
 Introduction to
Data Visualization
 Data Visualization - Real examples

*Source: https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/tracking-marchs-historic-drop-in-air-traffic/, https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/aviations-slow-recovery-may-air-traffic-statistics/ GonzaloZarza.me

 Data Visualization - Real examples

March 2020 April 2020

*Source: https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/tracking-marchs-historic-drop-in-air-traffic/, https://www.flightradar24.com/blog/aviations-slow-recovery-may-air-traffic-statistics/ GonzaloZarza.me

Data Visualization - Real examples

http://www.r2d3.us/visual-intro-to-machine-learning-part-1/

http://www.r2d3.us/visual-intro-to-machine-learning-part-2/

GonzaloZarza.me
 Data Visualization
How does it work?
 Data Visualization - Common Scenarios and Tools

● How do we plan to expose the results of our projects?

● Do we need/want to design dashboards? Who’s going to be the main user of those dashboards?
● How many users are going to be using the visualization layer at the same time? All of them
should have access to the same information?

● Is there a need for dynamic/interactive reporting?

● Do we need to provide querying capabilities in the visualization layer?
● Should we have pre-calculated values? Is it better to enable the user to freely play with the
drill-down capabilities?

● Do we have a budget to pay the tool licenses? Do we need to build the data viz from scratch?

Bonus: https://public.tableau.com/en-us/s/gallery

GonzaloZarza.me
Some examples
Data Visualization Tools - Tableau

GonzaloZarza.me
Data Visualization Tools - Apache Zeppelin (web-based notebook)

GonzaloZarza.me
Data Visualization Tools - Jupyter Notebooks

GonzaloZarza.me
 Which chart or
graph is right for you?
 Visualization Strategies (1/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the
first step towards making your data work for you”.

Bar Charts: are one of the most common ways to visualize data.
● Why? It’s quick to compare information, revealing highs and lows at a glance. Bar charts are especially effective when you have numerical data
that splits nicely into different categories so you can quickly see trends within your data.
● When? Comparing data across categories. Examples: Volume of shirts in different sizes, website traffic by origination site, percent of spending by
department.
● Hints:
○ Include multiple bar charts on a dashboard
○ Add color to bars for more impact
○ Combine bar charts with maps
○ Put bars on both sides of an axis

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

 Visualization Strategies (2/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the first step
towards making your data work for you”.

Line Charts: connect individual numeric data points. The result is a simple, straightforward way to visualize a sequence of values. Their primary use is to
display trends over a period of time.

● When? Viewing trends in data over time. Examples: stock price change over a five-year period, website page views during a month, revenue
growth by quarter.
● Hints:
○ Combine a line graph with bar charts
○ Shade the area under lines

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

 Visualization Strategies (3/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the first step
towards making your data work for you”.

Pie Charts: should be used to show relative proportions – or percentages – of information.

● When? Showing proportions. Examples: percentage of budget spent on different departments, response categories from a survey, breakdown of
how Americans spend their leisure time. If you are trying to compare data, leave it to bars or stacked bars. Don’t ask your viewer to translate pie
wedges into relevant data or compare one pie to another.
● Hints:
○ Limit pie wedges to six
○ Overlay pies on maps

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

 Visualization Strategies (4/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the first step
towards making your data work for you”.

Map: When you have any kind of location data – whether it’s postal codes, state abbreviations, country names, or your own custom geocoding – you’ve got
to see your data on a map.

● When? Showing geocoded data. Examples: Insurance claims by state, product export destinations by country, car accidents by zip code, custom
sales territories.
● Hints:
○ Use maps as a filter for other types of charts, graphs, and tables
○ Layer bubble charts on top of maps

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

 Visualization Strategies (5/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the first step
towards making your data work for you”.

Scatter plot: Scatter plots are an effective way to give you a sense of trends, concentrations and outliers that will direct you to where you want to focus
your investigation efforts further.

● When? Investigating the relationship between different variables. Examples: Male versus female likelihood of having lung cancer at different ages,
technology early adopters’ and laggards’ purchase patterns of smart phones, shipping costs of different product categories to different regions.
● Hints:
○ Add a trend line/line of best fit
○ Incorporate filters
○ Use informative mark types

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

 Visualization Strategies (6/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the first step
towards making your data work for you”.

Gantt Charts: excel at illustrating the start and finish dates elements of a project. Hitting deadlines is paramount to a project’s success. Seeing what needs
to be accomplished – and by when – is essential to make this happen.

● When? Displaying a project schedule. Examples: illustrating key deliverables, owners, and deadlines. Showing other things in use over time.
Examples: duration of a machine’s use, availability of players on a team.
● Hints:
○ Adding color
○ Combine maps and other chart
types with Gantt charts

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

 Visualization Strategies (7/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the first step
towards making your data work for you”.

Bubble Charts: are not their own type of visualization but instead should be viewed as a technique to accentuate data on scatter plots or maps.

● When? Showing the concentration of data along two axes. Examples: sales concentration by product and geography, class attendance by
department and time of day.
● Hints:
○ Accentuate data on scatter plots
○ Overlay on maps

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

 Visualization Strategies (8/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the first step
towards making your data work for you”.

Histogram Charts: Use histograms when you want to see how your data are distributed across groups.

● When? Understanding the distribution of your data. Examples: Number of customers by company size, student performance on an exam,
frequency of a product defect.
● Hints:
○ Test different grouping of data
○ Add a filter

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

 Visualization Strategies (9/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the first step
towards making your data work for you”.

Bullet Charts: At its heart, a bullet graph is a variation of a bar chart. It was designed to replace dashboard gauges, meters and thermometers. Why?
Because those images typically don’t display sufficient information and require valuable dashboard real estate.
● When? Evaluating performance of a metric against a goal. Examples: sales quota assessment, actual spending vs. budget, performance spectrum
(great/good/poor).
● Hints:
○ Use color to illustrate achievement thresholds
○ Add bullets to dashboards for summary insights

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

 Visualization Strategies (10/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the first step
towards making your data work for you”.

Heat map: are a great way to compare data across two categories using color. The effect is to quickly see where the intersection of the categories is
strongest and weakest.

● When? Showing the relationship between two factors. Examples: segmentation analysis of target market, product adoption across regions, sales
leads by individual rep.
● Hints:
○ Vary the size of squares
○ Using something other than squares

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

 Visualization Strategies (11/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the first step
towards making your data work for you”.

Highlight table: Highlight tables take heat maps one step further. In addition to showing how data intersects by using color, highlight tables add a number
on top to provide additional detail.

● When? Providing detailed information on heat maps. Examples: the percent of a market for different segments, sales numbers by a reps in a
particular region, population of cities in different years.
● Hints:
○ Combine highlight tables with other chart types

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

 Visualization Strategies (12/12) “Transforming data into an effective visualization (any kind of chart or graph) is the first step
towards making your data work for you”.

Treemap: These charts use a series of rectangles, nested within other rectangles, to show hierarchical data as a proportion to the whole. As the name of
the chart suggests, think of your data as related like a tree: each branch is given a rectangle which represents how much data it comprises.
● When? Showing hierarchical data as a proportion of a whole: Examples: storage usage across computer machines, managing the number and
priority of technical support cases, comparing fiscal budgets between years.
● Hints:
○ Coloring the rectangles by a category
○ Combining treemaps with bar charts

Source: Which chart or graph is right for you? Tableau GonzaloZarza.me

Open discussion
& Questions
References
 References

● Which chart or graph is right for you?. Maila Hardin, Daniel Hom, Ross Perez, & Lori Williams.
Tableau, 2012
● Creating a Data-Driven Organization. Practical Advice From The Trenches (Chapters 1-3, 5, 9-10).
Carl Anderson. O'Reilly, 2015.
● Data-Driven Organization Design. Rupert Morrison. Kogan Page Limited, 2015.
● La Ingeniería del Big Data, Cómo trabajar con datos. Juan José López Murphy, Gonzalo Zarza,
Editorial UOC, 2017.

GonzaloZarza.me
 Any question?
Thank you!

Gonzalo Zarza
gzarza@uade.edu.ar