What is data visualization?

Presenting data for

decision-making
Data visualization definition
Data visualization is the presentation of data in a graphical format. It reduces the “noise”
of data by presenting it visually, making it easier for decision makers to see and
understand trends, outliers, and patterns in data.

Maps and charts were among the earliest forms of data visualization. One of the most
well-known early examples of data visualization was a flow map created by French civil
engineer Charles Joseph Minard in 1869 to help understand what Napoleon’s troops
suffered in the disastrous Russian campaign of 1812. The map used two dimensions to
depict the number of troops, distance, temperature, latitude and longitude, direction of
travel, and location relative to specific dates.

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The business value of data visualization

Data visualization helps people analyze data quickly and efficiently. By providing easy-
to-understand visual representations of data, it helps employees make more informed
decisions based on that data. Presenting data in visual form can make it easier to
comprehend, enable people to obtain insights more quickly. Visualizations can also
make it easier to communicate those insights. Visual representations of data can also
make it easier to see how independent variables relate to one another. This can help
you see trends, understand the frequency of events, and track connections between
operations and performance, for example.

Types of data visualization

There are myriad ways of visualizing data, but data design agency The Datalabs
Agency says there are two basic categories of data visualization:

 Exploration: Exploration visualizations help you understand what the data is telling you.
 Explanation: Explanation visualizations tell a story to an audience using data.

It is essential to understand which of those two ends a given visualization is intended to

achieve.
 Some of the most common specific types of visualizations include:

2D area
These are typically geospatial visualizations. For example, cartograms use distortions of
maps to convey information such as population or travel time. Choropleths use shades
or patterns on a map to represent a statistical variable, such as population density by
state.

Temporal
These are one-dimensional linear visualizations that have a start and finish time.
Examples include a time series, which presents data like website visits by day or month,
and Gantt charts, which illustrate project schedules.

Multidimensional
These common visualizations present data with two or more dimensions. Examples
include pie charts, histograms, and scatter plots.

Hierarchical
These visualizations show how groups relate to each other. Tree diagrams are an
example of a hierarchical visualization that shows how larger groups encompass sets of
smaller groups.

Network
Network visualizations show how data sets are related to each other in a network. An
example is a node-link diagram, also known as a network graph, which uses nodes and
link lines to show how things are interconnected.

Data visualization examples

Tableau has collected what it considers to be 10 of the best data visualization
examples. Number one on Tableau’s list is Minard’s map of Napoleon’s march to
Moscow, mentioned above. Other prominent examples include:

 A dot map created by English physician John Snow in 1854 to understand the cholera
outbreak in London that year. The map used bar graphs on city blocks to indicate cholera
deaths at each household in a London neighborhood. The map showed that the worst-affected
households were all drawing water from the same well, which eventually led to the insight that
wells contaminated by sewage had caused the outbreak.
 An animated age and gender demographic breakdown pyramid created by Pew
Research Center as part of its The Next America project, published in 2014. The project is filled
with innovative data visualizations. This one shows how population demographics have shifted
since the 1950s, with a pyramid of many young people at the bottom and very few older people
at the top in the 1950s to a rectangular shape in 2060.
 A collection of four visualizations by Hanah Anderson and Matt Daniels of The Pudding
that illustrate gender disparity in pop culture by breaking down the scripts of 2,000 movies and
tallying spoken lines of dialogue for male and female characters. The visualizations include a
breakdown of Disney movies, the overview of 2,000 scripts, a gradient bar with which users can
search for specific movies, and a representation of age biases shown toward male and female
roles.
Data visualization tools
There are many applications, tools, and scripts available for data visualization. Some of
the most popular include the following:

Domo
Domo is a cloud software company that specializes in business intelligence tools and
data visualization. It focuses on business-user deployed dashboards and ease of use.

Dundas BI
Dundas BI is a BI platform for visualizing data, building and sharing dashboards and
reports, and embedding analytics.

Infogram
Infogram is a drag-and-drop visualization tool for creating visualizations for marketing
reports, infographics, social media posts, dashboards, and more.

Microsoft Power BI
Microsoft Power BI is a business intelligence platform integrated with Microsoft Office. It
has an easy-to-use interface for making dashboards and reports.

Qlik
Qlik’s Qlik Sense features an “associative” data engine for investigating data and AI-
powered recommendations for visualizations. It is continuing to build out its open
architecture and multicloud capabilities.

Sisense
Sisense is an end-to-end analytics platform best known for embedded analytics. Many
customers use it in an OEM form.

Tableau
One of the most popular data visualization platforms on the market, Tableau is a
platform that supports accessing, preparing, analyzing, and presenting data.

4 Ways Data Visualization Can Improve

Your Decision Making
4 Ways Data Visualization Improves Decision
Making 
1 |  Increase Speed 

Information travels at the speed of light in our always-connected world. Due to

the fast pace of business, managers are often expected to make critical
decisions in short periods. If you are not timely, an opportunity may pass by,
or a small problem may grow exponentially worse overnight. 

Data visualization can help you draw actionable insights from massive
amounts of data in a short amount of time. Even a simple visualization, like
a bar graph, can present valuable insights in seconds. Take a look at the
example below:

Data collected from a corporate technology assessment is organized into this

colorful bar graph. By glancing at the chart, an IT manager could
immediately recognize which skills need improvement. From there, the
manager could decide to allocate resources towards training and recruiting in
these skill areas. All within a few minutes.  

2 | Improve Accuracy 

Business leaders must make timely and informed decisions. However,

collecting and efficiently reviewing all of the numbers is not always a
reasonable option. What happens when you don't have all of the facts before
making a decision? You fill in the blanks with assumptions and biases.  

Psychologists labeled this quick fix as heuristics. Heuristics are mental

shortcuts that allow people to solve problems and make judgments quickly
and efficiently. However, these shortcuts can lead to cognitive biases that can
taint our decision-making process. For some decisions, relying on heuristics is
perfectly acceptable, but for high-impact decisions, missing information can
lead to serious missteps. 
While big data provides decision-makers with all the information, it's not
always presented in a consumable form. Imagine for every high-impact
decision you must scroll through rows of data compiled in a spreadsheet, just
to digest all the facts. It's unreasonable, time-consuming, and confusing.  

As a manager, you need to spend your time driving action, not analyzing
numbers. When it's hard to consume data, it's easy to ignore the facts
and lean on our biases. Instead of wasting valuable time analyzing rows of
data or falling back on your assumptions, use visualizations to identify
relevant information quickly.  

Data visualization simplifies the information, reducing the need to fill the
gaps with your personal biases. In the bar chart above, you can easily see
a comparison of all the skills across the workforce. When you need to decide
where to allocate resources, your decision is based on factual data, not
assumptions. 

3 | Simplify Communication

A decision is just words until it is carried out through people's actions. After
you make a decision, you must effectively communicate your thoughts
with the people who will carry out the subsequent steps. In the same way
that data visualization simplifies data analysis, it can also streamline and
objectify communication. 

For example, a manager at an engineering firm determines his lead

mechanical engineer needs to improve his solar, thermal skills (red
column) and assigns him to training. The manager could just say this to his
engineer. However, now, the engineer is left with several unanswered
questions. Why does he need training? Where should his thermal skills be
right now? Does his manager dislike him? 

While the decision may be apparent to the manager, it isn't communicated

clearly to the engineer. How can you expect people to take effective action
when the message isn't clear in the first place? 

Alternatively, the manager could use the graph below to clearly communicate
why he is making this decision to the developer:
The chart clearly shows which skills do not meet the ideal proficiency levels
and by how much those skills need to improve. By presenting his message in
visual form, the manager can ensure the engineer understands why he needs
training and how he can gauge his progress. The visualization shifted the
manager's message from unclear and subjective to concise and
objective.  

4 | Empower Collaboration

Leaders should always seek the perspectives of others to enhance their

decision-making process.  Research shows that “being able to view the
decision environment from multiple perspectives enhances the decision-
maker's ability to make better-informed choices.” 

Related Post: The Power of Data Visualization

Data visualization turns raw data into a universally, consumable form.
By providing access to valuable information, you give people the tools
to develop more informed opinions and empower them to contribute
their perspective in the decision-making process. Provoking diverse
thought is especially important when leaders are faced with high-impact
decisions that affect their organizations.

Great decision-making has always been a crucial skill for business leaders.
Big data can put you ahead of the competition if you can use it to produce
timely, informed decisions that deliver successful outcomes for your company.
Incorporating data visualization in the decision-making process can improve
speed, reduce inaccuracies, and enhance communication and collaboration.
How will you leverage data visualization to start making better data-driven
decisions today?