This document discusses data visualization techniques using Microsoft Reporting Services. It begins with an introduction to data visualization as both an art and science. The document then covers principles of visual design, different types of charts like line charts and bar charts, and how to encode data visually. It provides examples of effective and ineffective data visualization. Finally, it demonstrates capabilities of Reporting Services for creating visualizations and data charts.
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Data Visualization
A part of the Information Design space:
Make complex information easier to
understand and use
Part art, part science to prepare information
so our brains can efficiently & effectively
process it
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Data Visualization
Why data visualization?
Human beings are pattern seekers
Visual Perception
Cognition
70% of all sense receptors are in your eyes
Your eye and brain are a powerful high-
bandwidth, massive parallel processor
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Whose Who
Edward Tufte
Statistician & Professor @ Yale University
Pioneer in Information Design & Data Visualization
Hates PowerPoint
Stephen Few
Leading innovator & practitioner in data visualization
Set forth many of the dashboard design standards used
today
Hates Bling
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Principals of Visual Context
Proximity – things that are close
Similarity – things that look alike
Enclosure – things enclosed by a shape
Closure – incomplete shapes are completed
Continuity – things that are aligned
Connection – things that are connected
Source: Gestalt’s Psychological Principals of Perception
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Principals of Visual Design
Know your audience
Executives vs. Operational Managers
Select the Right Medium
Avoid variety for the sake of variety
Pie charts are evil
Bar Charts vs. Line Charts
Kill Cute
Identify non-data pixels (backgrounds, borders,
gradients, gridlines, 3-d effects)
demphasis when its not possible to remove them
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Principals of Visual Design
Use Colors Carefully
Bright colors cause fatigue
Remember the color blind
https://kuler.adobe.com/
Size & Color are perceived quantitatively but
imprecisely.
Use 2-D placement instead.
Visual Consistency
Left-to-Right
Placement/Layout (Relevance Grid)
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Line vs. Bar Charts
First…Know your scale:
Nominal (Discrete items, no order)
Sales, Operations, HR, Marketing, Accounting
Ordinal (Items with an intrinsic order)
Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4
Interval (Items with an intrinsic order &
quantitative value
Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sept, Oct, Nov,
Dec
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Line vs. Bar Charts
Bar Charts:
Ideal for comparing values since individual values
are emphasized
Nominal & Ordinal
Line Charts:
Implies connection between data points
Ideal for showing trends
Interval
You can use bar charts for interval when comparing
values
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Reporting Services
A pervasive, flexible enterprise platform for
reporting that is capable of powerful data
visualizations
Robust developer community
Easy to set-up and use
Many built-in charting options
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Upcoming Sessions
7/18 – PASS Business Analyst Virtual Chapter
Introduction to Mahout for HDInsight
7/23 – PASS Big Data Virtual Chapter
The BI Guys Little Guide to Big Data
7/27 – Cocoa Beach #231
MDS in Practice: An Integrated Approach
8/16 to 8/18/2013 – Code on the Beach (Jacksonville)
Running with Elephants: Predictive Analytics with HDInsight
9/14 – Orlando #232
Into the Wild, Taming Unstructured Data