Bekijk in dit ebook de top 7 tips voor data visualisaties van Qlik www.e-mergo.nl

1. HELP YOUR DATA TELL ITS STORY
Tips for
more effective
visualizations7

2. In today’s data-driven world, how you
show and share your data is critical
in determining its overall impact and
effectiveness. But just putting your data
into charts and graphs isn’t enough.
Effective data visualization takes skill
and storytelling, an eye for detail, and
an understanding of your audience.
Ready to learn the 7 secrets that
can make the difference between
great visualizations and just another
set of charts? Let’s dive in.

3. Start with the story you
want to tell.
WHAT STORY DO YOU
WANT TO TELL?
Good visualizations highlight
relationships between data which
can tell a powerful story.
Outliers illuminate
deviations from
the norm.
Trends indicate
changes over time.
Patterns show
repeated, consistent
characteristics.
Correlations
communicate
relationships between
two or more variables.
Whatever your specific goals may be, when you create
a visualization, you’re really trying to capture a snapshot
of your business – a quick, visual story that will drive
understanding, discussion, and decision-making. To do
this, you need to understand the data you’re working
with and determine what story you want to tell. Start by
asking a few questions.
1
UNDERSTAND YOUR DATA DETERMINE YOUR STORY
• How many data sets are you
working with and can they
be combined?
• Is your data qualitative
or quantitative?
• Is there external data you want
to include?
• How accurate or fresh is
your data?
• What are the key messages you
want to convey?
• What do you want your audience
to think, do, or feel?
• What details will lend credence
and support to your story?

4. COMPARISON
VISUALIZATIONS
COMPOSITION
VISUALIZATIONS
DISTRIBUTION
VISUALIZATIONS
RELATIONSHIP
VISUALIZATIONS
FREQUENTLY
USED FOR
Identifying the highest and
lowest values
Seeing current versus
older values
Spotting trends
Seeing the relationship
between data points that
change over time
Identifying the relative
difference between parts of
a whole
Identifying commonalities
and outliers
Seeing the general shape of
a range
Showing correlations
and clusters
Identifying outliers
ANSWERS
QUESTIONS
LIKE
Which products sell best?
How are our sales compared
to last year?
How big is our market share?
What percentage of the
budget is going toward
x, y, and z?
How many customers exist
across a demographic range?
How many days late are
customer payments?
Is there a correlation between
advertising spend and sales?
What’s the variation between
expenses and revenue
across regions?
EXAMPLES
ar area chart Line chart
Line chart
Bar histogram
ons
Pie chart
Stacked 100%
area chart
Stacked area chart
Stacked 100%
bar chart
Stacked bar chart
Variable width chart Table or tables with
embedded charts
Bar chart horizontal
Circular area chart Line chart
Line chart
ource: ©A. Abela, 2010. www.ExtremePresentation.com
Scatter plot
bubble size
Bar histogram
Line histogram
Visualizations
Comparison
Composition
Relationship Distribution
What would you
like to show?
Scatter plot
Scatter plot
Bar chart
Waterfall chart
Stacked 100% bar chart
w/subcomponents
Tree map
Stacked 100%
area chart
00%
rt
h chart Table or tables with
embedded charts
Bar chart horizontal
Circular area chart Line chart
Line chart
Bar histogram
Line histogram
Visualizations
Comparison
Composition
Relationship Distribution
What would you
like to show?
Scatter plot
Bar chart
Waterfall chart
Circular area chart Line chart
Line chart
Visualizations
Bar chart Pie chart
Stacked 100%
area chart
Stacked area chart
Stacked 100%
bar chart
Stacked bar chart
Variable width chart Table or tables with
embedded charts
Bar chart horizontal
Circular area chart Line
Line chart
Source: ©A. Abela, 2010. www.ExtremePresentation.com
Scatter plot
bubble size
Ba
Lin
Visualizations
Comparison
Composition
Relationship Distribution
What would you
like to show?
Scatter plot
S
Bar chart
Waterfall chart
Stacked 100% bar chart
w/subcomponents
Tree m
Stacked 100%
area chart
00%
rt
h chart Table or tables with
embedded charts
Bar chart horizontal
Circular area chart Line chart
Line chart
Bar histogram
Line histogram
Visualizations
Comparison
Composition
Relationship Distribution
What would you
like to show?
Scatter plot
Bar chart
Waterfall chart
Variable width chart Table or tables with
embedded charts
Bar chart horizontal
Circular area chart Line chart
Line chart
Bar histogram
Line histogram
Visualizations
ComparisonScatter plot
Bar chart Pie chart
Stacked 100%
area chart
Stacked area chart
Stacked 100%
bar chart
Stacked bar chart
Variable width chart Table or tables with
embedded charts
Bar chart horizontal
Circular area chart Line chart
Line chart
Source: ©A. Abela, 2010. www.ExtremePresentation.com
Scatter plot
bubble size
Bar histogram
Line histogram
Visualizations
Comparison
Composition
Relationship Distribution
What would you
like to show?
Scatter plot
Scatter plot
Bar chart
Waterfall chart
Stacked 100% bar chart
w/subcomponents
Tree map
Stacked 100%
area chart
00%
rt
h chart Table or tables with
embedded charts
Bar chart horizontal
Circular area chart Line chart
Line chart
Bar histogram
Line histogram
Visualizations
Comparison
Composition
Relationship Distribution
What would you
like to show?
Scatter plot
Bar chart
Waterfall chart Stack
are
Stacked 100%
bar chart
Variable width chart Table or tables with
embedded charts
Bar cha
Scatter plot
bubble size
Rela
Scatter plot
Stack
are
Stacked 100%
bar chart
Variable width chart Table or tables with
embedded charts
Bar cha
Scatter plot
bubble size
Rela
Scatter plot
2According to Qlik Visualization Advocate Dr. Patrik Lundblad, there are four fundamental
types of data visualizations, each of which can provide specific insights:
Choose the right visualization.

5. DO: USE DISTINCT COLORS FOR
EACH SEGMENT OF A PIE CHART
DON’T: COLOR SEGMENTS USING
DIFFERENT SHADES OF THE
SAME COLOR.
DO: USE DIFFERENT SHADES OF
THE SAME COLOR TO DESIGNATE
NUMEROUS VISUAL ELEMENTS.
DON’T: USE DIFFERENT COLORS
WHEN DEALING WITH NUMEROUS
GRAPHICAL ELEMENTS.
DO: USE THE SAME COLOR FOR
EACH BAR OF A BAR CHART.
DON’T: USE A DIFFERENT COLOR
FOR EACH BAR.
3Color can be a powerful aid to your visualizations, giving clear cues about relative
value, points of emphasis, and differentiation between data sets. Choose your colors
carefully, though – and more important, sparingly – because color used improperly can
actually cause more confusion than it clears up.
Use color – carefully.

6. WHOA – SLOW DOWN THERE
We get it, it’s easy to get excited about visualizations.
But it’s possible to get a little too fancy, with too many
bells and whistles. In fact, there’s even a name for the
phenomenon: Chartjunk.
Here are a few of the most common chartjunk offenders:
With each visualization, ask yourself,
“Which elements here are most important
to the story I’m trying to tell?” Trying to
cram too much into the same visualization
only adds confusion and makes it harder
to spot the insights.
Making simple visualizations doesn’t have to be complex:
• Limit the number of visualizations in a dashboard
to 9 or less
• Add callouts to emphasize the information that’s
most critical to your message
• Use trend lines to highlight important correlations
between variables, and make your graphs more
scannable
• Use size and color to clearly define unique
data variables
• Avoid decorative fonts, text treatments like
underlines and italics, and visual embellishments
like drop shadows
Keep it simple.
4

7. Make it look good.
Design matters. So use a few basic design principles in your visualizations to add clarity
and avoid confusion. For example:
5DO: ORDER SLICES FROM
LARGEST TO SMALLEST
for easier comparison
DON’T: RANDOMLY ORDER
THE SLICES
DO: USE TRANSPARENT COLORS
so each element remains visible
DON’T: USE SOLID COLOR WITH
OVERLAPPING DATA
DO: USE 2D LINES
to clearly convey priority and ranking
DON’T: USE 3D LINES

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FEBMARFEBJAN
Show your data at the right scale.
Improper scale can make major insights seem
mediocre and minor deviations feel massive.
To correctly represent the story your data is showing:
• Make sure the scale of your axes accurately reflects the
size of the data you’re visualizing
• Choose the axes that will best represent trends in your
data. Will absolute numbers or percentages make
your data clearer?
• Don’t use cropped axes. Always start the Y-axis at 0
6 DO: START Y-AXIS VALUE AT 0
DON’T: TRUNCATE THE SCALE
PRO TIP:
Vertical type can
be difficult to read,
so use horizontal
labels whenever
possible.

9. 7Create visualizations
with your audience
in mind.
In the end, it all comes to down to
knowing what your audience is actually
interested in – and giving them what
they want. Even the clearest, best-
looking visualizations can still be duds
if they’re not helpful or interesting
to the people you’re trying to reach.
Ensure you’re delivering a persuasive story by:
• Highlighting and ordering your information based
on your audience’s interests
• Visualizing your data in an intuitive, conventional
manner to facilitate understanding
• Testing your visualizations with a few trusted
colleagues to ensure the story they’re seeing
is the one you wanted to tell

10. When done well, a good
visualization transforms
messy, massive data sets into
discussions, understanding,
and well-informed decisions.
By creating visualizations that don’t just present data, but tell
a clear, compelling story, you can explore, explain, and express
critical information and make intelligent decisions that can have
a big impact on your business.

11. qlik.com
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are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.
See the whole story that lives within your data.