Which Of The Following Is Least Related To Data/information Visualization?

Retrieve of a set of data visualizations like the dashboard in your auto. When you lot look at them, it should be like shooting fish in a barrel-to-blot information at a glance—your speed, fuel amount, and so on. Likewise, information visualization techniques assist your teammates and managers grasp the significance of the metrics in seconds.

Speed isn't the only advantage of data visualizations. A report plant that people were, on average, 89% better at problem-solving when they looked at data represented visually. In a business setting, that translates to improve controlling.

By using information visualizations, teams are empowered to quickly absorb information and make informed choices. Here are some of the top data visualization techniques to assistance your company plow raw data into action.

1. Line graphs

Line graphs illustrate change over fourth dimension by connecting individual information points. The line's move and steepness reflect larger trends and how rapidly changes are occurring.

The sample line graph above illustrates the monthly change in monthly recurring revenue (MRR). Separate lines show changes in MRR, net new MRR, and lost MRR.

Best practices for using line graphs

Even the most mutual data visualization techniques can benefit from a little tweaking. Here are a few best practices to make the most of your line graph:

Add multiple lines to make comparisons. If your graph shows the monthly modify in revenue, you might take one line for the current yr and 1 for the previous year. Don't add extra lines unless they add relevant context to the data. The more lines you lot add, the more hard the graph will be to read.
Employ dissimilar colors for each line. Studies show people recognize, identify, and remember images better when the images are colored. To improve retentiveness, make each line a unlike color. Y'all can brand your graph attainable to people who are color-blind by using different types of lines. For case, concluding year's data could be a grayness dotted line, while this yr's data is a solid blue line. If someone can't see the color difference, they tin can still see the unique line types.

Just remember: simple is not a bad thing for data visualization techniques. The goal of your line graph is to nowadays your information in a manner that's easy to sympathize.

Survicate: Tracks monthly sessions and signups with line graphs

Survicate, a customer feedback platform, uses line graphs to track monthly website sessions and signups.

*The line graphs higher up comprise sample data.*

The visitor uses colored lines to compare yearly trends, so employees don't have to dig through multiple graphs. Each graph has simply 2 lines, so they're easy to scan.

2. Gauges

For a less well-known data visualization technique, nosotros plough to gauges. These charts use a pointer to evidence data as a reading on a punch. They look like speedometers: the needle moves towards or away from the "maximum" (the goal) on the right.

The speedometer design is both familiar and motivational. When the needle is on the right, you lot know y'all're moving towards a goal, merely similar a car speedometer. It's easy to run into at a glance how close you lot are to your target.

Best practices for using estimate graphs

Make gauge charts as articulate as possible by post-obit these tips:

Prepare goal thresholds below the maximum. The surface area between your goal and the maximum on the judge volition prove upward light-green. This makes information technology piece of cake to see when you've passed your goal.
Set a negative threshold. Define a range close to the minimum that turns carmine, alerting your squad that they are off-track.

Make sure there is a gap between the red (negative) and green (positive) sections of your approximate. If the whole gauge is colored, the stardom between cherry and green becomes less meaningful.

Silbo: Shows closed deals and filled positions with guess graphs

Silbo, a sports officiating company, uses gauge graphs to bear witness progress towards their acquirement goals and their filled position targets.

*The to a higher place gauges comprise sample data.*

Silbo fix a positive goal range to show up in green, so the team tin see correct abroad if they're doing well. If possible, gear up the minimum on your approximate to zero, as Silbo did. Starting at zip is intuitive, and then it requires less work from the viewer.

3. Bar Graphs

Bar graphs are one of the nigh versatile data visualization techniques for comparison categories. The confined are typically vertical, only sometimes they're horizontal.

*Example horizontal bar graph from* *Chartio*

In bar graphs, one centrality typically lists categories, and the other is numerical. In the example in a higher place, the y-axis lists the categories (individuals), and the x-centrality is the number of documents.

Best practices for using bar graphs

Elevate your bar graph with these ideas:

Utilize color-coding to show unlike subcategories within private bars. The Chartio case above uses color-coding to label whether documents are prepared, signed, or unsigned.
Choose informative titles. In Chartio'due south graph, it's clear that the bars are referring to documents because of the title—"Document condition past owner."

Equally with line graphs, simple is best for bar graphs. Having more than five or six subcategories volition likely brand your bars difficult to read.

Geckoboard: Visualizes recruitment costs with bar graphs

On our recruitment dashboard hither at Geckoboard, we use a bar graph to brandish recruitment costs per calendar month.

*The in a higher place bar graph contains sample data*

Different bar colors distinguish cost types: external, internal, and price-per-hire. Considering we simply accept 3 categories, the graph isn't visually overwhelming.

Thaisa Money, our VP of people operations, loves how the graph makes information technology uncomplicated to come across changing toll types month to month.

"[It] helps us proceed an eye on costs without having to dig into our financials too oft," said Money.

4. Geographic maps

For showing location-based information, geographic maps are invaluable. This visualization shows geographic regions, with specific areas filled in or highlighted based on the data. For case, you might use a map to show where the majority of your customers are from. This visual will help your sales team target leads and clients without having to sort through lists of country or urban center names.

There are several different types of maps, simply they all provide context for geographic data.

Best practices for using geographic maps

To make your map easy to interpret, follow these tips:

Utilize a single map to illustrate only one or two information sets. As well much information will clutter the map and make information technology hard to read. Take a await at the case below. There are at least 11 different sets of data represented. Information technology's hard to see what's going on, much less use the information to make business decisions.

Heat map of the US — *The above map shows locations for prospective and agile sales leads in unlike regions of the U.S.*

2. Choose colors that contrast with the base map'due south color scheme. This helps your data sets stand up out.

Only utilise maps for information sets that need location context. You lot wouldn't need a map to visualize monthly numbers of page views, for example.

FiveThirtyEight: Adds voter location context with maps

FiveThirtyEight, a political and economics blog, used maps in 2018 to show projected midterm results if merely women voted.

With this information visualization, FiveThirtyEight's readers are able to identify location-based trends. They might notice, for example, that the country'southward primal area tends to be blood-red, while the coasts tend to be blue. This trend would be less obvious with a non-visual record, like a spreadsheet.

5. Progress bars

Much like gauges, progress bars show how close your team is to reaching their goal. They use a 0-100% scale, so teams can run into their progress as a percentage. If the goal is xl hires and you have 10, the bar volition exist 25% filled.

Progress bars are motivational with their game-like design. You tin clearly meet the goal you lot're working towards, and then you're driven to make full the bar and see your objective.

Best practices for using progress confined

Keep your squad motivated by following these best practices when designing progress bars.

Display progress bars in a location shared by the whole squad. You could mail service bars on a shared TV dashboard or pivot the bar in a communication channel like Slack. Use software that updates the bar in real-time, so teams tin can accurately rail their progress.
Merely use progress bars for the key, fundamental squad goals. Presenting every unmarried metric as a progress bar might discourage employees. If all they meet are partly filled progress bars, they might be overwhelmed past how much they accept to practise rather than being motivated to fill the bar.

When you display your progress bar, post the electric current fundamental operation indicator (KPI) amount above the bar. This additional effigy provides extra context around the percentage.

Lime: Tracks internal hiring with progress bars

The scooter rental company Lime uses progress bars to rail their hiring goals.

*The above progress bars contain sample data.*

Lime'southward bars display not simply percentages but also the current and target amounts for the KPI. This data visualization gives their team a sense of their overall hiring growth and progress towards individual goals.

6. Color-coded alerts

Color-coded alerts highlight metrics in cherry or light-green to testify employees where they're exceeding and where they need to improve functioning.

With alert thresholds, your team can tell at a glance if a number is good or bad without having to chase down goals or previous data.

The procedure of setting thresholds will vary depending on the tool yous use. In Excel, yous apply provisional formatting. Only in a dashboard tool like Geckoboard, colour-coded formatting is built-in.

Best practices for using alerts

A few uncomplicated tricks can assist make your alerts even more effective:

Only set alerts for disquisitional metrics. Similar progress bars, having alerts for every unmarried metric could overwhelm employees. If every KPI is lit up in blood-red or green, the colors lose their significance.
Keep alerts accessible by pairing the color-coding with an image. If negative alerts have an exclamation point and positive ones have a checkmark, anyone can interpret the alert correctly, even if they're color-blind.

Use these tips to create color-coded alerts that help employees guess their functioning, good or bad.

JustPark: Improves customer service with alerts

These color-coded alerts keep parking software JustPark'south customer service team on top of their performance.

*The higher up image contains sample data.*

Looking at the red and green alerts, the team tin meet customer calls are waiting and entering tickets are upwardly from the previous twenty-four hours. They tin address this by responding to more than customer calls and focusing on fixing the current tickets in the queue.

Data visualization techniques assistance teams interpret data at a glance. They tin can spend less time trying to read spreadsheets or reports, and focus on making informed decisions.

For more all-time practices for data visualization techniques, check out this resource.

Make your data visualizations piece of cake to admission

You've done it—you combed through multiple information visualization techniquesand picked the best ones for sharing your data. Now what?

The next step is to make sure your newly visualized information is easy for the whole squad to notice. You lot might design a dashboard that shows sales per person and progress towards monthly acquirement. With functioning insights all in 1 identify, sales reps are empowered to track their performance and focus their free energy in the right places.

Share your goals, metrics, and data on a live dashboard

Geckoboard is the easiest way to make key information visible for your squad.

Learn how