Tips to Create Useful and Beautiful Visualizations

1
150% Average Return Since IPO O* 100% 50%

Tell a story! y
IPO Decade: 2000s 1990s 1980s

Profitable vs. Unprofitable IPOs

153% 110%
Day Since IPO: 0 to 800

86% 89%

Everyvizshouldtella y story.Asyoucreateyour visualization,makesure tocontinuallyask,What storydoesthistell? story does this tell? Thisviz showsusthat companiesthatIPOd afterreaching profitabilitywerefar moresuccessfulinthe longrun. long run

Profitable at IPO Not profitable Profitable

39%

36%

0% 0

Year 1 255

Year 2 510

Year 3 765

Trading Days Since IPO

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800K 600K 400K 200K

Orient text horizontally y

IL OH

Unfunded Pension Liability by State

0K

Sometimesthesmallchangesmakeallthedifferenceinunderstanding

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0-15 50% 40% Per rcent of Total Users

Avoid pies! Except on maps p p p

Can you tell which slice is largest?
Age Group g p 16-24 25-40 41-64 65+ Region East South West

Graffiti by Precinct and Resolution

This is the same information represented as bars.

Comparisons are much easier.

Age Group 0-15 16-24 25-40 41-64 65+

30%

20%

10% 0%

Barchartsbeatpieseverytime! Thehumaneyecancompareheight The human eye can compare height mucheasierthanarea.

Butpiescanbeeffectiveonmaps. Thesamecomparisonproblemexists, The same comparison problem exists butpiesallowanalysisinsmallspaces.

Use multiple views p

Unemployment by Decade and Year
---0 12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% ---1 ---2 ---3 ---4 ---5 ---6 ---7 ---8 ---9 Highlight Decade: 1940's 1950's 1960's 1970's 1980's 1990's 2000's

Month over Month

12% 10% 8% 6% 4% 2% 0% -1,000K -500K 0K Average= 116K 500K 1,000K Source: Bureau of L.. Average= 5.6% y January 2009 September 1983 p

Change in Employment from Prior Month

Usetwocoordinatedviewstoshowdepth, ratherthantryingtoplaceeverythingintooneview.

Bullets beat Gauges g

>
Besidesbeingdifficulttoread,gaugestakeuptonsofspace.Usebulletscharts!

Increase effectiveness with color

Thehumaneyecandetectsubtledifferencesincolormuchfasterthanitcanreadsubtle differencesintext.Usingcolorsavesonspacetoo! diff i i l !

But not too many colors at once y

District of Columbia Crimespotting
OFFENSE HOMICIDE ADW ROBBERY SEX ABUSE ARSON BURGLARY STOLEN AUTO THEFT THEFT F/AUTO

About Tableau maps: www.tableausoftware.com/mapdata

Usingmorethan10colorscancausethemtoblendtogetherandconfuse. Thisviewisonlyusing8colors,butitisstilldifficulttodifferentiatethegreens. This view is only using 8 colors but it is still difficult to differentiate the greens

Labels make it clear

Profit

2007

2008

2009

Labelsarewonderfulforcallingoutkeydatapointsandactions

2010

Make it interactive!

Enablefilters,highlightingandclickingformoredetailto Enable filters highlighting and clicking for more detail to superchargetheusefulnessofyourvisualization

y 10 No ornamentation necessary

Thisviz showstheNationalActivityIndex.Notexactlyexcitingstuff.Yet,thissimple visualizationtellsastoryanddoesitwithoutornamentationoraddedpresentationlayers. visualization tells a story and does it without ornamentation or added presentation layers Letthedatatellthestory!