Chapter 18.1

An Introduction to Data Visualizations

Abstract

Management does not have time to sort through mass amounts of data to make business
decisions. Today it is critical for data to be presented in a meaningful way to be
understood to be useful. This chapter is an introduction to visualizations to present the
data in a story format for better business decisions and results.

Keywords

Data visualization; Data to insights; Context; Data source; Data format; Data Quality;
Interactive visualization; Dimensions; Dashboard; Visualization audience

Introduction to Data Visualizations—Overview

Data is necessary for business. When data is put into a visualization, they can be used to
tell a story. Telling a story is a sequence of events that can show past, present, and future.
Using visualizations to tell a story about data can show patterns, trends, and relationships
to focus on what is important. A visualization can also be used to enable discovery of
new information by making it easier to understand the data and the different dimensions
hidden in the data. Visualizations are changing the way we tell a story about the data to
provide better information, knowledge, and insights.

Example

A hotel collects a large amount of data through guest surveys. By combining guest survey
data with review data from the Internet, a visualization is created to better understand
where hotel improvements are needed. By observing trends or patterns in all the data
collected from the hotel guest surveys over time, additional insights about the hotel
operations may be gained. Using visualizations allow the hotel manager to explore the
data and show collectively insights across all data that tell a story where the hotel may
have some strategic opportunities before business is lost to competitors.

Fig. 18.1.1 shows where a visualization can help along the path to gaining deeper insights

Chapter 18.1: An Introduction to Data Visualizations