How to Use Data Visualization to Make Better Decisions—Faster

This course teaches business professionals who don’t create data visualizations (or who will, but are new to it) how to decipher and understand the value of charts and dashboards.

Introduction

• Data visualization can drive change

1. Seeing the Big Picture—Fast!

• How data visualization can reveal key insights
• How data visualization can help with communication
• How data visualization can influence change

2. Why Numbers Are Not Enough

• Spreadsheet vs. timeline
• Color plus numbers = amazing data visualization
• Marginal histograms

3. Why Do We See So Many Bar Charts?

• Preattentive attributes
• Bar charts vs. packed bubbles
• Understanding why a common and accurate baseline is so important

4. Color Dos and Don'ts

• The five ways in which color is used in data visualization
• Where people mess up color in data visualization
• Examples of good use of color in charts
• Why you should avoid traffic light colors in your charts

5. Chart Types You Should Know and Love (and Sometimes Loathe)

• How to create aesthetically pleasing bar charts
• Show progress with bar charts and reference lines
• How do you compare this year with last year (and maybe a few more years)?
• Scatterplots can effectively show relationships
• How summary statistics can hide what's important
• Why stacked bar charts and area charts can be problematic
• Timelines and other ways to visualize time
• Pie charts and the problems with them
• Donut charts and the problems with them
• Your turn! How would you visualize this data set?
• Keep an open mind

Conclusion

• Where do you go from here?