Transcript Slide 1
The Zen of Visual Analysis Chris Stolte Vice President, Engineering & co-founder Jock Mackinlay Director, Visual Analysis Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. How do people reason about data? Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. The Cycle of Visual Analysis Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. “Wildlife Strike Database” http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov/public_html/index.html Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Not just “Aha!” Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. advice: Iterate, explore, and experiment …regardless of task Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. empower individuals and groups to effectively analyze and share data? How do we Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Support the “Cycle of Visual Analysis” Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Incremental Expressive Unified Direct Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Supporting the “Cycle of Visual Analysis”: Incremental Allow people to easily and incrementally change the data and how they are looking at it click click Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. advice: Start simple… Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Supporting the “Cycle of Visual Analysis”: Expressive There is no single view for all tasks and all data Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Supporting the “Cycle of Visual Analysis”: Expressive Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Supporting the “Cycle of Visual Analysis”: Expressive Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. advice: Reverse your thinking – start with the data Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Supporting the “Cycle of Visual Analysis”: Unification with the database Traditional Reporting Tools versus Tableau Traditional Visualization Tools Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Supporting the “Cycle of Visual Analysis”: Unification with the database Leverage the revolutionary changes in database technology Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Supporting the “Cycle of Visual Analysis”: Direct Interaction Make the tool disappear. Allow the user to directly interact with the data. Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. How is this possible? VizQL Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Generate Effective Views of Data Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. People should not have to be graphic designers or psychologists. Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Generating Effective Views of Data An effective presentation of data: • • • • • Communicates all of the data Communicates only the data Leverages the human perceptual system Is understandable Is interpretable Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Generating Effective Views of Data Communicates all of relevant data Bad Bad Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Good Generating Effective Views of Data Communicates only the data Bad Bad Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Generating Effective Views of Data Leverages the human perceptual system Bad Good Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Generating Effective Views of Data Is understandable Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. advice: Keep your visuals simple Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Generating Effective Views of Data Is interpretable Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. advice: Annotate but remain focused Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Generating Effective Views of Data How does Tableau support generating effective views of data? – Best practices are built into the product • Great defaults • Show Me and Show Me Alternatives • Small multiples – Limiting the visual properties to a proven set – Titling, captioning, and annotation Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Generate Beautiful Results Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Generate Beautiful Results Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Generate Beautiful Results Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Share Interactive Views Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Share Interactive Views Communicate all the data Demonstrate your confidence Allow people to test your conclusions Let your audience engage directly with the data Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. advice: Empower your audience – share interactive views Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Share Interactive Views Aggregated Underlying Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. advice: Data is a dish best served raw Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Share Interactive Views Ad hoc analysis often reveals effective patterns of analysis. Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. advice: Leave a trail – model effective analysis with actions. Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Share Interactive Views How do I design for interaction? Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Share Interactive Views Ben Shneiderman’s mantra: “Overview first, zoom & filter, then details-on-demand.” Quick filters Filtering actions View underlying data Tooltips Master-detail Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Share Interactive Views Jacques Bertin’s permutation matrices: Programmatic sort 1-click sort Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. advice: know your audience and design for their questions Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Share Interactive Views Task: Finding an object and viewing it “in context” Wildcard filter Text lists Highlighting Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Share Interactive Views Task: Finding and understanding relationships Dashboards with multiple perspectives Highlighting Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Share Interactive Views Interaction “resiliency”: Think about how your views will change when people interact Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. “Wildlife Strike Database” http://wildlife-mitigation.tc.faa.gov/public_html/index.html Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Who can Visual Analysis help? Anybody with data and questions Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. advice: Do not limit yourself to large data or special projects Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. advice: Seek outside inspiration Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved. Summary Iterate, explore, and experiment regardless of task Start simple Reverse your thinking and start with the data Keep your visuals simple Annotate but remain focused Use small multiples Empower your audience by sharing interactive views Data is a dish best served raw Leave a trail – model effective analysis with actions Know your audience and design for their questions Don’t limit yourself to large data Seek outside inspiration Copyright © 2003-2009 Tableau Software, Incorporated. All rights reserved.