Data visualization is the graphical representation of information and data. By using visual elements like charts, graphs, and maps, data visualization tools provide an accessible way to see and understand trends, outliers, and patterns in data.

In the world of Big Data, data visualization tools and technologies are essential to analyze massive amounts of information and make data-driven decisions.

As the “age of Big Data” kicks into high-gear, visualization is an increasingly key tool to make sense of the trillions of rows of data generated every day. Data visualization helps to tell stories by curating data into a form easier to understand, highlighting the trends and outliers. A good visualization tells a story, removing the noise from data and highlighting the useful information. However, it’s not simply as easy as just dressing up a graph to make it look better or slapping on the “info” part [1] of an infographic. Effective data visualization is a delicate balancing act between form and function. The plainest graph could be too boring to catch any notice or it make tell a powerful point; the most stunning visualization could utterly fail at conveying the right message or it could speak volumes. The data and the visuals need to work together, and there’s an art to combining great analysis with great storytelling.

It’s hard to think of a professional industry that doesn’t benefit from making data more understandable. Every STEM field benefits from understanding data—and so do fields in government, finance, marketing, history, consumer goods, service industries, education, sports, and so on. While we’ll always wax poetically about data visualization (you’re on the Tableau website, after all) there are practical, real-life applications that are undeniable. And, since visualization is so prolific, it’s also one of the most useful professional skills to develop. The better you can convey your points visually, whether in a dashboard or a slide deck, the better you can leverage that information. The concept of the citizen data scientist is on the rise. Skill sets are changing to accommodate [2] a data-driven world. It is increasingly valuable for professionals to be able to use data to make decisions and use visuals to tell stories of when data informs the who, what, when, where, and how. While traditional education typically draws a distinct line between creative storytelling and technical analysis, the modern professional world also values those who can cross between the two: data visualization sits right in the middle of analysis and visual storytelling figure1 shown given below.

Data visualizations can come in many different forms. People are always coming up with new and creative ways to present data visually.

• Statistical infographics
• Informational infographics
• Timeline infographics
• Process infographics
• Geographic infographics
• Comparison infographics
• Hierarchical infographics
• Resume infographics
• Resume infographics

Figure1: Data Visualization

• Making the baselines something other than 0 to make numbers seem bigger or smaller than they are – this is called “truncating” a graph
• Compressing or expanding the scale of the Y-axis to make a line or bar seem bigger or smaller than it should be
• Cherry picking data so that only the data points you want to include are on a graph (i.e. only telling part of the story)
• Using the wrong type of chart, graph or diagram for your data
• Going against standard, expected data visualization conventions

Because people use data visualizations to reinforce their opinions, you should always read data visualizations with a critical eye. Often enough, writers may be using data visualization to skew the data in a way that [3] supports their opinions, but that may not be entirely truthful.Data visualizations like infographics give you the space to combine data and narrative structure in one page. Visuals like icons and bold fonts let you highlight important statistics and facts.

Data visualizations like infographics give you the space to combine data and narrative structure in one page. Visuals like icons and bold fonts let you highlight important statistics and facts.

For example, you could customize this data visualization infographic template to show the benefit of using your product or service.

References:

1. https://www.tableau.com/learn/articles/data-visualization
2. https://www.javatpoint.com/what-is-data-visualization
3. https://www.ibm.com/cloud/learn/data-visualization

Cite this article:

S Nandhinidwaraka (2021), Benefits of Data Visualization, pp. 11