Data Visualization - A language of colors. Guest Post

 

A Guest post by Baby Sirota.  He agreed to share some of his experience and knowledge in Data Visualization. Baby is BI Solutions Manager in One1 Technologies’ Oracle & NetSuite Division.

 

When speaking of DV, we can divide the process into two arenas:

1.      Backscene- basically, the infrastructure, consisting of every part that’s related to retrieving, aggregating and categorizing data.

2.      On stage – the visual elements that, using colors, size and shapes, translate rows of raw data into ACTIONABLE KNOWLEDGE.

And while you cannot possibly display data without preparing it (properly!!!) first, I’d like to demonstrate when and how COLORS can infuse our Visuals with meaning.

.      Segmentation- Assigning a designated palette to every segment helps distinguish it within a given Dashboard. 

 

Ex: Coloring by Customer segment – the human brain connects the data by the colors, and automatically assigns the details to each group.

When stacking and/or creating a 100% viz, segmentation by color is extra useful in translating data into knowledge. Each segment in a category has its relative part in the whole, and using color to display it gives an instinctual understanding – which is bigger? When? For how long and for what type of customer?

Advanced level: enrich your color segmentation with shapes & sizes-

Add measures to Size and Shape panes, see how in just a glance you can tell that for Customer segment ‘Consumer’, Office Supplies is the best seller – and most profitable – category.

  

         Significance – Color as indication to amount / quantity. Assign a color to a specific measure and see its distribution over a given segment. 

     Ex: polygon map

The measure ‘Sales’ is determining the color for each state. The darker the blue, the higher sales amount. It’s so obvious where most of our sales are.

 

 

Ex 2: When measure has both positive & negative values-

 

 

       This is when we use a two-color palette; it allows us to differentiate between the negative and positive values, and immediately compares where is our strongest and weakest profit ratio. 

 

Advanced Level: Use size for one measure, and color for another-

Here we used ‘Sales’ for the size and rank of the bars, but the color is by ‘Profit Ratio’.

The result is a fuller understanding of our customers status: the customer with the highest sales has a negative (Gasp!!!) profit ratio.

Such is the power of colors in Viz: it proves that it’s not always about the size 😊.

As you can see – and you CAN, because we’re all about the visuals – infusing our Vizes with colors heighten their significance and turn decision making into a more intuitive, immediate, and knowledgeable process.

For more information, you can contact Baby:

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/baby-sirota-402b3587/

Mail: Baby@one1.co.il

Mobile : 972-544385410