“A picture is worth 1,000 words”. This Course provided by IBM endows me with the ability to effectively create data visualizations, such as charts or graphs, with Excel and IBM Cognos Analytics, without having to write any code. It also elevates my confidence level in creating intermediate level data visualizations after numerous hands-on labs and the final project. The following are the notes I took during this course.
Introduction to Charts
Line Charts compare different but related data sets, they can display trends and show how data values change in relation to a continuous variable (e.g. time)
Pie Charts can show the breakdown of an entity into its sub-parts and the proportion of the sub-parts in relation to one another. Each portion represents a static value or category.
Bar Charts: Stacked bar charts
Column Charts can be used quite effectively to show change over time and to compare values side-by-side.
Treemaps are useful for displaying complex hierarchies using nested rectangles.
Funnel Charts can display a pipeline or different stages of a continuous process.
In Scatter Chart, the circle colors represent the categories of data and the circle sizes are indicative of the volume of data. A scatter chart can be great for revealing trends, clusters, patterns, and correlations between data points.
Bubble Charts. are useful for comparing a handful of categories to one another in terms of relative significance.
Sparklines do not include an axis or coordinates, yet they display trends simply and effectively. These are great for showing the general trend of a variation.
A pivot chart is used to show the data series, categories, and chart axes the same way a basic chart is used.
- Area charts
- Column charts
Use a pivot table or pivot chart to filter data and to expand and collapse data levels.
Advanced Charts
A tree map chart is used to compare values across hierarchy levels and show proportions within hierarchical levels as rectangles.
Tree maps are a good way of displaying lots of data in one graphical asset because they use the color and closeness of proportional shapes within the chart to represent hierarchical data categories.
A scatter chart is a type of graph used to compare two sets of numerical data values and show relationships between those sets of numerical values.
A scatter chart combines the two sets of values on the x and y axes into single points of data and then displays them in clusters in the chart.
A histogram is a graph that shows the distribution of the data grouped into bins.
A bar chart is used to compare data while a histogram is used to display distribution of data.
A filled map chart is a type of chart used to compare values and show categories across geographical regions.
Sparklines are mini charts placed inside single cells to represent a selected range of data. They are typically used to show data trends, such as seasonal increase-decrease, economic cycles, and share, rate, or price fluctuations.
A sparkline provides the greatest impact when it is placed close to the data it represents.
Creating Dashboards Using Spreadsheets
The term dashboard comes from the automotive industry where car designers have put the most important gauges and other display information in a handy graphical display that is easy for the driver to view and understand.
Data Analysis dashboards provide key information in one place
Dashboards can provide user interaction capabilities like filters, slicers, timelines and map charts
Dashboard users get consolidated and visualized insight into their most important business data and KPIs. Dashboard users get a self-service BI interface
Dashboards are typically created in a data analysis application by using multiple pivot tables and charts, visualizations and filtering tools.
Advanced data analysis and visualization apps: Bokeh, Dash in Python, R-Studio’s Shiny, Tableau, IBM Cognos Analytics
Expert Viewpoints Advice: “Less is more”, make visualizations more focused to highlight just one or two important points.
Creating Dashboards Using IBM Cognos Analytics
Cognos Analytics is an AI-fueled business intelligence platform that supports the entire analytics cycle, from discovery to operationalization.
Use Cognos Analytics to create a simple dashboard.
Creating calculations and Leveraging navigation paths.