tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-59663249428976947022024-03-15T18:09:16.394-07:00Data IntuitionAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.comBlogger14125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-73002337158441449762015-08-12T17:31:00.000-07:002015-08-13T08:53:52.010-07:00Music Viz Contest Submission - Beatles Writing Contributions by AlbumA couple of weeks ago I read a really interesting article on Pixable.com by Mitchell Friedman that asked the question; who was the most prolific writer in the Beatles?<br />
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Friedman used data from the William J Dowlding 1989 book “Beatlesongs”. The content was very interesting but the data was unfortunately presented using individual pies charts for each album. And they were not good pie charts either. The slices in the pie were not a solid color but rather a picture of each Beatle they were meant to represent.<br />
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The two big questions that I had as I read through were how did the writing mix change from album to album and how did it trend by artist year over year? For instance was John contributing more or less by the end of the Beatles career? When did George emerge as a consistent contributor? Was Ringo ever a contributor? These questions could be answered of course with a lot of scrolling and comparing back and forth but that is a lot of work when it all could be presented simply and cleanly in a single visualization.<br />
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My first thought was that this screams for Makeover Monday from VizWiz himself, Andy Kriebel. But my second thought was the timing was perfect with the third Iron Viz feeder contest coming up. I haven’t really been motivated to enter one of these in a while so I figured this is the excuse I need to do this makeover myself.<br />
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There are no complex hacks or over the top designs. I always try to keep my dashboards very clean and simple. Lots of whitespace. Usually monochromatic and other colors only when needed to serve a purpose. I’ll admit there are more images than I usually include which take up valuable space needed for data but I felt I needed something the draw people into the viz. Plus I like the images and it fits with classic early Beatles branding.<br />
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I hope this viz tells Friedman’s story a little better than his website editors did. At any rate, this exercise answered the questions I was left with after reading the article.
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<a href="https://public.tableau.com/views/BeatlesWritingContributionsbyAlbum/TheBeatles?:embed=y&:display_count=yes&:showTabs=y" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="488" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWNN8pmmQDqfQKI8qulqE5WTp0NOIEBGn0DhyphenhyphenCgA1y-YirWKArRuoKyYB2Tqj7x7mfiX2MXIrxgineh5NDLXmjnQKtcdWMQ40CX6JSALLBvr_2rfp1twJK0dPQbEtPkNNykt0Ij-XQQxeQ/s640/The+Beatles.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-20907842827831439792012-10-15T22:17:00.001-07:002012-10-15T22:20:29.907-07:00My Entry in the 2012 Perceptual Edge Dashboard Design Competition<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Congratulations to the winners of the 2012 Perceptual Edge Dashboard Design contest, Jason and Shamik. Great work! Their entries can be found here: <a href="http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/?p=1374" style="text-align: center;">http://www.perceptualedge.com/blog/?p=1374</a></div>
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You can see some of the other entries by going to <a href="http://www.perceptualedge.com/discussion.htm" style="text-align: center;">http://www.perceptualedge.com/discussion.htm</a> and look for the Dashboard Design subject. Here's my entry created in Tableau - of course! As always, any and all feedback is welcome. Thanks!</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQjowmatSfsspFRVP6pEecUavSPGbZ2bphiQYzTk_OhLcOepFBBI0jAGwQCCcUgHAm7XBMmwVaMaWxTguO9nsg-m0kkhwpcEoHHpAvC1FZRqLOiZ651XzvmJdn6uxnw3d-xijocFCGxoJw/s1600/Perceptual+Edge+2012+Dashboard+Design+Competition+-+Mike+Moore.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><br /></a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-80942779434586600852012-09-12T14:14:00.002-07:002012-09-12T14:15:11.943-07:00Here's my entry for the Tableau Interactive Election Viz Contest<script type="text/javascript" src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/javascripts/api/viz_v1.js"></script><div class="tableauPlaceholder" style="width:804px; height:1669px;"><noscript><a href="#"><img alt="Red States vs. Blue StatesWho's who when it comes to electing a President? " src="http://public.tableausoftware.com/static/images/Re/RedStates-BlueStates/Dashboard1/1_rss.png" style="border: none" /></a></noscript><object class="tableauViz" width="804" height="1669" style="display:none;"><param name="host_url" value="http%3A%2F%2Fpublic.tableausoftware.com%2F" /><param name="site_root" value="" /><param name="name" value="RedStates-BlueStates/Dashboard1" /><param name="tabs" value="no" /><param name="toolbar" value="yes" /><param name="static_image" value="http://public.tableausoftware.com/static/images/Re/RedStates-BlueStates/Dashboard1/1.png" /><param name="animate_transition" value="yes" /><param name="display_static_image" value="yes" /><param name="display_spinner" value="yes" /><param name="display_overlay" value="yes" /><param name="display_count" value="yes" /></object></div><div style="width:804px;height:22px;padding:0px 10px 0px 0px;color:black;font:normal 8pt verdana,helvetica,arial,sans-serif;"><div style="float:right; padding-right:8px;"><a href="http://www.tableausoftware.com/public?ref=http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/RedStates-BlueStates/Dashboard1" target="_blank">Powered by Tableau</a></div></div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-73824683877019322352012-06-29T23:11:00.000-07:002012-06-30T15:34:49.680-07:00My Entry for the Tableau Interactive Sports Viz Contest<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small; text-align: -webkit-left;">The Pitcher Effectiveness Rating is an indication of a pitcher's effectiveness and future performance according to fantasy baseball site Rotoworld.com.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">"A pitcher's effectiveness is closely tied to the number of baserunners he allows and the number of strikeouts he gets. This table uses a rating system of K/BB + K/9IP - (BB+H)/9IP - HR/9IP. This formula is best used as an indicator of future performance of a pitcher. A pitcher may have a low era after 15-20 innings, but may not have been pitching as effectively as the era indicates. A look at this rating system will be a good way to tell if the pitcher will continue with the low era or will soon run into some trouble."</span></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;">This is a metric that is screaming to be visualized. The visualization uses Lahman's Baseball Database to let users explore the relationship between the Pitcher Effectiveness Rating and the individual metrics that combine to make the rating. Users can drill into different eras over baseball's past and look for changes in the rating based on the pitchers age and the total number of innings pitched over a career.</span></div>
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<a href="http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/HistoricalPitcherIndicatorRatings/PitcherIndicatorRatings?:embed=y" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJW5GIf6RxRTjOeBtVkqO9yvQ44UiG1u-PWHqTLlclJlQriFLDBSeikAT60PLv1FWqrTwVoP4jkzM1_aTi3kb2jewhOI03OxxzAWMA7fCXeziwZmsvCvYL5abR9YE9dIlh9SXtv5MYe-RH/s640/PIR.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: arial; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-86145653478011601262012-03-27T10:50:00.001-07:002012-03-27T10:50:12.071-07:00Fantasy Baseball Time!Well I'm back after neglecting my blog for awhile. Here's my first feeble attempt at creating at fantasy baseball dashboard with Tableau on top of an extract from mysql database populated with Lahman's baseball data.<br />
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<a href="http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/MLB-Historical/Dashboard1?:embed=y" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="404" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1m3Wl33BPyWuiDlOA0As0rj43BWlre22_q1robJDbYsd-9SFvnMExk2ZyUZllwmNj6Y8b0Yl36gF3KgBg2A7d0-cLcV1lEqjac5qHiMTpzQsA4EDiPFTcPuDyZ8yKa7u4AlSlx7QI29Pn/s640/Lahman+Dashboard.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-39079838714894237372012-01-20T11:37:00.000-08:002012-01-20T11:37:25.362-08:00This Rise of GeofluenceOne of the most popular data visualization techniques enabled by the proliferation of data visualization software is to show a map with color filled regions based on some data point that is tied to that region. The most prominent examples are the red state/blue state maps that we see every time we have a national election.<br />
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Yesterday Dan Murray from Interworks was speaking to the Nebraska chapter of DAMA (Data Management International) about data visualization and said that color, shape, size, and position helps data information standout. No data visualization technique makes better use of color, shape, size and position than a color filled map. <br />
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This week Tableau 7.0 was released which includes new visualization features including the ability to create filled maps. This data visualization technique is also known as geo-mapping and thanks to the new Tableau release all of us have the ability to create beautiful color filled maps that can help influence and tell stories. You could call it "geo-fluence" and it can be a very powerful tool that can tell vastly different stories depending on how you apply it.<br />
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To illustrate this point I took October 2011 unemployment rates by county that I got from the Bureau of Labor Statics and loaded them into Tableau. Then I created four views that compares the unemployment rates by county to the national average from four different time periods. The first time period compares 2011 unemployment rates to the 25% unemployment rate at the height of the Great Depression. The second map compares 2011 unemployment rates to the recession which ended in November 1982. The third map compares unemployment rates to rates just before the start of Bill Clinton's first term and the last map compares unemployment rates to rates from five years ago.<br />
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<a href="http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/MapDistortion/Dashboard1" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMZoKLJjkumV9ZXOI01_iQT6pc2hCe4mxrTgNnkOYlDQzPTYUf6yxvagEQPKulqcmuT3Ly-WDWH5OxHlCcMK2iGaJ2a5C0bIOGSMdKKJysD7z3xOU2i-Yn9atI6NzXOqd0xe-vS12Fwvss/s640/Map+Comparison.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
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As you can see each map tells a different story. Current unemployment looks terrible if you are comparing 2011 rates to the kind of unemployment rates we saw during the late 90's and the mid 2000's but when compared to the Great Depression or even the recession of the early 1980's they don't look too bad. And while all of these maps tell very different stories none of them are factually incorrect. They simply present the data in a different context.<br />
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Geomapping fulfills the primary objective of data visualization. It communicates data in an intuitive manner that lets the viewer instantly understand the information being presented. It's also very easy to misrepresent or mislead the viewer if proper context if not given. Giving your audience proper context to help tell a story and influence perception is an acceptable use of data visualization. Failing to provide context and misrepresenting the data or misleading your audience is not acceptable.<br />
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Once thing does seem to be true however. Regardless of the context, it's appears that Yuma county Arizona is a tough place to find work!Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-14906927604302620622012-01-17T22:53:00.000-08:002012-01-17T22:57:44.167-08:00Tableau 7 is out!It works! Here's some unemployment rates by county that I was working with last year. Red bad, green good. Glad I live in Nebraska!<br />
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Click on the image to open the workbook.<br />
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<a href="http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/UnemploymentbyCountyFREDQ32011/Dashboard1?:embed=y" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="355" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr8kRnw8YL6FqotxZIbN-oZVKqDByxi5336bu50cVwgIK4cPgABdCuDsg8Rpk6UmUs-wAgv8xMYrzzCMNgTJEn0KG5alUWEbk89poVBegBmLieCBbNZZ3QkjMcXDdsxUoZAHSFF9k_2zRu/s640/UmempMap.PNG" width="640" /></a><span id="goog_1045765850"></span><span id="goog_1045765851"></span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/"></a></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-88932589343375462562012-01-02T15:15:00.000-08:002012-01-02T20:51:29.138-08:00Tableau Doodles<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/boxdoodles/Dashboard1?:embed=yes&:toolbar=yes&:tabs=no" target="_blank"><img border="0" height="422" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9AGbvc3pSUItphW9K-qH-5IZRHhNZm1z3WcDuxBdnY9SCVuicPJzFB76UUtT-hRNpPczdz16fNjNXaVgivL2Lq1DgmDZOUo1jIRzFSMLIVcALvWhyphenhyphenqBHe29NzDYeZY3LKnerDa7y0yWRp/s640/box+doodles.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/boxdoodles/Dashboard1?:embed=yes&:toolbar=yes&:tabs=no" target="_blank">Click to enlarge</a></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-84397576457399529772011-12-27T09:20:00.000-08:002011-12-27T09:20:42.633-08:00Taking the Radar Chart off the Map<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">As part of my job I spend a lot of time reviewing analyst’s research on various industries like financial services, customer communications, hosted contact centers, and business intelligence and analytics.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Disappointingly, I frequently come across pin-wheel or radar graph-like circular visualizations similar to the one displayed below.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN3On42Di7-mSwuHTlTZUbKH1lx1YuCslED7At3rDNqHs41689UgsHi8DY7hFv8NMDpHKZzrtGM_pwPaRHbZWbc0yJOmr_oPghOuF5YgnZbPtstL13HNSnc4uko-zVXsHZTnt6l8FLb_nk/s1600/Radar+Graph.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiN3On42Di7-mSwuHTlTZUbKH1lx1YuCslED7At3rDNqHs41689UgsHi8DY7hFv8NMDpHKZzrtGM_pwPaRHbZWbc0yJOmr_oPghOuF5YgnZbPtstL13HNSnc4uko-zVXsHZTnt6l8FLb_nk/s1600/Radar+Graph.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In this image each shape and color combination represents a different vendor in the industry and ranks their overall customer survey scores for each category.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most of us have heard all the arguments against pie charts and other circular visualizations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This type of visualization is particularly troubling to me because it’s from an analysis of the BI industry where you might expect better.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When I see a visualization like this I intuitively want to line up the spokes of the wheel on top of each other like a bar chart so I can compare all the scores for a single vendor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Consequently I end up wasting limited cognitive equity doing visually perceptive somersaults trying to create a virtual horizontal line graph in my head instead of analyzing the vendor capabilities.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To my delight a solution has been brought forward and it comes courtesy of the guys at <a href="http://blog.canworksmart.com/">Contemporary Analysis</a> (CAN) right here in Omaha.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In a November blog posting on dashboard design they talked about using a bullet graph versus a bar graph to compare the survey scores of multiple vendors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s the same problem that the <span style="font-family: inherit;">example</span> above is trying to solve but my buddies at CAN created a visualization that line up the spokes on the wheel for me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here’s the link to the original blog post: <a href="http://blog.canworksmart.com/2011/11/dashboard-design-bullet-graph-vs-bar-chart/">Dashboard Design: Bullet Graph vs. Bar Chart</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is the CAN graph and it shows the different shapes for each vendor on the same line for each survey question and the questions are stacked on top of each other for easy comparison of a vendor from survey question to survey question.</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNh8X0psWUM8GynYlEORimOXnUyXCwXq2RdJZWWi3CFPl3bjBF4wa2ovvm1WS8Fhe4WDD50QYjqWaV2ovK38t3ObwC760hEw5SnD0sswLpBlUhqpv8cllAor_5RWPFroVQlJwqsTE6JROy/s1600/CAN+Graph.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNh8X0psWUM8GynYlEORimOXnUyXCwXq2RdJZWWi3CFPl3bjBF4wa2ovvm1WS8Fhe4WDD50QYjqWaV2ovK38t3ObwC760hEw5SnD0sswLpBlUhqpv8cllAor_5RWPFroVQlJwqsTE6JROy/s1600/CAN+Graph.png" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">There is also a dark line that shows the distance from the low score to the high score to help the viewer understand the range of scores for each survey question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">This is exactly what I try to do mentally whenever I come across one of those pinwheel radar charts.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This visualization worked so well for me that I decided to figure out how to build it in Tableau.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">To recreate this chart using Tableau I started with a conventional horizontal bar chart.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Next I changed the mark type to “Shapes” and moved the “Company” pill to the Shape Shelf.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This created an individual shape to represent each vendor. I thought about creating custom shapes that matched the shapes in the original graph to represent each company but I decided to leave the default shapes because I thought it was easier to see through them when two or more companies share the same score on a survey question.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdeMbkqVrrDDkugcsss4snr5HghnUnzv_qjhl6ZpLbHLXfE7YfKImbLSwDhauzk4JgHfVI6iq7OU2SV7YaKGR0gEwAIIT0G5WmhiBtPdyOn7TYa4OIR-vV9telUV07EeEveI8nYnIYUmLh/s1600/shapes.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdeMbkqVrrDDkugcsss4snr5HghnUnzv_qjhl6ZpLbHLXfE7YfKImbLSwDhauzk4JgHfVI6iq7OU2SV7YaKGR0gEwAIIT0G5WmhiBtPdyOn7TYa4OIR-vV9telUV07EeEveI8nYnIYUmLh/s640/shapes.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’m only distinguishing between four vendors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t think these shapes would work well if there were any more than four vendors.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finally, I added light row banding to help guide the viewer's eye across the chart and I right clicked on the x-axis and selected “Add Reference Line…” which brought up a dialog box where I selected “Band” which shades the range from minimum to maximum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think the range band works a little better visually than a dark line plus it was easier to make in Tableau.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"></span></span><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQgrXaPUgYWbLZ432sxe7xRM8vsC9U0rYFd79ntEIeXxL_XmyNzcaK2Gd5lt2RA88RGuZLh4Xm8uX4MhGDUxs3r3ZIvtGYfll6nHr1FSvhXTRfpeLZwnPUYFG3xFs2J2PsD_NGG7AZg_H2/s1600/Example+Two.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="405" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQgrXaPUgYWbLZ432sxe7xRM8vsC9U0rYFd79ntEIeXxL_XmyNzcaK2Gd5lt2RA88RGuZLh4Xm8uX4MhGDUxs3r3ZIvtGYfll6nHr1FSvhXTRfpeLZwnPUYFG3xFs2J2PsD_NGG7AZg_H2/s640/Example+Two.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;"></span> <span style="font-family: Calibri;">Here’s the final version recreated in Tableau:</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ3ztrBcXKgxcFsB3WLUO5lePdL8g1XWpm_zQJYKgNnBVtWs3vwkCXZfKtsC6nNE31ODOCvbr1-SU9eR60TSSOP-gRFA0ce79MSfsOFadqJLlk1_M3L_bFP0c0zU84HGkUjdPGH2olZzu3/s1600/CAN+Graph+-+Tableau.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="382" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJ3ztrBcXKgxcFsB3WLUO5lePdL8g1XWpm_zQJYKgNnBVtWs3vwkCXZfKtsC6nNE31ODOCvbr1-SU9eR60TSSOP-gRFA0ce79MSfsOFadqJLlk1_M3L_bFP0c0zU84HGkUjdPGH2olZzu3/s640/CAN+Graph+-+Tableau.png" width="640" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I think the Tableau version is true to the original CAN graph.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There are just a few differences.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I started the x-axis at zero instead of 2.5 which gives wider and possibly more accurate spacing between the shapes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I used the built-in shapes which are different than the shapes in the original and I used shading instead of a dark line to highlight the range of values on a row.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I can’t wait to use this in my work.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Special thanks to <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/in/grantstanley">Grant Stanley</a> from CAN for letting me link to his blog post and comment on it and hats off to <a href="http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tadd-wood/9/b3b/7bb">Tadd Wood</a>, also from <a href="http://blog.canworksmart.com/">CAN</a> for designing the chart.</span></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-57169729079857109432011-12-14T07:06:00.000-08:002011-12-14T07:06:45.223-08:00The Importance of Business Intelligence for Proactive Customer Care<br />
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<i>Originally posted on my employers blog on December 8, 2011: <a href="http://blog.westinteractive.com/2011/12/08/the-important-of-business-intelligence-for-proactive-customer-care/">West Interactive Blog</a></i></div>
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In 1989, Gartner analyst Howard Dresner introduced the term
“business intelligence,” which he defined as “concepts and methods to improve
business decision-making by using fact-based support systems.” The world has
been trying to redefine it ever since.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Let’s say I’m looking to implement a business intelligence
solution. I can find lots of definitions for the term business intelligence, or
“BI,” depending on where I look. Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Business
Intelligence goes so far as to identify 13 specific capabilities that make up a
BI platform, nine of which must be must be delivered for a software vendor to
be included in the Magic Quadrant.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Successful notifications campaigns hinge on the ability to
deliver relevant, personalized messages to the right customer, at the right
time on the right channel. However I try to define it, when it comes to
executing on a multichannel notifications strategy, a BI system needs to tell
me what has happened and to who, what is happening right now, and what is
likely to happen next.<o:p></o:p></div>
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In order to decide the best treatment for a specific
customer, I need a historical perspective on what has happened before. I need
to understand the key characteristics that apply to each customer, and I need
to map that back to what happened on previous interactions. The BI system also
needs to be able to tell me which specific customer characteristics are
predictors of desired outcomes. This information helps define customer segments
and gives me the insight I need to test and apply personalized treatment
strategies to specific customer segments.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Next, I need to be able to test the various treatment
strategies against subsets of a customer segment to maximize the effectiveness
of the strategy. For example, I need to be able to determine which contact channels
are most effective to maximize contact rates within a customer segment, and I
need to be able test different outbound criteria profiles and message personas
to see which ones are most successful at calling customers to action. And, most
importantly, I need to be able to see the results and make changes on the fly.
If I have to wait too long for the data, then I’ve missed an opportunity both
in terms of financial impact and customer satisfaction. Real time is a must.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Knowing what’s going to happen next is the secret sauce that
makes a proactive notifications treatment strategy truly sustainable. If I can
predict how a customer segment will perform against a specific treatment
strategy, I can apply that strategy consistently to achieve optimal results.<o:p></o:p></div>
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A precise definition of BI is not that important to me.
Communicating what BI does and how my performance benefits from BI is
important. I know I have a winner if I can achieve the following:<o:p></o:p></div>
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<ul>
<li>Use individual customer characteristics to define customer
segments and match to prior outcomes</li>
<li>Test various treatment strategies against a customer segment
and implement the best one on the fly</li>
<li>Define a sustainable treatment strategy by predicting how
customer segments will perform</li>
</ul>
<o:p></o:p><br />
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<o:p></o:p></div>
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<o:p></o:p></div>
<br />Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-89503275681857870272011-11-30T21:39:00.001-08:002011-12-18T13:07:39.845-08:00Here is my submission for Dashboard Insights contest for the Best Visual Analysis Interface of 2011 - Update: Winner!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/DashboardDesignContest/Dashboard?:embed=yes&:toolbar=yes&:tabs=no"><img border="0" height="388" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Es-jV04B6IVV4k3NZX7uS-abc1zVqP2SYC_l5KcpZv-zjAZWiaxv-P4mygCRrM7vTLOb46KOKyO8_hjmLjXH2YMRZYNYgnrlpEb_Au2RSbUfNr-kvvcbjFX3FAhwxPQI_WWk54Esb5ES/s640/DDC.PNG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i>Click on image to view interactive display</i></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-23099084441618570382011-08-25T14:26:00.001-07:002011-12-13T22:09:54.552-08:00My first attempt at a Stephen Few-like dashboard<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/ExecutiveDashboard_1/IVRExecutiveDashboard?:embed=y&:toolbar=yes&:tabs=no"><img border="0" height="372" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6irNRhRmzQlc_hw9GocnDfTIazXsXgJMSSXIdiXADpyBnUtAOvPsev-qNGD_A4O4ZBNNU_I-5ls6otIOAEWoCW6K7B5pg4jhbPckeeqplFbhj0FTF2h8E0m9hogOjkR68_wih8iB1GyJZ/s640/Exec.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;">
<i>Click on image to view interactive display</i></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-80944034198748333492011-08-11T05:36:00.001-07:002011-12-13T22:19:48.100-08:00Evil Viz Entry<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/PopulationMap/MigrationMap?:embed=yes&:toolbar=yes&:tabs=no"><img border="0" height="392" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHgtURv5cZA6ChTbvgqRaJ5cqySETPHMSI_oewlXuJbkOP5VpmLb9zFz6xeWDylCQlcfy8_Ns30iJXodSOVIWdm6C_LY431xe-XSwguBt64K4OQ3E40BUz7pSOukTtaOaHzYnV_oDMoJWC/s640/Dark+Map.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i>Click on image to view interactive display</i></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5966324942897694702.post-9848772354367902142011-07-29T22:19:00.000-07:002011-12-13T22:16:43.409-08:00My first Tableau Contest Entry Data Viz: Who's the hottest hitter on your team?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://public.tableausoftware.com/views/BaseballViz_1/OffensiveProductionbyTeam?:embed=y&:toolbar=yes&:tabs=no"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyKslz-oJn9c2-hqoKLi5kj4KXYYNiJWBaM9-HIVYg-ayZ9hOxvo9eMaotfRO8cIxx8K1chiDATRVV2jTsItsgewwo-wZ_x0Mxvpev4QvQnov_W6sT458SafMjRVYRd7FlKPmj-_PVDl6f/s640/Baseball.JPG" width="568" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: right;">
<i>Click on image to view interactive display</i></div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12367772738915118181noreply@blogger.com4