INTRODUCTION – Visualize Results
This is a comprehensive course that immerses learners in the world of Business Intelligence (BI) visualizations with an emphasis on the delicate balance in their design. It will expose them to the trade-offs that come into play when effective data communication goes hand-in-hand with visual representation choices. By taking hands-on exercises, participants would also acquire the skills needed to convert complex datasets into easy but insightful visualizations, which would be of interest to a wide range of audiences.
Not about creating charts individually, the course goes further by teaching participants how to best organize and arrange those visual elements into a dashboard. The tips learned will help participants to present their data logically and in an easy-to-understand manner so that the dashboard becomes effective not just in terms of communication but also in user experience.
A strong component of the course has to do with placing attention on what affects the performance for a dashboard in particular via processing speed. The students will be exposed to different ways in optimizing data processing so that users can enjoy a seamless and responsive user experience. Understanding these performance drivers will help participants learn how to implement dashboard design-best practices so that their visualizations become very compelling as well as quite efficient.
Learning Objectives:
- Learn to accrue the stakeholder requirement for a meaningful dashboard.
- Identify challenges and tentative solutions that dashboards need to address.
- Create a roadmap on how to answer key questions with relevant dashboard metrics.
- Understand factors that affect scalability in BI projects.
- Recognize which data visualization dimension entails being more granular versus more details.
- Explore ways and means to either improve speed or process it more efficiently.
- Identify factors relevant to processing speed.
- Put into place relevant privacy restrictions for internal and external data.
PRACTICE QUIZ: TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE: COMMUNICATE CLEARLY WITH VISUALS
1. A business intelligence professional wants to create the best possible dashboard. They balance various factors by prioritizing certain elements while sacrificing others. What does this scenario describe?
- Making trade-offs (CORRECT)
- Quality testing
- Eliminating redundancy
- Revealing business insights
Correct: This scenario describes tradeoffs: weighing some factors above the others in order to achieve the optimum result.
2. Fill in the blank: A dimension is a _____ data type that can be used to categorize data.
- Boolean
- Quantitative
- Timestamped
- Qualitative (CORRECT)
Correct: A dimension is a type of qualifying data that dimensionizes or describes data. Examples of dimensions are the customer names, product names, and location names.
3. What is the process of translating dimensions and measures into visual representations of data?
- Conditional formatting
- Data blending
- Encoding (CORRECT)
- Reframing
Correct: Encoding is the practice of transforming qualitative and quantitative variables into pictures, such as graphs or diagrams, for more effective transmission of information.
PRACTICE QUIZ: TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE: CONSIDERATIONS WHEN LAYING OUT OUT A DASHBOARD
1. What is the term for the privacy setting that is used to make a dashboard accessible to anyone?
- Public availability (CORRECT)
- Open permission
- Entry-level
- Accessible data
Correct: To create a dashboard that is accessible to anyone, the public availability privacy setting should be used.
2. A business intelligence team is building and maintaining dashboards. As part of that process, they configure privacy settings using object-level permissions. In this situation, they want to control the availability of which of the following?
- Only table columns
- A complete dashboard
- A single item (CORRECT)
- Only table rows
Correct: They want to control the availability of a single item, such as a table, dataset, or single visualization. This is the purpose of object-level privacy permission.
3. Where does a business intelligence professional set up row-level permissions?
- In the database (CORRECT)
- In the spreadsheet
- In the visualization tool
- In the pipeline
Correct: A professional in business intelligence sets up row-level security in the database to restrict visibility to certain rows of a table or dataset across a dashboard. This setting ensures that only an authorized user is able to view the data.
QUIZ: MODULE 2 CHALLENGE
1. A business intelligence team is designing a dashboard. The director of operations instructs them to prioritize high-level overviews of key performance indicators. However, stakeholders from finance ask for more granularity in order to monitor additional metrics. What should the BI team do? Select all that apply.
- Prioritize high-level overviews, as the director of operations is the most important stakeholder.
- Prioritize the more granular metrics, as there are more users on the finance team.
- Determine what to prioritize and what to sacrifice in order to produce the best possible result for all users. (CORRECT)
- Consider which trade-offs best align with business goals. (CORRECT)
2. Fill in the blank: Pre-aggregation involves making calculations on database data before it is transferred to the _____ tool.
- Visualization (CORRECT)
- analysis
- processing
- mapping
3. Fill in the blank: Measures are quantitative data types that can be either _____ or continuous.
- floating
- timestamped
- discrete (CORRECT)
- boolean
4. A business intelligence professional uses the Marks tool in Tableau to add color to a particular dimension. What are they doing?
- Encoding (CORRECT)
- Tracking
- Charting
- Summarizing
5. A business intelligence team considers design best practices for their data visualizations. They choose to use both color and labels when working in Tableau. Why do they make that decision?
- It adds visual elements.
- It reduces clutter.
- It combines data from multiple sources.
- It prioritizes accessibility (CORRECT)
6. For what reasons might a dashboard designer choose to group objects? Select all that apply.
- To keep all pie charts together
- Because they present data about similar metrics (CORRECT)
- To ensure the dashboard has a logical flow (CORRECT)
- Because they highlight the same topic (CORRECT)
7. What are some techniques for improving dashboard processing speeds? Select all that apply.
- Organize using additional tabs
- Process more data using front-end servers
- Include fewer dimensions (CORRECT)
- Remove irrelevant metrics (CORRECT)
8. Fill in the blank: If a dashboard has _____, it is accessible to the general public.
- privacy settings
- object-level permissions
- public availability (CORRECT)
- row-level permissions
9. Fill in the blank: Measures are _____ data types that can be either discrete or continuous.
- floating
- boolean
- quantitative (CORRECT)
- qualitative
10. What is the process of translating dimensions and measures into visual representations of the data?
- Charting
- Summarizing
- Encoding (CORRECT)
- Tracking
11. Fill in the blank: A dashboard using _____ has a privacy setting that controls the availability of specific rows of a dataset.
- public availability
- column-level permissions
- object-level permissions
- row-level permission (CORRECT)
12. A measure can be what type of data? Select all that apply.
- Qualitative
- Continuous (CORRECT)
- Discrete (CORRECT)
- Quantitative (CORRECT)
13. What are some dashboard best practices to emphasize important visualizations for stakeholders? Select all that apply.
- Grouping objects based on chart type
- Use of negative space (CORRECT)
- Prioritization and hierarchy (CORRECT)
- Hiding elements to spotlight others (CORRECT)
14. What are some techniques for improving dashboard processing speeds? Select all that apply.
- Organize using additional tabs
- Process more data using front-end servers
- Filter data earlier in the process (CORRECT)
- Reduce the amount of data (CORRECT)
15. A business intelligence professional creates a data visualization that uses only color to specify the data points. What should they do to make the visualization more accessible?
- Add more data points.
- Include labels. (CORRECT)
- Remove outliers.
- Combine data from multiple sources.
16. What are some dashboard best practices to emphasize important visualizations for stakeholders? Select all that apply.
- Grouping objects based on chart type
- Prioritization and hierarchy (CORRECT)
- Hiding elements to spotlight others (CORRECT)
- Use of negative space (CORRECT)
17. Fill in the blank: Pre-aggregation involves _____ while data is in the database, before it is transferred to the visualization tool.
- analyzing
- setting permissions
- reporting
- making calculations (CORRECT)
18. A business intelligence professional is designing a dashboard for a restaurant group. The personnel manager has instructed them to prioritize data about employees. However, the kitchen manager asks to prioritize food sales data. What should the BI professional do? Select all that apply.
- Prioritize high-level overviews, as the personnel manager is the most senior stakeholder.
- Prioritize the food sales data, as there are more users on the kitchen team.
- Determine what to prioritize and what to sacrifice in order to produce the best possible result for all users. (CORRECT)
- Consider which trade-offs best align with business goals. (CORRECT)
19. Fill in the blank: A dashboard with _____uses a privacy setting to control the availability of a single item.
- public availability
- row-level permissions
- object-level permission (CORRECT)
- column-level permissions
20. What is the process of performing calculations on data while it is still inside a database?
- Operating
- Advance targeting
- Equating
- Pre-aggregation (CORRECT)
Correct: Pre-aggregation, in fact, is that practice of performing calculations on data within the database itself, before retrieving or displaying them in reports or dashboards.
CONCLUSION – Visualize Results
Thus, it has been a complete course across the many dimensions involved in the business and more in terms of electronic Intelligence or Business Intelligence (BI) visualizations, which have provided a great revelation entry. The participants understand every delicate trade-off that has to be made in designing the most effective visuals and conferring clarity versus a business decision. And they demonstrate practical experiences so that learners can really develop skills to create various kinds of charts and graphics to give them knowledge on turning otherwise complicated datasets into exciting and insightful visual forms.
Also, together with the above-mentioned elements of each visual, the course poised participants to organize individual elements into one cohesive dashboard, for an understanding now include the elements of such a dashboard how to organize data, not only the intended message through effective information conveyance, but also for much better overall user experience in the sense that the dashboard is very user-intuitive-in terms of data interpretation.
Additionally, a major part of the course has looked into aspects that help detect movement through processing speed impact and optimization of performance for dashboards. Participants are now informed to implement best practice in dashboard design to cater a seamless, responsive experience to their users by choosing and making sense of these elements. As they end up with this journey, learners are well endowed with a comprehensive skill set to design BI visualization that tells great stories and ensures the speed and efficiency needed for well-made decision-making within organizations.