I've been considering about the question : Why Data-Viz is important?. I definitely love it, I'm passionated with it, but I haven't had words to explain why this is important for you. Today, let me explain it based on some references.
【Conclusion】
・We are in the big data age.
・We need a tool to understand data. Data Visualization is one of solutions.
・The best profit of data visualization is to give people a big picture of what's going on.
Premise: We are in the Big Data Age.
We agree with that most companies, most businesses are gathering and trying to make the best use of it, right? And they do them because they believe that the data will bring people better new insights that could generate profits. Yes, I believe too that data can bring you profits with a better decision.
Let me explain why. Simply, it's because data contains by much information that is much more than human kind can process. If we analyze data and let it tell us a story in a correct way, it simply means that you can understand so much information at a time.
According to Big Data: Data Mining and Predictive Analytics this is how much data is generated in every 60 seconds. (The article was written in 2013, so I'm pretty sure now it's much more than the numbers today.)
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So obviously, today's executives need to consider so much information because we are surrounded by it. Today the world is more complex than that used to be. We need a tool that allows us understand the Big Data in order to make a better decision in the so complicated situations.
Solution is Data Science. Especially Data Visualization allows you to understand data easily and gives you a Big Picture.
Now we know what the world today is. It's complex, but the good news is, the range of information you can use is so extended. we expanded our recognition area. But the question is, how can we understand the data?
I think here are mainly two solutions: Predictive Analytics and Data Visualization.
With Predictive Analytics, basically I mean machine learning and statistical analysis which are analyzing NUMBERS. With Data Visualization, I mainly mean info graphics that brings you a visible insight and that allows you to see the data as a BIG PICTURE.
Between Predictive Analytics and Data Visualization, I think the purpose is different. The former is going into a detail, the later is showing a big picture rather than every numbers.
I'm not a perfect beginner of Predictive Analytics, but I'm not a specialist of it, so let me focus on how good Data Visualization is.
First things first, it's mush easy to understand data with pictures and graphs.
Let's talk about Excel. You have numbers and data, then you may create bar chart, line chart or pie chart, because you know that pictures are the better way than just reporting numbers, because it inform you faster.
Even though you will use more advanced data visualization technique, the principle is the same: Showing data with informative way and providing a big picture of what's going on.
And the best profit of advanced data visualization tool like Tableau is "you can see the data in a integrated way". For example, today's marketing should consider many aspects like Website performance, Social Media performance, CPC, SEO, e-commerce,...I think they are just a small subset of today's marketing. Then, you may have data from these marketing activities, then in order to make a decision about, for example, where to invest more, you have to consider all of the data.
How hard it could be?
If you create a proper dashboard, a visual display of data used to monitor conditions and/or facilitate understanding (the definition is from the big book of dashboards), you can easily see all of them.
Data Visualization helps you quickly understand what's going on by showing the data in a proper way. Without it, you may spend huge time on looking up numbers and doing analysis on it, and after you are done with it, you may realize that the situation is already changed, then you'll do the analysis again.
So with the big data, I believe that the first should have a big picture that is understandings on what's going on. Then you can go further on analytics/analysis with the idea of what to analyze.
If the data visualization is done correctly, it boosts your speed and performance of decision making, because it gives you a better and clear guidance.
In conclusion, I love the Data Visualization because it gives you a better big picture with a quicker and easier way. I strongly believe in the potential of helping stakeholders make a better decision with multi-aspect information.
I hope you enjoy this post and you are welcome to discuss how data-viz is good with me.
See you then.
Yoshi
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