“Data visualization” and “infographic” have been buzzwords in the design realm for the last decade. These days it’s hard to browse through a statistic-laden article on a website or magazine without coming across a glossy graphic, complete with charts and flashy illustrations, that make the 400 words next to it obsolete. Readers get all the information they need at first glance from the visualization.
Corporate is usually last to jump on the design train, especially with internal documents. When was the last time your company hired a graphic design firm to spruce up your annual report? Never? There’s a lot of value in presenting a chart or graphic versus a wall of numbers. Programs like Microsoft PowerPoint attempt to make this easy to accomplish, but easy is a relative term. Easy is not automated.
Oracle Visual Analyzer is automated: no fussing with formatting, slide transitions, or SmartArt. Your data is displayed in beautiful, rich visualizations that everyone on your team can benefit from, at a glance.
Follow these tips to make sure you’re setting yourself up for success with data visualizations from Oracle tools.
A make-or-break factor determining the success of your data visualization project is understanding the users that will be consuming this information — their role in the organization, the problems they’re trying to solve, their purpose in using the data, their current pain points. How else will you know how to truly make their lives easier?
This begins with interviews to understand the current state of reporting and the project objectives, but it doesn’t stop there. Plan 2-3 conference room pilots and iterations throughout the project, so by the time you get to user testing and go-live there are no surprises. Involve the people who will be presenting the data, whether that’s a Director of Finance publishing 10K reports or a Director of Procurement responsible for reporting on supplier cost and performance data. To maximize user engagement, choose sample sets of their data that are highly relevant and easy to understand.
While tailoring dashboards to your primary users’ preferences is important for user adoption, following standard conventions is important for data sharing across the organization. The beauty of data visualization is that it makes information easier to interpret and communicate across the organization.
Consider the following best practices:
When data quality is poor, even the most sophisticated visualizations are a waste of time. Data quality depends on good “plumbing” as well as data governance policies:
Visual Analyzer is available in Oracle BI products such as Oracle Business Intelligence Cloud Service (BICS) and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) 12c, or you can get the web-based Visual Analyzer separately. With Visual Analyzer, anyone on your team can easily create data visualizations to enhance their data interpretation.
The tool allows for individual exploration and discovery rather than the extended collaborative process of constructing views from data in the larger context of BICS and OBIEE. Visual Analyzer provides self-service analysis, transitioning users through data staging, analysis, composition, and consumption. Users no longer need a degree in design to create information-rich, compelling graphics. Just upload your data sets directly.
The intuitive interface gives users the freedom to explore and see their data from different perspectives. Having the ability to quickly visualize information allows for instant analysis and simplified reporting for your finance and operations team that’s not only easy to digest, but accurate down to the penny.
Learn more about creating effective visualizations in Best Practices in Data Visualization: How to Design Effective Dashboards That People Actually Use.