Best Practice Library: Visualizing Your Data

Data sources are often large, unwieldy and complex. A user needs to be familiar enough with the data to know what the important information is, where it is, and what it means. In data sets containing hundreds or thousands of rows, it is difficult to identify and clearly communicate trends and key findings. A more effective tool for communicating and simplifying complex data is visuals. Simply put, data visualization is the transformation of data into graphics such as charts, graphs and tables.

Visuals tell a story. They draw the reader's eye to the most important information and simplify large amounts of data. Visuals can be used to show trends, identify outliers, or highlight your successes, making your data more accessible and understandable for your target audience. Simplifying complex data into digestible visuals also enables key leaders and decision makers to make informed decisions quickly. This is critical to ensuring organizations are able to absorb information and make faster decisions in reaction to changes in data trends or in responding to the needs of their community. 

Visuals

Combo Charts

A Combo Chart is one of the most basic, yet one of the most used and effective visuals. In Envisio, Combo Charts include bar charts, line charts, and scatter charts, as well as options to combine different types (i.e. bar chart with line chart). These charts can be used to display data and show relationships or patterns between data points. 

Bar Chart

A bar chart  shows data using bars of different heights. They are typically used to show changes and trends over time, or to compare multiple series of data. The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally.

Example Use Case: Track total expenditure in a specific department, in this case the Finance Division, against the annual budget. 

Example Use Case: Analyze yearly EMS response times to determine if they are meeting their goal for the percent of time they are on-scene in less than 9 minutes. 

Stacked Bar Chart

A stacked bar chart can be used to show the composition or comparison of multiple variables over time. These charts can be used to help you compare totals as well as notice significant changes in the proportions between multiple variables over time. 

Example Use Case: Compare citizen satisfaction results across a variety of metrics using a stacked bar chart. This visual allows the reader to easily see that across every metric, the majority of citizens were Very Satisfied or Satisfied. 

Example Use Case: Track total City Revenue year over year and compare the distribution of general funds vs property tax revenue. 

Example Use Case: Compare year-over-year changes in gender demographics for staff, clients, or students. 

Example Use Case: Track total enrollment at an education institution and compare year-over-year enrollment across multiple programs.

Line Chart

A line chart shows a series of points, each of which represent a single value, which are then typically joined by a line to show a trend over time. 

Example Use Case: Compare the year-over-year change in citizens’ satisfaction with quality of life. 

Example Use Case: Compare two different variables to see if they correlate with each other. In this example, the number of new entrepreneurs is being compared to the number of new high tech jobs created, to identify if the number of new entrepreneurs results in a change in jobs created. 

Example Use Case: Analyze trends in the Unemployment rate, to identify if they are increasing or decreasing. 

Combo Chart

As the name suggests, a combo chart is a combination of two or more charts in one, such as two line charts, two bar charts, or a line chart and a bar chart. 

Example Use Case:  Use a combo chart to show the monthly breakdown of tax revenue (i.e. by retail sales, services, contracting, and all other tax revenue). This allows you to easily see that Retail Sales make up the majority of tax revenue, while the other three areas comprise roughly the same amount each month. The line showing Total Tax Revenue allows the reader to identify trends or changes in Total Tax Revenue monthly.

Example Use Case: Use a bar chart to show a quarterly total, such as number of purchase orders issued, to identify any trends throughout the year. Adding a line to the chart allows the user to see the rolling sum, or Year-to-Date total. Finally, a threshold has been added (fiscal year target) to determine if the yearly target was achieved. 

Example Use Case: Use a bar chart in combination with a line chart to compare two related sets of data, such as total number of incidents and of those, the total number of times the response goal was met. Readers can visually see the difference between the bar height and the plotted dot of the line, to compare the two metrics. 

Pie Charts

Pie charts are circular graphs that are divided into slices to show various proportions that equal a whole. In pie charts, the size of each slice is proportional to the quantity it represents. 

Example Use Case: Compare the value of domestic vs international investment at a point in time. A pie chart is well suited to this data as there are only two variables, and it allows the reader to easily see which type of investment makes up a larger portion of total investment - in this case Domestic. 

Example Use Case: Use pie charts as a budgeting tool, to visually show distribution of funds across different programs or departments. 

Example Use Case: Pie charts can be used to show a year-end breakdown of a category with two to three subcategories, as shown below. A pie chart is well-suited to this type of data as it shows a point in time and there are not too many variables so the slices of the pie are easy to comprehend. 

Summary Labels

A Summary Label is a type of Visual that uses text and symbols to summarize key data points. This is helpful when you need to highlight certain metrics while including small details such as variance from the last period. Known as a BAN (Big Aggregate Number), this visual is usually used to display important figures very quickly and to draw attention to a central number or piece of data. 

Example Use Case: Use a BAN to highlight the overall expenditure of a department for a given time period, additionally showing that their overall expenditure was under-budget with a surplus of $209,545.

Example Use Case: BANs can also be used to show a percentage increase or decrease. The following BAN shows total debt for the year 2022 and then compares that data to 2021, to show that it decreased by 9.77%. 

Example Use Case: Summary Labels can also be used to highlight specific achievements; they do not need to show a number! In the following example, the visual clearly shows that this organization has exceeded their target Net Promoter Score.

Tables

Tables, while one of the simplest visuals, are useful to compare exact values, display data by categories, or organize data in a tabular format. They can also be augmented with visuals, such as indicators displaying if a target was achieved, met or not achieved. 

Example Use Case: Use a table visual to share specific data points, such as budget variance and budget spent for different projects. The reader can easily identify the data for each project and any additional comments.

Example Use Case: Integrate visual elements within your table, such as a status column that is color coded depending on if the task is On Track, Improving or Needs Improvement.

Example Use Case: Tables can also be used to show data for a variety of different, but related, measures and compare them year over year. In the example below, trend arrows have been integrated as a visual element to show if a measure is trending up, down, or has stayed the same.