HANDS-ON WORKSHOP:

DATA VISUALIZATION + UX Mark Schindler GroupVisual.io Bang Wong Broad Institute of MIT & Harvard

O P E N D A T A S C I E N C E C O N F E R E N C E_ BOSTON

2015

Actionable Data Visualization Helping people make decisions and solve problems

Out of scope for today:

•  Making data look cool •  Visualization as art •  Deep dive into technologies for

visualizing data

There are many domains of problem-

solving.

We’ll focus on 3 examples today:

•  Scientific

•  Business

•  Consumer

There are many domains of problem-solving. We’ll focus on examples in:

Science Business Consumer

Data Visualization User-Experience Model (DVUX) Visualizing to address user goals

User Questions Narratives

Insights Conversation

User Goals

Analytics

Data

”

“ Scenario #1: Business Example

I run a medium-sized company that sells a variety of products across the country. My sales teams are organized in 4 regions, and products are grouped into 5 product categories.

Data Visualization User-Experience Model (DVUX) Visualizing to address user goals

User Questions Narratives

User Goals

Analytics

Data

Insights Conversation

User Goals I want to know how my business is performing. Which areas are doing well and not? For the poor performers, what do we think is going on? What can be done to improve our business?

User Questions •  Which products are performing best? Worst? •  Which product groups are doing well? Which are not? •  Which regions are performing best? Worst? •  How is my business trending across different regions?

Which products are performing best? Worst?

Which regions are performing best? Worst?

How is my business trending across different regions?

Strategic Wireframe Visualize User Questions

Which product groups are doing well? Which are not?

[DASHBOARD - PROVIDED BY LUIS]

“ Scenario #2: Consumer Example

My spouse and I want to buy a house.

•  We have 2 young kids, and want 3-4 bedrooms •  We’d like 2+ baths •  Our budget is $375k, but might be able to stretch to $400k •  We’d like to be in a town with good schools •  We’d like to be near public transit •  We prefer a house with a yard, but would consider a condo. •  We don’t really want to buy a multi-family dwelling.

” I’d like to make a decision that is informed by data. I don’t just want the answer – I’d like to see visualizations that help me see the context.

USER QUESTIONS 1. I want a house with low cost per square foot

2. Can I find properties that fit my minimum needs? 3. How do prices cluster? What is the median price? Is my price range realistic? 4. Does price correlate to other needs, like transit availability? 5. Can I see the houses on a map? 6. How fast is the market moving? 7. What are the demographics of the different towns? 8. What is a house's price, relative to its neighbors? 9. How often has the house been sold? 10. What is the house next to? (Airport, Highway, etc.) 11. What is the school quality? 12. How do my needs relate to each other? Are there tradeoffs to get what we want?

•  What question(s) you are trying to help the user answer

•  Why you chose the visualization

•  How it helps the user get insight

Download the data set and plots: groupvisual.io/data

When presenting, please tell the group:

Discussion/Q&A