INFS5700

Introduction to Business Analytics

Week 5: Exploring Data Visually and Applying

Design Principles
(T2 2025)
Dr. Yichao Xu

Room: QUAD 2107A

Email: [email protected]

Consultation time – Wednesday 3pm-4pm

Book your appointment by sending an email
Team Assignment

Team assignment brief now available on Moodle.

Submission Deadlines:
Visual report submission: Monday, 4th August, 4:00 PM (Before Week 10 Lec)
Oral presentation: Week 10 Tut

Please check the detailed requirements in the assignment brief.

If you need help forming a team, please email me or your tutors.
Agenda
• Recap on Week 4 topic - Data Analysis Expressions
(DAX)
• Common Data Visualization Techniques for Data
Exploration
• Basic Design Principles
• Demo with Power BI Desktop
DAX for Calculations - Calculated Columns
• Calculated columns allow
you to augment the data that
you bring in from different
data sources
• Based on current row Total Price = 'Sales OrderDetails'[Quantity] * 'Sales
OrderDetails'[Unit Price]
context
• Be cautious with creating
calculated columns, having
too many calculated
columns will slow
performance and will cause
you to reach the maximum
Power BI file size sooner
 DAX for Calculations – Calculated Measures
• Calculated measures
create a field with
aggregated values.
Total Sales = SUM('Sales OrderDetails’ [Total Price ])
• Measures do not work row
by row, instead, used
tables and aggregators.
• Measures are dynamic
calculation formulas where
the results change
depending on context.
Tasks of a Data Analyst in the Power BI
Environment
Prepare

Manage Model

Analyze Visualize
Tasks of a Data Analyst in the Power BI
Environment
Prepare

Manage Model

Analyze Visualize
What is a Data Visualisation?
A data visualisation is…
• The graphical representation of information
and data.
• By using visual elements like charts,
graphs, and maps, data visualisation tools
provide an accessible way to see and
understand trends, outliers, and patterns in
data.
• It provides an excellent way for employees
or business owners to present data to non-
technical audiences without confusion.
Why Data Visualization?

• Make patterns visible

• Support decision-making
• Tell a story 2024 United States presidential election

“A picture is worth a
thousand rows.”
Exploratory vs Explanatory Analysis

use data visualisation to explore trend

 Exploratory vs Explanatory Analysis

Week 7 focusing Week 5 focusing

on Visual Data on Visual Data
Explanation using Exploration using
SAS Viya Power BI
Data Exploratory Process
• What data do you have?
• Type: Quantitative? Categorical?
Temporal? Spatial?
• Amount or the scope
• Quality
Data Exploratory Process
• What do you want to know
about your data?
• The questions you are trying to
answer with your data
• Do you want to show trends,
comparisons, distributions, or
relationships between variables?
Data Exploratory Process
• What visualization
methods should you use?
• Determine the Purpose of
Visualization
• Identify the Audience
Data Exploratory Process
• What do you see, and does
it make sense?
• No chart type is a one-size-fits-all
solution, and sometimes, multiple
chart types might work better to
communicate your message
effectively.
• Experiment with different chart
types to find the most appropriate
one for your data.
Common Visualization Technique
for Data Exploration
Visualization Technique – Cards
• Single number cards display a
single fact, a single data point.
• Sometimes a single number is the
most important thing you want to
track in your Power BI dashboard
or report, such as total sales,
market share year over year, or
total opportunities.
• Multi row cards display one or
more data points, one per row. New Card Visual Tutorial - Power BI (June 2023 Update)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=jvwT1KS86dU
Visualization Technique – Histogram
• It is used to illustrate the distribution
of data over a continuous interval
or defined period.
• It is helpful in identifying where
values are concentrated, as well as
where there are gaps or unusual
values.
• It shows the pattern that is not
obvious when data are in a table
form.
Visualization Technique – Bar Chart
• A common and easy-to-use method of
displaying categorical data. categories are independent
• Clustered bar chart: used to compare
data categories side by side. It allows all
data points to be compared because
there is a single baseline.
• Stacked bar chart: data categories are
stacked one over the other. It displays
parts of a whole, only trends in the
bottom series and in the total of all series
can be accurately assessed.
Visualization Technique – Line Chart
• A simple, two-dimensional chart
with an X and Y axis, each point
representing a single value. The
data points are joined by a line to
depict a trend, usually over time.
• A line chart distributes category
data evenly along a horizontal
(category) axis, and distributes all
numerical value data along a
vertical (value) axis.
• It is useful to show trends over time,
to compare specific points on the
same series, or to compare the
growth pattern.
Visualization Technique – Area Chart
• It is a variation on a basic line graph,
used to examine trends in multiple
time series as well as each series’
contribution to the sum.
• The area underneath the line is
shaded to represent the total value of
each data point.
• Stacked area charts are effective in
showing part-to-whole comparisons.
Visualization Technique – Heat Map
• It is used to show differences in
data through variations in color.
• These charts use color to
communicate values in a way that
makes it easy for the viewer to
quickly identify trends.
• Having a clear legend is necessary
in order for a user to successfully
read and interpret a heatmap.
Visualization Technique – Treemap
• A treemap chart provides a 1st lv category
hierarchical view of your data
and makes it easy to spot
patterns.
• The treemap chart displays 2nd lv category
categories by color and proximity
and can easily show lots of data
which would be difficult with other
chart types.
• Treemap charts are good for
comparing proportions within
the hierarchy.
Visualization Technique – Scatter Plot
• A scatter plot displays data for two
variables as represented by points
plotted against the horizontal and
vertical axis.
• Useful in illustrating the relationships
that exist between variables and can
be used to identify trends or
correlations in data.
• Scatter plots are most effective for
fairly large data sets, since it’s often outlier: try to explore why there is an outlier in ur data

easier to identify trends when there

are more data points present.
Visualization Technique – Bubble Plot
• A variation of a scatter chart in which the
data points are replaced with bubbles,
and an additional dimension of the data
is represented in the size of the bubbles.
• In addition to the x values and y values
that are plotted in a scatter chart, a
bubble chart plots x values, y values,
and z (size) values.
• Just like a scatter chart, a bubble chart
does not use a category axis — both
horizontal and vertical axes are value
axes.
Visualization Technique – Pie Chart
• It is used to show the distribution
of qualitative (categorical) data.
• It shows the frequency or relative
frequency of values in the data
• Pie charts are ideal for illustrating
proportions, or part-to-whole
comparisons.
• Pie charts fall short in their ability
to display complex information.
Pie Chart visualisation – Be cautious
Can you tell me which supplier has the
largest market share?
hard to differentiate if similar proportion without the number
Pie Chart visualisation – Be cautious
Can you tell me which supplier has the
largest market share now?
Why Pick One Over the Other
How to Select the Right Type of Charts?
Basic Design Principles
Principles to Improve Visual Design

• Affordance: Is it clear what to do or see?

• Accessibility: Can everyone understand it?
• Aesthetics: Is it clean and visually appealing?
Affordances

• Is it clear what to do or see?

• Highlight the important stuff
• Eliminate distractions
• Create a clear hierarchy of information
Affordances - Is it clear what to do or see?
• Highlight the important stuff
• Bold, italics, and underlining: Use for titles, labels, captions, and short
word sequences to differentiate elements
• CASE and typeface: UPPERCASE text in short word sequences is
easily scanned, which can work well when applied to titles, labels, and
keywords
• Color is an effective highlighting technique when used sparingly and
generally in concert with other highlighting techniques

• Size is another way to attract attention and signal importance

Affordances-Highlight the important stuff
Affordances-Highlight the important stuff
Affordances - Is it clear what to do or see?
• Eliminate distractions
• Not all data are equally important. Get rid of noncritical data or
components.
• When detail isn’t needed, summarize. Consider whether summarizing
is appropriate.
• Ask yourself: would eliminating this change anything? No? Take it
out!
• Push necessary, but non‐message‐impacting items to the
background. Use your knowledge of pre-attentive attributes to
deemphasize.
Affordances - Eliminate distractions
Affordances - Eliminate distractions
Affordances - Is it clear what to do or see?

• Create a clear visual

hierarchy of information
• The thoughtful and clear visual
hierarchy establishes order for
the audience to use to process
the information in a complex
visual without it feeling
complicated.
Accessibility - Can everyone understand it?
• Don’t overcomplicate. Remove ambiguity and use
straightforward language and logical layout.
Accessibility - Can everyone understand it?

• Text is your friend. Add labels to help clarify exact values.

Aesthetics - Is it clean and visually appealing?
• Minimize the number of color use. Think about what
we want to highlight to our audience and only use color there.
Aesthetics - Is it clean and visually appealing?
• Minimize the number of color use. Think about what
we want to highlight to our audience and only use color there.
Aesthetics - Is it clean and visually appealing?
• Pay attention to alignment. Organize elements on the page
to create clean vertical and horizontal lines to establish a sense of unity
and cohesion.
Aesthetics - Is it clean and visually appealing?
• Leverage white space. Preserve margins; don’t stretch your
graphics to fill the space or add things simply because you have extra
space.
Applying Design Principles

Segment 1
• Affordance: Is it clear what to do or see?
Segment 2

Segment 3 • Accessibility: Can everyone understand it?

Segment 4
• Aesthetics: Is it clean and visually
Segment 5
appealing?
Segment 6
highlight the key massage
identify the main segment
align the legend
title in red colout, not align with other parts
Segment 7
Applying Design Principles

Segment 1
Segment 1

Segment 2
Segment 2

Segment 3 Segment 3

Segment 4 Segment 4 30%

50%
Segment 5 Segment 5

Segment 6 Segment 6

Segment 7 Segment 7
Power BI Desktop
Demonstration
Questions?