"Visualizations in Excel" - Highlights

Key takeaways from Episode #20 - Visualizations in Excel of Bill Shander's Data Visualization, Data Storytelling, and Information Design - Lesson and Listen Series:

Excel has improved over time, particularly with default settings, but still requires customization for optimal data visualization.

Excel tips from the episode:

  • Use color sparingly.  Highlight key data with selective use of color.
  • Customize fonts, colors, and chart types to move beyond Excel's defaults, making the visuals more impactful.
  • Be familiar with Copy > Paste Special > Transpose.
  • Utilize Power Query for data transformation. 

In the interview section, Stephanie Evergreen, author of Effective Data Visualization & co-creator of the Data Visualization Checklist, shares her insights on Excel as a data viz tool.

She showcases a breast cancer data visualization makeover, emphasizing the impact of thoughtful chart choices on storytelling.

Overlapping bar chart is appropriate for graphing data when the two variables are inherently interrelated, like incidence and mortality.

Common Issues with Excel: Default Excel settings, especially for colors and chart elements, often need adjusting. Additionally, exporting high-quality images and creating interactive graphs are challenging.

Despite limitations, Excel remains popular due to its accessibility and versatility, particularly for those with limited resources.

The choice of visualization tools depends on the specific needs and resources available. 

Tableau is recommended for complex mapping and interactive dashboards that need to be embedded on websites.

Tableau and Power BI each have their strengths and limitations. 

Power BI, Excel's sister product, has limitations but includes Power Query. 

Data literacy and understanding the data story are crucial for effective visualization. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

"Data Prep & Exploratory Data Analysis" course by Maven Analytics

Image
The Maven Analytics course on " Data Prep & Exploratory Data Analysis " by Alice Zhao is a beginner-friendly introduction to machine learning with Python. It covers the key steps of the data science workflow, including: Gathering Data Scoping a Project Modeling Data Sharing Insights Cleaning Data Exploring Data Modeling Data  Sharing Insights The presentation deck which is available as a download crisply summarizes the essential details and is a great reference to keep going back to. The course is well-suited for aspiring data scientists looking to get hands-on experience with the data prep and EDA stages of the machine learning workflow using Python and Jupyter Notebook. 
Read more

Maven Crash Course - Learn Power Query, Power Pivot & DAX in 15 Minutes

Image
In the Maven Crash Course " Learn Power Query, Power Pivot & DAX in 15 Minutes ", Chris Dutton walks through a hypothetical business case while showcasing the power of modern Excel tools like Power Query, Power Pivot and DAX. Power Query is used to extract, transform, and load data from external sources like SQL databases, PDF and CSV files. A relational model is created to join the tables without writing a single formula. Exploratory analysis is done using Power Pivot and Data Analysis Expressions (DAX). Data Analysis Expressions is the language that we can use to define new calculated columns and measures to enhance our Data Model instead of the traditional cell formulas that we'd typically use if our data was stored in worksheets. Pivot Charts and slicers are used to design a simple interactive report that the sales managers can use to analyze revenue trends and product performance.
Read more

This Week I Learned - Week #45 2024

Image
This Week I Learned -  *  How does ChatGPT-like system work?  *  AI storytelling is a pivotal shift in the creative process.   * In July 2023, Google Labs unleashed NotebookLM , an AI assistant that chews through a buffet of up to 50 sources, from documents to YouTube videos and even whole books. It then cooks up summaries, dishes out study guides, and serves follow-up questions on a silver platter.  In September, a new feature was launched that transforms source material into a podcast so realistic, you'd think the AI hosts might just invite you over for coffee after the show. * Mukesh Ambani - Jio is the largest data company in the world. Its volumes are equivalent to AT&T mobile and Verizon combined. Jio delivered approximately 16 exabytes of data in this year. * Your bathroom geyser consumes only 2kW. It takes about five to 10 kilowatts (kW) to power a single rack of servers in a typical data centre, but a rack filled with advanced AI computing chips can demand well over 10
Read more