Teaching with Tableau: Showing insights
and telling data-driven stories
Professor Kristen Sosulski
Today’s Speaker
Kristen Sosulski, Ed.D
Associate Professor
Director of Education
W. R. Berkley Innovation Lab
New York University
Leonard N. Stern School of Business
Bio
Dr. Kristen Sosulski develops innovative practices for higher education as the Director of
Education for the NYU Stern W.R. Berkley Innovation Lab. She also teaches MBA
students and executives data visualization, R programming, and operations management as
an Associate Professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business.
As a leading expert on data visualization, Kristen regularly consults, delivers seminars, and
leads workshops on data visualization techniques and best practices. You can find her
speaking on the subject at events like Social Media Week NYC and to organizations like
the National Association of Pubic Opinion, Digital Analytics Association, and the National
Economic Research Associates.
Follow Kristen on Twitter at @sosulski and learn more at http://kristensosulski.com
College/University Background
Course 1: Data Visualization
Audience: 50 MBA students from NYU Stern
Format: Blended Online
Course 2: Data Visualization
Audience: 70 NYU Stern Master Science in Business Analytics students
Format: Intensive 2-day session with asynchronous online activities
The Challenge
In data visualization courses, students learn to present data in visual form. This involves
working with data, learning new software, and applying visual design principles.
Sometimes imaging software by default enables us to create beautiful visualizations.
However, designing visualizations that are readable and provide key insights is much more
difficult.
Visualizations are only as effective as the insights they reveal.
How can professors support students in their process of creating purposeful and
interpretable visualizations and use they as powerful tools in their presentations?
As visualization designers we are “melding the skills of computer science, statistics, artistic design, and storytelling.”
K. Cukier (2010). Show me: New ways of visualizing data.
http://www.economist.com/node/15557455
Visualization is a translation process
Real world DataShapes and
colors
My courses in data visualization are designed to provide students with the
techniques to communicate insights, allow them to apply those techniques, and to
receive feedback on how well they’ve applied those techniques.
This done through 1) demonstration 2) practice & application 3) critique
and 4) expert and peer feedback.
PART I: The use of software to support data presentation
in visual form
PART II: Using visualizations effectively in a presentation
PART III: Application, practice, & feedback
PART I: The use of software to support data presentation
in visual form
PART II: Using visualizations effectively in a presentation
PART III: Application, practice, & feedback
Three features to build into your visualizations
1. Annotation: To highlight and direct the user’s attention.
2. Animation: To walk the user through the visualization, step by step. To show
and explain the data points at a slower pace.
3. Interactivity: To provide summary level data and details on demand. To
engage and involve the audience.
Annotation and encodings
• Emphasize the purposeful use of pre-attentive attributes.
• Highlight a data point, using a pre-attentive attribute.
• Avoid highlighting every data point.
• Reserve the use of pre-attentive attributes as cues for your audience.
This can be easily done in Tableau.
Animation
• To progressively reveal content.
• To mark specific data points at specific times.
• To show time series data.
Animations work well for showing times series data for one or more categories.
Animations allow the user to start, stop, rewind, and fast forward.
Animation provides a navigational feature to a visualization.
Trend animation
• Trend animation shows all trends simultaneously.
• It works best for presentation rather than analysis.
• It is limited to approximately 200 data points on a single display.
• Use the pages card
• Drag year (or time-based
data) to the pages card
• Filter time series data
using the filters card
• Determine the speed
(slow, normal, or fast)
• Select color of encodings
from the marks card.
Trace animation
• Trace animation uses fade-in bubbles/links to show the direction of the
flow of data points and history.
• Traces work best for analysis when the result is not cluttered.
• Beware of too many data points and visual clutter.
• Consider small multiples for analysis rather than animation.
• Select Show History from the Pages marks card.
• Select show history for all
• Select show Marks
• Select a color and transparency for the marks
Transition animation
• Short animation keeps users in context during view/data
transitions.
• These usually follow an action, such as connect, select, or
explore, for interactive displays.
• Click to highlight the
data point that you want
to keep highlighted
• Works nicely when
combined with trace
animation for time
series data where
categories change over
time.
Interactivity
• To enable audience interaction and involvement
• To filter details on demand
• To traverse the data set to compare and contrast different
attributes.
31
Slider
Input field
HighlightFilter
PART I: The use of software to support data presentation
in visual form
PART II: Using visualizations effectively in a presentation
PART III: Application, practice, and feedback
Three techniques for presentation
Technique #1: Identify the key takeaway
• Provide clear takeaways for each visualization.
• Write it in the notes or the title of the slide.
Today, the largest shipping ports are in Asia, with three of five located in China.
Kristen Sosulski | Source: World Bank - Container Port Traffic (2014).
36
Technique #2: Put your findings in context
• Provide a context for your findings.
• Without a context, data is meaningless.
• In the example on the next slide, an insight is communicated that puts the
number one position (Shanghai) in context and provides an explanation for
the rise to the top.
Since 2004 the capacity at the Port of Shanghai has grown from 14 million TEUs to more than 32 million in 2013, giving rise to its # 1 position in terms of TEU volume.
Kristen Sosulski | Source: World Bank - Container Port Traffic (2014).
Technique #3: Present the key numbers
• It is important to summarize the key findings and present the numbers in a
meaningful context that is comprehensible to the audience.
• For example, it may be more helpful to show a percentage change from year
to year when presenting an increase over time, rather than with absolute
numbers.
• Specifically, if the core point is to compare the change from year to year,
percentage change is an effective metric.
20,172.3
23,640.2 24,41625,816.8 26,433.5
2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
China’s total import and export value from 2010 to 2014 (in billion Yuan)
There was a 31% increase from 2010 to 2014
Kristen Sosulski | Source: Statistica (2014).
Summary
By incorporating these tips students can tell better stories with their data and use
visualizations to reveal important insights about the data
Identify the takeaway Contextualize findings Present the key numbers
PART I: The use of software to support data presentation
in visual form
PART II: Using visualizations effectively in a presentation
PART III: Application, practice, and feedback
Application: How do you have students practice applying these techniques?
Individual Project
1) 2 minute live presentation
2) 2 minute video presentation
Group Project
20 minute live presentation with peer feedback and critique
Individual Project
34 PITCHES
2 MINUTES EACH
NOTE &
VOTE
Student / Peer voting criteria
TOP 9
MEET
DISCUSS
EAT
Instructor - Assessment Rubric: Individual Project
Criteria0 = Lacking, 3 = Excellent
Creative Idea 3
Compelling Idea 3
Well-conceived idea 2
Clear proof of concept 2
Visuals targeted @ appropriate audience 1
Data represented accurately 2
Data represented adequately 2
Visuals exhibit good design principles 3
Well-designed slide presentation 3
Persuasive / compelling presentation 2
Observed Pitfalls
• Over time limit (#4)
• Talked over visuals without explicitly referencing them (#8)
• Looking at the board
• Lack of audience engagement (#1)
• Lack of a clear vision or story (#1, #7)
• Too much information (#5)
Group project
Proposed workflow
Plan Storyboard Design BuildRehearse, test, and
revise
• 20 minutes
• 10 minute Q & A
• All team members must be present, but all do not have to present. Peer feedback and ratings will be factored into your grade.
• Review the presentation testing & delivery standards
• Is sitting the new smoking?
• Refugee crisis: Is it really that bad?
• Measuring good neighbors: Social cohesion index
• Do you believe in UFO sightings?
• Use movie compass to pick your next flick.
• Making decisions about student loan debt and college
• Election outcome prediction. Can twitter data help?
• How does AirBnB affect branded hotels?
• Twitter and the response to current events
Group project topics
Audience guidelines and role
• No laptops
• Respond to prompts by the presenters (if applicable)
• Take note of what worked well and areas for refinement
• Share you comments and feedback with the team during the critique
Critique – 10 minutes
• How well did the team tell a story with data?
• How well did the team select visual displays to present their data?
• How well did the team do at communicating key insights?
• What are the key takeaways from the presentation?
• What worked well? Do you have suggestions for future work?
Assessment Rubric: Group Projects
Assessment Rubric: Group Projects
Assessment Rubric: Group Projects
What worked well?
• Concise stories
• Use of data and visuals as evidence
• Questions or prompts for the audience
• Dynamic presenters
• Interesting data and presentation of that data
• Data points were put in context
• Provided reference points or points of comparison
Interesting in learning more and keeping in touch?
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Upcoming Talks
May 16th: Digital Analytics Association - Engaged
Storytelling with Information Visualization: Techniques for
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