| | DECEMBER 20198CIOReviewIN MY OPINION CREATING EFFECTIVE DATA VISUALIZATIONSBy Ken Cherven, Data Visualization Specialist, General MotorsData Visualization can be a highly effective way of communicating essential insights to your target audience. Regardless of whether you are designing data visualizations for corporate, government, non-profit, or general audiences, the same general guidelines can be applied. Below I share some of my views on how to think about and ultimately create an effective visualization.Keep a Narrow FocusOne of the great temptations in this era of big data is to provide an overload of information to the end-user. As data sets have become increasingly detailed and more comfortable to access, it becomes effortless to fall into the trap of attempting to display all sorts of related or even unrelated data elements in a visualization. For those of us who are immersed in data, this is an especially tempting prospect. To wind up with a useful visualization, we need to step back and understand what it is we are trying to convey to the end-user. If we cannot quickly define the intended output, our data visualization is likely to end up unfocused and unused. In the case where there are multiple possible outputs, it is wiser to design a data visualization for each distinct output. Provide the Right Level of DetailAnother of the great temptations in the age of big data is to show the deepest level of detail within the data. So just as we discussed keeping a narrow focus (limited breadth), we also need to provide just enough detail (limited depth) for the end-user. A prime example would be displaying a national map at the zip or postal code level when county-level data would provide more insight for the end-user. A general rule of thumb is to restrict data Ken Cherven
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