International data visualization standards have been developed over time to facilitate optimal decision making through intuitive graphical content. International standards such as the International Business Communications Standards (IBCS) can help to derive best practices for business analysis reporting. However, internal or targeted visualization standards that form part of a corporate or industry culture can go further to increase relevancy and comprehension for specific management decision characteristics.
Data visualization is essentially story-telling with the goal of revealing the outcome as quickly and efficiently as possible.
IBCS Data Visualization Framework
The IBCS standards follow a method established by Rolf Hichert and Jürgen Faisst which have merit but also remain somewhat proprietary with lack of open access for their development from the greater analytic community. The standards combine seven broad rule sets under the acronym SUCCESS which is broken down as:
SAY - Clearly define a message or set of messages to communicate.
UNIFY - Create identifiable groups of common styles and chart types for similar content.
CONDENSE - Combine data and information in a way to fully communicate messages in the least amount of space.
CHECK - Verify the integrity of the visualization ensuring that the truth is portrayed without misleading the audience.
EXPRESS - Use the most appropriate visual components for the data and message to be articulated.
SIMPLIFY - Remove unnecessary content and ensure clean presentation.
STRUCTURE - Organize components so that visual flow reflects the story to be communicated.
The IBCS framework is a very good point of reference to ensure that data visualizations are effective and commonly understood. Since these standards are already widely used, resulting reports are more likely to be accepted and understood by wider audiences. There is an Excel data visualization add-in that creates charting components under these guidelines to assist with implementation.
Developing Targeted Standards
Overarching standards are a valid reference point and concept; however they lack the flexibility to suit all user cases and specific data dynamics. Standards can be developed at levels such as within an organization, industry or user demographic group that are optimized for effective message delivery to the targeted audience. Data visualization standards developed for an identifiable user group can increase the efficiency of reporting to facilitate optimal decision making. Devising targeted standards is an iterative process of continual improvement and the following concepts can help.
Draw on established standards: International standards, as well as those already established at the targeted level, should be leveraged so that visual reports are already familiar for understandability. The IBCS and established industry/organization standards are a good starting place.
Matching creative styles: Corporate or target level styles should be used to brand visualizations for both internal and external audiences for publishing. Styles include color rules, font types, sizes and shape forms that match the target level branding styles.
Define components for message objectives: Visual components should be identified that best convey messages for the particular decision requirement. New visualizations and chart types can even be developed if a specific nuance of business is better represented in this way.
Once targeted standards are developed they should be under constant scrutiny. Styles need to be updated to reflect branding style changes and new visualization techniques need to adapt to changing data and decision requirement dynamics.
Avoid Misleading Expressions
To accentuate comparisons it is sometime tempting to exaggerate distances between variable observations in order to portray the message. When doing so care should be taken not to distort the truth as subsequent conclusions can be drawn to result in sub-optimal decisions. The example below reveals some common techniques that mislead the underlying data characteristics.
A common approach highlighted here is the scaling of axes starting above zero to emphasize level differences. Purist standards will state that the axis should always start at zero to show the true comparison; however, when differences are relatively small, this makes it very difficult to visualize the comparison. In this case, it can be argued that a clearly visible a broken axis symbol indicates the scaling modification to better convey the comparative analysis.
Consult Decision Makers
Data visualization standards need to be developed in conjunction with the decision makers and end users. First and foremost is to establish what questions the decision makers want to quickly answer at any one time. Management need to make timely decisions so visualization of trends and discrepancies play a key role in doing so efficiently.
Feedback on reporting output is essential to draw on what works and modifying standards for components that are confusing or simply do not meet decision making requirements. A useful technique for visualization testing is to show the developed outputs to children. If a young child can grasp the concept of the message to be delivered, then there a good chance that end users will also easily understand it.
Often decision makers will want different outputs, for example the marketing department is likely to want a different analysis to the financial department. The obvious choice is to create separate data visualizations but there is also likely to be a lot of overlap. To address this issue, technology can be harnessed to provide interactivity. In this sense, a simplified data visualization dashboard is provided with the ability to change view filtering and drill down to detailed breakdown on aggregated data sets. Well-designed interactive data visualization can provide wider audiences the tools to make timely decisions without needing to ask for additional analysis and reporting. Drill down capability can be developed in a wide range of modern technologies including HTML5, Excel and visualization software applications linked to underlying data sources.
By: Russ Penlington
CEO at Business Spreadsheet
By: Russ Penlington
CEO at Business Spreadsheet