teaching with tableau

PowerPoint Presentation

Teaching with Tableau: Showing insights and telling data-driven stories

Professor Kristen Sosulski

Todays SpeakerKristen Sosulski, Ed.D

Associate ProfessorDirector of EducationW. R. Berkley Innovation Lab New York UniversityLeonard N. Stern School of Business

BioDr. 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 NYUs 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 BackgroundCourse 1: Data VisualizationAudience: 50 MBA students from NYU SternFormat: Blended Online

Course 2: Data VisualizationAudience: 70 NYU Stern Master Science in Business Analytics students Format: Intensive 2-day session with asynchronous online activities

The ChallengeIn 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

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 theyve 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 III: Application, practice, & feedback

Three features to build into your visualizationsAnnotation: To highlight and direct the users attention. Animation: To walk the user through the visualization, step by step. To show and explain the data points at a slower pace. Interactivity: To provide summary level data and details on demand. To engage and involve the audience.

Annotation and encodingsEmphasize 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.

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AnimationTo 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 animationTrend 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 cardDrag year (or time-based data) to the pages cardFilter time series data using the filters cardDetermine the speed (slow, normal, or fast)Select color of encodings from the marks card.

Trace animationTrace 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 allSelect show MarksSelect a color and transparency for the marks

Transition animationShort 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 highlightedWorks nicely when combined with trace animation for time series data where categories change over time.

InteractivityTo enable audience interaction and involvementTo filter details on demandTo traverse the data set to compare and contrast different attributes.

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Slider

Input field

Highlight

Filter

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PART III: Application, practice, and feedback

Three techniques for presentation

Technique #1: Identify the key takeawayProvide 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

In 2013, all the major shipping hubs are in Asia. 36

Technique #2: Put your findings in contextProvide 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).

In 2013, all the major shipping hubs are in Asia. 38

Technique #3: Present the key numbersIt 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.

Chinas total import and export value from 2010 to 2014 (in billion Yuan)

There was a 31% increase from 2010 to 2014Kristen Sosulski | Source: Statistica (2014).

The total value of Chinese imports and exports hit $3.87trillion (2.45trillion) in 2012 edging past the $3.82trillion (2.44trillion) trade registered by the US. 6261.240

SummaryBy incorporating these tips students can tell better stories with their data and use visualizations to reveal important insights about the data



PART III: Application, practice, and feedback

Application: How do you have students practice applying these techniques?Individual Project

2 minute live presentation2 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 ProjectCriteria0 = Lacking, 3 = ExcellentCreative Idea3Compelling Idea3 Well-conceived idea2Clear proof of concept2Visuals targeted @ appropriate audience1Data represented accurately2Data represented adequately2Visuals exhibit good design principles3Well-designed slide presentation 3Persuasive / compelling presentation2

Observed PitfallsOver time limit (#4)Talked over visuals without explicitly referencing them (#8)Looking at the boardLack of audience engagement (#1)Lack of a clear vision or story (#1, #7)Too much information (#5)

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Group project

Proposed workflow

Plan the key elements of your presentationStoryboardDesign. Refine the storyboard information using graphics, videos, pictures, etc as appropriate. Select theme. Build Aggregate information in PowerPoint. Add talking points to the notes section of your PowerPointRehearse, test, and revise60

20 minutes10 minute Q & AAll 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 indexDo 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 roleNo laptopsRespond to prompts by the presenters (if applicable)Take note of what worked well and areas for refinementShare you comments and feedback with the team during the critique

Critique 10 minutesHow 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



What worked well?Concise storiesUse of data and visuals as evidenceQuestions or prompts for the audienceDynamic presentersInteresting data and presentation of that dataData points were put in contextProvided reference points or points of comparison

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