Why visual analytics?

By Nancy Matthew, Technical Writer, Research and Design

 Why visual analytics?
Discover the unexpected; it’s all about the journey. Sounds like the beginning of a travel

brochure, right? Well, it fits because visual analytics helps you navigate a world full of data.

When you are trying to make sense out of your data, where do you begin? Two popular

approaches to visual data analysis include data visualization and visual analytics. Each

plays an important role in data exploration. You don’t have to choose one or the other—

they both help you to see and understand your data.

Data exploration usually starts with a question. But the answer to that question doesn’t

need to be the end of the journey.

In this article:
Asking “what” and “why”
The power of asking why
What visual analytics can do for you

Asking “what” and “why”

Recommended A data visualization is a graphical depiction of data, such as dashboard or report. Data
reading: visualizations present views of data that answer “what,” such as, “What are our sales and
Check out
Define Analytics profits, for different regions, and different months or years?” They are good for answering
to tease out the a finite set of questions, and can be static or provide some level of interactivity for
differences between
investigating those questions.
visual analytics,
advanced analytics,
Being able to answer “what” questions in your data is incredibly valuable. It helps to tell a
smart analytics,
and more. story about your data, and to identify problems and issues.

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 Figure 1: Interactive dashboard that shows sales and profits by region

For many people, creating dashboards and reports are the goal and final destination of

their data exploration. But what if the data is revealing some type of issue, such as lower

profits for a certain region or type of product?

To get to the root cause of an issue or problem, you need to be able to explore the

dashboard’s data directly, beyond the limits of a canned set of filters and categories. You

might need to view the data with new types of visualizations, beyond the constraints of

report templates and canned chart types, to answer your own questions.

The power of asking why

Answering “what” is the first step in exploring data. The next step is asking “why.” To dig

deeper, you need to be able to ask why and why again. When you need to learn more about

what the data is telling you, you need visual analytics.

Visual analytics is a dynamic, iterative process where you quickly build different views to

explore infinite paths of “whats,” and the “whys” behind them. Visual analytics can help

you explore, find answers, and build stories in your data. It even goes beyond those initial

insights, so everyone who sees the visualization can ask questions and make unexpected

discoveries.

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An example of visual analytics in practice
The following example walks through a typical visual analytics workflow. Let’s go back

to the interactive sales report dashboard. It is a data visualization that answers a set of

questions about sales and profits, for different regions.

Figure 2: Dashboard with information about sales metrics analysis and KPIs

Furniture is not hitting the profit target, but looking at different regions isn’t showing

me why. To explore why, I want to create a new view that shows sales and profits for each

type of product included in Furniture.

Figure 3: Dual bar chart shows selling tables results in loss of profit

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Now I see that tables are not profitable. To answer why, I’ll look at sales and profits for

table manufacturers only.

Figure 4: Scatterplot shows table profits by manufacturer

Why are so many different brands of tables losing money? We often apply discounts to

tables. I’m going to change the view to see what level of discounts have been applied to

every table sale order.

Figure 5: Table profit and discounts, encoded with color, by manufacturer

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 It looks like selling tables at a discount is creating lost profits. I’ve found the root cause of

our issue.

Recommended Being able to ask why and quickly see the answer in my data revealed the underlying
reading: cause (discounting strategy) to the original problem (lack of profit in furniture).
Find out what the
6 must-haves Now what if I told you that I was able to create all of the views for that exploration in
for advanced
under 10 minutes? That is pretty fast. Think about the time a tool like this can save you in
analytics are.
your daily work. That is the power of visual analytics. 

Why visual analytics is effective

Visual analytics is a method for exploring data visually, in real-time. A productive visual

analytics experience has certain characteristics. At any moment, you can:

• I nstantly change what data you are looking at (with one click). This is important because
different questions require different data.

• I nstantly change the way you are looking at it (with one click). This is important because
different views of data answer different questions.

With each incremental change, the view of the data updates immediately to help you

intuitively explore different visualization types to find the right one. You can focus on

exploring, instead of the mechanics of how to build a specific chart or being locked into

a canned template. The meaning in your data unfolds as you create different views to

answer different questions—so your exploration leads to better analysis, not dead ends.

Your questions and incremental changes don’t touch the underlying data; they only

change how the data is visually represented. Because the changes are made incrementally,

it is always possible to undo, redo or return to a previous state. Every action is safe,

because it can be instantly undone.

Best of all, the visual analytics process can lead to visualizations that show you the

unexpected. Imagine how surprise findings can stimulate your thought process, and

encourage deeper analysis or a different path of exploration.

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 Visual Analytics and data visualization compared

Data Visual
Capabilities Visualization Analytics

Answers and shows “what.”

Shows data points, problems, issues, or key indicators.

Presents a specific view of a data set. Gives you and

users a snapshot of data to answer a specific set of
questions.

A visual presentation of data, such as a dashboard or a

report. Great device for communicating insights and
telling stories about data.

Supports interactivity (filter dimensions, highlight values

of interest, change view based on categories)

Supports deeper analysis and exploration for asking

“why” questions.

Offers advanced analytics.

A journey through your data that doesn’t require you to

know what chart type or template you need, or where
you are going.

Unifies the steps of querying, exploring and visualization

data into a single process.

Fast, intuitive, freeform exploration of data that lets you

quickly create many different views of your data.

Helps you think visually to explore problems, issues, and

questions. Leads to unexpected insights and finding
outliers in your data.

Helps you share key insights and collaborate with

colleagues on the data.

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What visual analytics can do for you
A high-quality visual analytics platform helps you to easily create impactful

visualizations and dashboards, and encourages exploration to identify new opportunities

for your business. The right solution supports data exploration, data visualization, and

intuitive ad-hoc analysis.

When you need to, you can dive into and explore your data in an immediate, visual way,

and follow your analysis at the speed of thought. After you hone in on the visualizations

that are most useful for communicating your insights, you should be able to share those

insights easily and securely.

Ask and answer your own questions, at the speed of thought

A visual analytics platform supports self-reliance; you shouldn’t have to go through other

people to ask the business questions that you need to ask. Being able to directly access to

the data you need, and ask your own questions, makes you an incredibly valuable resource

to your organization. It frees up another curious, smart mind (yours) to be able to identify

issues and suggest solutions.

You can forage freely in the data you are interested in, identifying outliers and reaching

meaningful insights much faster. Visual analytics supports self-directed, open-ended

data exploration that lets you follow your thoughts visually down different paths.

Your exploration can include recognized chart types, but should not be constrained by

them. When you are constrained by a specific analysis path that is locked into a specific

structure (a chart type, or a template, or a wizard), your analysis and paths for exploration

become limited.

Visual analytics gives you immediate answers because the structure for your analysis is

created anew, instantly, every time you ask a new question. And you should be able to

analyze data in an ad-hoc way, from different databases and spreadsheets at the same

time, in the same view.

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 A visual analytics workspace should be easy and intuitive to learn, but also support

advanced analytics when needed.

Your visual analytics workspace should automatically suggest visual best practices, so

you can create the best visualization to communicate your insights effectively. Your

data questions should drive the structure of the visualization, not the other way around

(form follows the data)—but you shouldn’t have to memorize every chart type and know

when to use which one. In other words, the right visual analytics platform will help you

determine how to apply color, shape, text, and overall layout so your data tells the story

you want it to.

Data and visualization should work in tandem. The steps of querying, exploring and

visualizing data should come together in a single process. Good visual analytics allows

for fast exploration, iteration, prototyping and sketching with data to support the way

you think.

It needs to cater to your question-and-answer process, no matter how complicated

Recommended reading:
Discover Tableau’s it becomes: Visual analytics software should support your analysis. When you need
approach to the
to predict sales in the future, for instance, your software should allow for predictive
development of
analytics software. forecasting; when you want to understand a trend, drag and drop trend lines should be

available.

Helps you make an impact in your organization

When you are able to create meaningful, insightful visualizations on a consistent basis,

you increase your visibility and contribution in your organization. No matter where you

sit or what your title is, you can provide key information that contributes to making better

business decisions.

In most organizations, unshared discoveries are useless. You should be able to share your

insights and collaborate on results, on-premise or in the cloud. Every time you discover

something new in your data, you should be able to share your “hey, look at this” moments.

Sharing your findings leads to your colleagues discovering their own insights. It helps all of

you put more brain power towards getting better answers and finding better solutions.

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About Tableau
Tableau helps people transform data into actionable insights that make an impact.

Easily connect to data stored anywhere, in any format. Quickly perform ad hoc analyses

that reveal hidden opportunities. Drag and drop to create interactive dashboards with

advanced visual analytics. Then share across your organization and empower teammates

to explore their perspective on data. From global enterprises to early-stage startups

and small businesses, people everywhere use Tableau’s analytics platform to see and

understand their data.

Next steps
Learn more
Visual analysis guidebook

Designing great visualizations

Visual analysis for everyone

Applying 5 Why’s webinar

Why scribbling is the key to truly understanding your data

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