Advance Data Visualization and Storytelling Virtual Workshop

Editor's Notes

• #7: Talk to the slide Why do you need to tell a story with data, how to think agilely.
• #9: Gartner analyst Doug Laney defined data growth challenges and opportunities as being three-dimensional, i.e. increasing volume (amount of data), velocity (speed of data in and out), and variety (range of data types and sources). Gartner, and now much of the industry, continue to use this "3Vs" model for describing big data. Back in the day, we thought getting 3 megs of data was a big deal, but now it is almost overwhelming so it becomes more important to tell that story with visuals that make sense and help tell that story. (Image Source: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/help-needed-drowning-mans-hand-sea-126729563?src=YZo4g5pNUVnuH7SpoYua5g-1-10 purchased by Slalom 17.04)
• #10: Hard to tell the story with some visuals because there is so much going on in the page. Instructor: good to mention we doctored these up to share some of the bad examples we come across in the real world. (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #11: We need to see charts that are clean that tell a story well. What are some of the things that pop out on this visual? What do the colors represent to you? Does it paint a picture, regardless of if you agree with it or not? Do you see a clear trend line, do you see an impact? (Image Source: http://michiganjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/obama-job-employment.jpg)Emphasize the color change as indicator to party change, telling a visual story using terminology known to everyone.
• #14: Let’s pick on what I like to call LOUD charts. The chart doesn’t really tell the story, the chart isn’t the right chart for the story. Colors have no semantic value to them (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #15: Our Brains – that big red thing in the middle. We have learned to be very visual beings. We have three levels of memory to make things actual. Give the example of: The Average Attention Span of a Human Year 2000- 12 SecondsYear 2013 – 8 Seconds A goldfish has 9 seconds of attention spam
• #16: Information has to pass from the Iconic Memory->into the Short Term Memory-> and finally if it makes the cut, into the Long Term Memory. Iconic memory involves the memory of visual stimuli. It is how the brain remembers an image you have seen in the world around you. For example, look at an object in the room you are in now, and then close your eyes and visualize that object. The image you "see" in your mind is your iconic memory of that visual stimuli.
• #17: Iconic memory is like a sieve under a faucet. Everything passes through unless it is worthy enough to stick – refer to the slide for the additional talking points There are two strategies to make the iconic memory work (next slide)
• #18: Mute the background noise – remove all distractions Highlight key items – No highlights are bad. (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #21: Creating those patterns will help spark the iconic memory, pass it down to the short term memory, and eventually down to the Long Term memory. This can only take a few second-minutes to get to Long Term memory but we have to be in long term memory for effective decision making to take place.
• #23: Top Questions and YOUR STORY Have students take notes or jot down THEIR top question Have them parse out their MEASURES Have them call out their Attributes (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #24: Individually or in small groups, select 1-2 questions from the question slide.  Create the appropriate visuals to tell that story.  At the end of your time, have the visual complete and be ready to walk the instructor/class through the creation of your visual so they can follow your steps.   Be prepared to answer: Why you chose each visual? How you decided what values/fields to use in the visual? Why you made your formatting choices for each visual?
• #25: This is an Example of a possible diagram with two facts and multiple dimensions Keep in mind, your measures (calculations) should be placed on a fact table, but it really does not matter which one. The key is that measures should not be placed on dimension tables. If students want more detail on Why, send them to the DAX class for more detailed discussion.
• #29: Source: Docs.Microsoft.com
• #30: Discuss the difference between a Dashboard (Summary level) and a Report (Detail Analysis). Don’t demo the report at this time – new slide later to break up and demo the report
• #32: Our focus will be cultures which read Left to Right and Top to Bottom. Discuss that other cultures may have different biases.
• #33: Our focus will be cultures which read Left to Right and Top to Bottom. Discuss that other cultures may have different biases.
• #36: They have used color in a really effective way here. The only reason that the gauge charts are the same color is that this particular tile cannot change color at this time. The use of colors as we talked about in previous slides help show the continuity for each stage of the Sales process while each row shows the comparable data.
• #37: Explain this a real Microsoft example from the lead of BI and Analytics for James Phillips The article was published in April 2017 by Slawomir Kierner https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/how-microsoft-uses-power-bi-to-run-its-growing-cloud-business/ Another really good example of a dashboard where color is used to group appropriately. We see two of Gestault’s principles in play here… Closure and Continuity. Closure is by the colors framing the metrics and Continuity is with the spacing between each of the tiles. (Image Source: Microsoft used with permission)
• #39: Use Storyboarding to get a sense of the story that will playout to provide answers to the Top Questions. The more related the two story points are the lesser the spacer.
• #40: The Storyboarding Add-in has been included in updates to PowerPoint in Office 2013 and 2016. It has both charting objects as well as icons and other useful objects. There are also more storyboard objects available online.
• #41: Show quick story board demo
• #42: When you drill through, we will pass through the specific category you right clicked on as a filter on the drill through page. Another feature of drill through pages is the back button. When you add a drill through filter, we will automatically add a back button to the top left of your report page. When you click this button in reading mode or ctrl+click on this button in editing mode, you will be taken back to the page you were on before. This is a very useful feature for your users consuming your reports since it helps with navigation. However, if you don’t want the drill through button, you can delete it. You can also make your own back button by adding a shape or image to the report and turning on the Back button toggle
• #43: Demo: Show how to turn on the Bookmark and Selection panes Click between bookmarks to show how the page updates Clicking on View in the Bookmarks pane enable user to see how bookmarks will appear in Service. Use Imported images (or shapes) and assign them to the proper Bookmarks on the format pane When using Toggles to link to Bookmarks, they should be the opposite bookmark for what the toggle is showing You can also make your own back button by adding a shape or image to the report and turning on the Back button toggle
• #44: https://guyinacube.com/2019/01/power-bi-slicers-vs-filters/ --- Transition to quick demo on Drill Through, Bookmarks, and Slicers/Filters
• #46: Demo- go through some scenarios and when to use. (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #47: Demo- go through some scenarios and when to use. (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #48: Demo- go through some scenarios and when to use. (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #49: Demo- go through some scenarios and when to use. (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #50: Demo- go through some scenarios and when to use. (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #51: Demo- go through some scenarios and when to use. (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #52: Demo- go through some scenarios and when to use. (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #53: Demo- go through some scenarios and when to use. (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #54: Demo- go through some scenarios and when to use. (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #56: Explain that each custom visual has a sample workbooks which you can download in addition to the PBIVIS file. They can use that to understand how to use the visual, then load the visual into the sample workbook and try and recreate something with the data from the sample.
• #57: With all of the choices available in both Standard and Custom slicers, you can find the correct one to fit just about any scenario. For date slicers, you would not need all these redundant slicers, use what works best for the page.
• #59: *Custom visuals may not be easy to format – depends on the visual. Make sure to test it works for your use-case. Some custom visuals may not work in service Themes may not work with all custom visuals Make sure custom visuals meet your use-case and adds value to your report Organizational custom visuals are visuals approved by your organization. These should be the visuals you can look at before look at market place https://charticulator.com/ - let’s you build a custom visual
• #63: Demo these sites There are some executives who are color blind and when presenting reports, they might be missing part of the story that other people are getting.
• #64: Discuss the process to use a theme. DEMO: Show how to import a theme from Theme Gallery. Also, how to customize existing themes.
• #66: Discuss the use of consistent fonts and colors in this report Continuity in the spacing helps naturally break up the visuals (Image Source: Slalom under contract with Microsoft)
• #67: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-accessibility
• #69: Use Performance Analyzer to understand impact of visuals and figure out which/how many visuals makes sense for your use case Shapes/buttons/text boxes all take time to load and might impact report performance Tooltip takes more time to load compared to drill down or drill through Other features that might take time to load are – What If, Conditional Formatting. So make sure to use performance analyzer
• #70: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/desktop-performance-analyzer
• #71: Think about optimizing DAX or reducing the number of measures in the visual (table/matrix) By default user can export summarized or default. If data point is derived from a large fact table and if user exports detailed data, it leads to performance issues. Especially if multiple users are downloading at the same time. E.g. month end reporting This is more of an issue in Premium, Typically is Shared there is back up capacity so may not happen often
• #73: External Support Resources for Microsoft – Hide this slide for the internal version