🚨 YOU'RE VISUALIZING YOUR DATA WRONG. And Here's Why...

In this video, I break down some of the 'science' behind effective data visualization and how you can build better dashboards by using different tips and techniques that I learned from what I call the "Data Visualization Bible".

You may think your dashboards are great but, as you'll learn, that isn't always necessarily a good thing.

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[learnitinstructor]

As a 35 year veteran of teaching Excel, charts, dashboards, Power BI, Power Query, etc. I'm very impressed with your content. This was particularly useful and I'll be recommending your channel to my students. Thank you!

[IluvinortheIneffable]

lmao I know Im bad when the horror movie music starts and I was thinking that's a decent dashboard

[leonardskynyrd]

Couldn't agree more with these tips. Validated my tendency to remove x and y axis titles, and even the chart titles when the legend shows what you're looking at.

Another thing I'd add is this: white space is your friend. It's amazing how much better charts and tables look when you allow ample white space around them.

[samaa]

When the report i just spent days designing is shown as horror example at the beginning .... lol Thanks for the tips it looks much better now !

[Lottumracing]

Thank you for the wonderfull explanation, as a long time analist, I apply most principles without knowing. Just one tip, when removing ink from excellent example, I typically go 1 step further. I change the chart type to a Scatter (removes a lot of ink) and add the trendline as a dotted line. Since you can see the individual months, you can also see the trend and the growth with probably less ink. Thank you and keep posting your videos!

[renechrisfearon]

I agree with you about pie charts! Also, I hadn't thought about it before that the chart represents 100% - so obvious!

[XXubi]

So glad I clicked on this video. This is the first of its kind where U learn what to consider before you start to create dashboard n not to consider yourself Pablo Picasso, this is data insights not some painting competition. Thank U Sir.

[ultimatecancerian]

Thank you for explaining in such detail for a beginner. Very helpful in sparking my interest to learn more about data visualisation.

[kamaur]

Great Video. I'm new to the BI space, but I came from a design background and used the same principles. I tend to convey the information I'm trying to get across and then brand it when need it. I do use the doughnut chart but not the pie chart.

[joeparris]

For me I use a stacked horizontal bar chart when showing the proportion of time/ money/ resources/ etc. spent in a given stage of a linear process. The bar categories are the process steps going left to right. You can quickly visualize most of your resources are going. I find it pretty intuitive and better than a pie chart in this situation.

[davidlean]

I find 2-level pie/donught charts useful. eg: If you have 20 items that fall into 3 categories. Showing all the items of a category in various shades of one colour allows you to see the relationship of the groups together with the largest contributors to each group. Yes you can show 3 stacked bars but the pie is often more visually appealing.

[snipelite]

I only use binary pie charts!
A yes/no or other binary split usually
It's very powerful and doesn't confuse anyones
Otherwise it's bar or column charts

Unless your audience UNDERSTANDS the chart, don't use it!!
There's more people maths-illiterate than you realise

My guiding principle?
Learn from advertisement posters!
Very very simple messaging
No more than a few items of data to soothe the furrowed brow of the viewer 🤩🌟

[Tom-kplv]

Thanks for this - good vid!
I don't hate pie charts, i just think they are overused. But if you want to see the relative distribution of a small number of elements that are a part of a whole, it's hard to beat a pie chart. That said, I always start by asking myself "what question is being answered" and if there's a better option!

[zzota]

Pie charts are useful for binary comparisons like Spend to Date vs Remaining Budget, but I tend to avoid them.

[definitelynorandomvideos]

If you use pie charts correctly, they are absolutely useful! I do get a minor stroke every now and then though, when I see what appears to be 314 different categories cramped into one chart. IT RUINS THE PIE! Anyway, thanks for the great video Adam!

[satishkumardommeti]

I completely agree with you on the importance of Donut charts. They convey a lot in a much easy to comprehend manner. 👍

[RT-mnpb]

Thanks, nice discussion of what is sometimes also known as the most important principle of engineering - KISS, i.e. Keep It Simple Stupid. The point is the same, elevate meaningful relevant substance over cute, superfluous style. That said, however, there IS art and craft behind making a good visual representation of anything. Dashboard or user interface design has more to it than just reductionism.

[PayneMaximus]

Pie charts are controversial. I like using them to add some flavor to a dashboard, but I prefer not to have more than 3 categories in it (2 is perfect). If you need to display more than 3 categories, a bar chart makes more sense.

[atoms.channel]

Gereat video, thanks. And as an aside, Tufte also invented sparklines... as another aside I believe his name is actually pronounced with the final 'e' so something more akin to "tuff-tee" - that's what I seem to recall from one of his presentations I attended many moons ago.

[davidmuse]

Never really thought about this, makes a lot of sense.