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Data Visualization Tools For Interactive Business Reports

Posted by Errin O'Connor on Mar, 03, 2021 07:03

Data Visualization Tools For Interactive Business Reports

According to Nucleus Research, “A business intelligence with data visualization capabilities will offer an ROI of $13.01 back on every dollar spent.”

Introduction to Data Visualization Tools and Its Benefits for Business 

With data visualization tools, users can create a visual representation of large data sets more efficiently. These tools are used for many different purposes, including interactive dashboards, investor slide decks, sales and marketing materials, annual business reports, and other areas requiring immediate visual interpretation.

Moreover, data visualization helps companies in many ways, including digital information, decipher, revealing anomalies, flaws, and fraud, and saving time.

Importance of Big Data and Need for Data Visualization 

Big data describes the large volume of structured and unstructured data that inundates a business daily. Through big data, companies can make better strategic and predictive decisions and moves.

When big data is used and visual graphics, and other visual elements, a company can generate information and answers faster. Consequently, as companies generate more beneficial visual matter, there’s an increased cognition. After all, it’s a lot easier to see visual form than to comprehend quantitative formats.

What Factor to Focus on Before Selecting the Best Data Visualization Tool?

When choosing the best visualization tool, figure out whether or not the form follows its function. Mind that type of visualization being created depends on the data properties, questions that users are trying to ask, and also, how they want to present and communicate their insights to the audience. 

The tools should minimize the visual bloat and maximize clarity. Users should also choose visualization tools that can make the available information more meaningful. That way, the communication piece effectiveness is increased.

Data Visualization benefits

Understanding the Different Types of Data Visualization Charts

Using the appropriate charts is essential in data visualization. Below are the different of charts business intelligence tools:

  • Column Chart – uses vertical columns to display numerical comparisons of the categories.
  • Bar Chart – has relatively large bars.
  • Line Chart – shows any data change over a continuous time span or time interval. 
  • Area Chart – fills the area between the axis and the polyline in the line chart with color.
  • Pie Chart – compared different classification by the art and classifications proportion 
  • Scatter Plot – shows two variables on a rectangular coordinate system. 
  • Lastly, a Bubble Chart – a variant of a scatter plot, and each bubble area represents the third value. 

Capabilities of Microsoft Power BI as Data Visualization Tool

Microsoft Power BI enables the users to perform data visualization and analysis. It is compatible with different sources, including SQL Server, Excel, and cloud-based data repositories.

As per Power BI experts these below mentioned are the capabilities of Microsoft Power BI as a data visualization tool:

  • Interactive Dashboarding – Power BI’s interactive dashboards come in various visualizations as tiles. They are printable and shareable.
  • Secondly, Drill Down Functionality- Helps the users to drip down the visualizations to multiple levels.
  • Pre-built Visuals – They offer a wide range of attractive and detailed visualizations.
  • Natural Language User Interface – This unique feature of Power BI is built with cognitive technology that rephrases, auto-fills, and suggests fulfilling the search requirements.

Working with MS Power BI Dashboard 

MS Power BI dashboard utilizes visualizations to tell a story effectively. It contains only the most essential story elements because of the one-page limitation.

The visualizations found on the dashboard are pinned from reports, and each report is according to on data set. Moreover, the dashboard helps the users to monitor the business, see the essential metrics at a single glance, and look for answers.

How to Use Drill-down & Drip Up Functionality in Power BI 

Drag and Drop the Sales Amount, for example, to Canvas, and a column chart can be created from the Power BI Fields section. Users can add a Product Hierarchy to Axis, and the column chart created will display the Sales Amount based on the Product Category. These drill down and drill up functionality becomes an essential part of data visualization tools.

User can perform Drill up and Drill-down report action by:

  • Going to the Data/Drill tab to view the properties 
  • Using the buttons displayed at the top left corner
  • Right-clicking on the report found on the content menu. 

Utilizing Pre-built Visuals in Microsoft Power BI for Customizing Dashboards

The pre-built visuals in Power BI can fulfill the users’ requirements in customizing dashboards. Developers create these visuals through custom visuals SDK. Users can choose from different visuals, including bar charts, pie charts, line charts, etc.

Power BI built-in visuals are divided into different categories according to the way they are deployed:

  • Marketplace visuals 
  • Organization visuals 
  • Custom visual files 

Using Natural Language User Interface (LUI or NLUI In Power BI for Exploring Data 

A natural language user interface enables the users to generate queries with ease while exploring analytics data using text or voice. It improved the analytics insights and allowed lots of employees to access data on common business metrics.

Some of the advantages of using a natural language user interface include:

  • Simplifies employee access to BI data 
  • Drives deeper business insights 
  • Reduces analytics results confusions 
  • Applies structure to unstructured data

Comparison Chart for Different Data Visualization Tools 

Microsoft Power BIDatawrapperTableauInfogramSisenseXplenty:Zoho Analytics
Whatagraph
Range of attractive visuals, pre-built visuals, customizable dashboards, flexible tiles, and natural language user interface Ideal for newsroom data visualization includes a built-in color color blindness checker, and free planWhy Microsoft Power BI is better: limited data sourcesPlenty of data import options, video tutorials, free public version, and mapping capability Why Microsoft Power BI is better: non-free versions are expensiveDrag and drop editor, free plan with basic features, and API for importing extra data sourcesWhy Microsoft Power BI is better: less built-data sourcesHighly extensible and customizable, and easy to embed apps and websites Why Microsoft Power BI is better: limited visualization optionsVery customizable and powerful, plenty of chart types, and focuses in website standardsWhy Microsoft Power BI is better: requires programming knowledge Plenty of charts formats, works with dynamic data, and different frameworks integration Why Microsoft Power BI is better: expensiveLots of data selection sources, various chart types, and dynamic dashboard creation Why Microsoft Power BI is better: limited customer support

Frequently Asked Questions 

Q: Is Excel a data visualization tool?

A: Yes, Excel is a data visualization tool and offers standard charts, including scatter plots and unit heat maps

Q: What is the best visualization tool?

Microsoft Power BI is the best visualization tool. It has lots of interesting visualization features, including in-built visuals and an interactive dashboard.

Q: What are the types of data visualization?

A: Different data visualization types include code tools, visual reporting, maps, infographic tools, network graphs, and large-screen visualization.

Q: How do I present data in Excel?

A: You can use chart message as your chart title, utilize pivot charts for small data sets, and avoid 3D charts.

Q: What do you mean by data visualization tools online?

A: It is the process where datasets are extracted and presented graphically while exposing the trends, historical patterns, and correlation in the online environment.

Conclusion

Large sets of data consumption are not always straightforward. In fact, it becomes impossible to discern something useful from that. Fortunately, Microsoft Power BI comes in to fulfill this requirement with its amazing features.

Errin O'Connor
About the Author

Errin O'Connor

With over 25 years of experience in Information Technology and Management Consulting, Errin O’Connor has led hundreds of large-scale enterprise implementations from Business Intelligence, Power BI, Office 365, SharePoint, Exchange, IT Security, Azure and Hybrid Cloud efforts for over 165 Fortune 500 companies.

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