Misleading visualizations

You can create data visualizations in Tableau using a wide variety of charts, colors, and styles. And you have tremendous freedom in the tool to decide how these visualizations will look and how they will present your data.

Below is an example of a visualization created in Tableau:

Study the visualization and think about these questions:

• Red normally indicates danger or a warning. Why do you think cells are highlighted in red?
• Green normally indicates a positive or “go” status. Is it clear why certain cells are highlighted in green?
• The purpose of the color coding isn’t clear without a legend, but can you guess what might have been the intent?

Post your theory of what the colors mean. In the same post, share in 3-5 sentences (150-200 words) how this table could be misleading and how you would improve it to avoid confusion. Then, visit the discussion forum to browse what other learners shared and engage in at least two discussions about the visualization.

Bonus Guide: Additional insights on selecting the right data visualization

In addition to the content in this course, Google has a helpful guide on choosing which type of data visualization works best for your needs. Note that this optional guide includes some primary chart types; there are many other charts and chart variations not shown in the table. If your data matches more than one description, you can also create a combo chart that combines more than one visualization type.

Download the guide:

How to choose a data visualization.pdf

Self-Reflection: Selecting visuals and charts

Overview

Now that you have learned about different kinds of visualizations, you can pause for a moment and think about what you are learning. In this self-reflection, you will consider how to select the right visualization for your needs and respond to brief questions.

This self-reflection will help you develop insights into your own learning and prepare you to apply your knowledge of visualizations to your own projects. As you answer questions—and come up with questions of your own—you will consider concepts, practices, and principles to help refine your understanding and reinforce your learning. You’ve done the hard work, so make sure to get the most out of it: This reflection will help your knowledge stick!

What makes an effective visualization?

The key to effective presentations is data visualizations that are clear and convincing. In turn, the key to effective visualizations is selecting the best way to depict your data.

You have learned about a few types of visualizations (e.g., bar graphs, pie charts) and what each type is best at emphasizing. Determining which type of visualization to use is essential to giving your presentation the impact it needs.

So far, you have considered a few rules about what makes a helpful data visualization:

• Five-second rule: A data visualization should be clear, effective, and convincing enough to be absorbed in five seconds or less.
• Color contrast: Graphs and charts should use a diverging color palette to show contrast between elements.
• Conventions and expectations: Visuals and their organization should align with audience expectations and cultural conventions. For example, if the majority of your audience associates green with a positive concept and red with a negative one, your visualization should reflect this.
• Minimal labels: Titles, axes, and annotations should use as few labels as it takes to make sense. Having too many labels makes your graph or chart too busy. It takes up too much space and prevents the labels from being shown clearly.

For a refresher, you can refer back to the readings from this section. Check out Designing a chart in 60 minutes, The wonderful world of visualizations, and Visualizations in spreadsheets and Tableau.

Reflection

Consider the guidelines for picking a visualization that you reviewed in this reflection:

• What should you consider when deciding on the right data visualization?
• What is your first step in determining the best data visualization for a presentation?

Now, write 2-3 sentences (40-60 words) in response to each of these questions. Type your response in the text box below.

Explain: Great work reinforcing your learning with a thoughtful self-reflection! A good reflection would include how the first step to identifying appropriate visualizations is understanding what kind of data you are presenting, and that you should apply the four rules above to ensure the visualization has the biggest impact.

After you understand the type of data (frequency, changes over time, categorical comparisons, etc.), then you must determine what your audience needs to see to understand your analysis. After that, find which graph or chart style fits your goal. Finally, utilize the visual design guidelines above to create an accessible and aesthetically pleasing data visualization.

Creating effective visualizations

Review the scenario and select the best data visualization from the list.

1. Changes in company stock price. Number of customer support tickets closed by employee: Line chart
2. Number of customer support tickets closed by employee. Help the customer service department identify their highest-performing employees: Bar chart
3. Number of customers by company size (in revenue). Demonstrate that more customers does not always equal more revenue: Histogram
4. IT requests by department. Help executives understand which departments use the greatest proportion of IT resources at a company: Pie chart
5. Employee happiness scores versus number of hours working from home. Understand if working from home impacts employee happiness: Scatter plot

Test your knowledge on creating visualizations in Tableau

Question 1

A diverging color palette in Tableau displays characteristics of values using what color combination?

A. Intensity for the magnitude and hue for the range

B. Intensity for the range and hue for the magnitude

C. Shade for the accuracy and grayscale for the reliability

D. Hue for the range and tint for the margin of error

The correct answer is A. Intensity for the magnitude and hue for the range. Explain: A diverging color palette in Tableau displays a value’s magnitude by color intensity and a value’s range by color hue.

Question 2

A data analyst creates a Tableau visualization to compare the trade (amount of goods and services exchanged) between the European Union (EU) and Australia. Which color choice could be misleading?

A. Beige for the EU and purple for Australia

B. Green for the EU and red for Australia

C. Orange for the EU and brown for Australia

D. Blue for the EU and gray for Australia

The correct answer is B. Green for the EU and red for Australia. Explain: A lot of people associate green with positive results and red with negative results. Green could falsely represent a trade surplus for the EU and red could falsely represent a trade deficit for Australia.

Question 3

How could you adjust the labels to make the following visualization more effective? Select all that apply.

• Use a single font for the labels
• Move the labels to white space on the map
• Change the font color for the labels from black to white
• Reduce the number of labels

Explain: You could make the visualization more effective by reducing the number of labels per country and using only one font. Doing this makes the labels easier to read.