Estimated reading time: 5 mins
Data visualization, the art of representing information visually, is not a new concept. In fact, data visualization has existed for millennia in the form of paleolithic drawings, ancient maps, and star charts. It’s only been fairly recently, however, as the amount of data has exploded that data visualization has become a popular tool for businesses.
Having access to data is critical for business success, particularly in a modern world where markets can shift at the drop of a hat. But, raw data alone is not enough to drive business growth. Instead, companies need to understand and be able to draw insights from that data. Well-visualized data can facilitate this process. As Brian Gentile notes, “For all the data that’s being created by people, machines, Internet-enabled devices, and other sources, data doesn’t provide executives and other decision makers with valuable insights on its own. The data must be gathered, organized, made interpretable, and then analyzed and acted on to provide any meaningful value.”
This is especially true for companies in the pharmaceutical industry, where data drives critical (and costly) decisions for drug development, patient engagement, HCP collaboration, and much more. Below are 5 of the top reasons why harnessing data visualization can help your business.
1. Understand Text Faster
The human brain process visuals an astonishing 60,000 times faster than text. When numbers are transformed into visuals, viewers are able to more quickly understand the information conveyed while retaining it better. “Part of what helps us process visual information so well is that we can process multiple images simultaneously. With text, we just process one word at a time. When you think about it, that’s a pretty slow and inefficient process,” says Noah Parsons.
This simple example demonstrates the efficiency with which the brain process visuals versus text-based information.
This principle is even more powerful when applied to complex information sets or vast amounts of data.
2. Grasp Information in New Ways
When data becomes visual, users are able to identify features that might have otherwise remained hidden. “Important stories live in our data and data visualization is a powerful means to discover and understand these stories, and then to present them to others,” offers Stephen Few.
One important aspect of gaining a new perspective on data is detecting emerging trends. Using raw data alone makes it difficult to identify significant trends. According to David White of the Aberdeen Group, companies who use data visualization are 28% more likely to detect emerging trends than those who rely on older methods of organizing and interpreting data.
Take for instance the following fictional data sheet depicting sales over the course of a year. A quick glance makes it clear that international sales were lower than domestic sales. But beyond that, it’s hard to ascertain any other patterns or trends.
When the same information is represented visually, several key insights become clear immediately. The first is the extent to which domestic sales exceeded international sales. Additionally, an up and down cyclical pattern for domestic sales emerges. It’s also clear that domestic sales trended upward, despite several downturns. Outliers, such as the August figure for international sales, are also readily apparent with visualizations.
3. Create Value for Clients
Data visualization enables businesses to create more value for their clients. Instead of offering static numbers, businesses can shape how the data is represented, enabling their clients to better understand the numbers and empowering them to make informed decisions. “Information, and the ability to decipher and act on it swiftly, has become a competitive differentiator. To identify new business opportunities ahead of the market, business leaders require the ability to access, evaluate, comprehend, and act on data faster and more effectively than ever before,” says Gentile.
This outside-in perspective harnesses data visualization techniques and tools to significantly increase clients’ ability to understand critical information that might otherwise remain hidden in data. “Data visualization enables users to receive vast amounts of information regarding operational and business conditions. Data visualization allows decision makers to see connections between multi-dimensional data sets and provides new ways to interpret data,” continues Gentile.
This example, modified from the U.S. Census Bureau’s website, illustrates the wealthiest counties in the country. When studying the data set, it’s clear that four counties in Virginia and three in New Jersey account for 7 of the 10 top ten wealthiest counties. What’s not clear from the numbers is the geographical relationship of these counties.
When this data is represented using a simple visualization, it becomes clear that the two sets of the wealthiest counties are in close geographical approximation with each other. It also becomes clear that those counties lie just outside two major metropolitan areas (Washington, D.C. and New York City).
This type of analysis offers clients insights that go beyond mere presentation of numbers. Instead, clients can get a better understand of the situation at hand and their options through interpretation of the data.
4. Tell an Impactful Story
Data visualization enables companies to use data to tell stories that impact audiences. As a white paper by Tableau argues, “Stories bring life to data and facts. They can help you make sense and order out of a disparate collection of facts. They make it easier to remember key points and can paint a vivid picture of what the future can look like. Stories also create interactivity—people put themselves into stories and can relate to the situation.”
The two examples below tell the same story about the relationship of the measles vaccine to the number of outbreaks.
“Measles vaccine was licensed in the United States in 1963. During 1958-1962, an average of 503,282 measles cases and 432 measles-associated deaths were reported each year. Measles incidence and deaths began to decline in 1965 and continued a 33-year downward trend. This trend was interrupted by epidemics in 1970-1972, 1976-1978, and 1989-1991. In 1998, measles reached a provisional record low number of 89 cases with no measles-associated deaths.”
The text version of the story is dry, using numbers and facts to convey information. While it’s clear that the measles vaccine significantly reduced the number of outbreaks, it’s difficult to grasp the magnitude of measles outbreaks until we see the information represented visually. The heat map distills megatons of raw data into a relatively simple but very powerful graphic that tells the same story but in a more vivid and memorable way.
5. Persuade Your Audience
Similar to our point above, data visualization is more persuasive than raw data alone.
“Unique and truly compelling visualizations are an underused, yet devastatingly effective tactic. They are equal parts rare and in demand. They beg to be shared. They are a catalyst for conversation, awareness, and action,” says Adam Singer.
Take for example the statistic that the United States imprisons more than 5 times as many prisoners as most founding members of NATO. Then compare that statistic to the chart below. The impact of the chart far surpasses that of the statistic alone because it drives home the extent to which incarceration rates differ. “The immediate, visceral reaction we have to charts like this one...is no accident. Visual perception research has established the fact that visual information is powerfully and inescapably persuasive in a way that text and speech aren’t,” says Scott Berinato.
Courtesy of HBR
Whether you need your data to tell a story or provide additional value for clients, it’s clear that data visualization facilitates the communication process and enables businesses to tell compelling stories.
Using Data Visualization in Your Business
How can you harness the data you create for use with customers? Are you providing data or insights? Would visualization of your data provide more value to your clients than data alone?
We have been working to build a routine process to use with our clients to audit existing deliverables and systematically find the best visualization of the data to provide to clients. Sometimes we work directly with customers and other times we coach an account management team on how to move toward more visualization and the insights visualization can provide. Contact Brian to learn more about our data visualization services and how they can help your business.
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