18  Lecture 6 Handouts

Advanced visualisations

18.1 Today’s session

  • Recap advanced data visualisation plots

  • Creating advanced plots in R

  • Creating advanced plots in Tableau

18.2 Today’s learning objectives

  • Recall what to think about when using charts to display proportions and associations
  • Recall what to think about when using charts displaying time data
  • Able to create advanced plots in R
  • Able to create advanced plots in Tableau

18.3 Recap data visualizations plots

18.3.1 Scatter plots

Very useful for:

  • Displaying a association between two continuous variables

  • Exploration

  • When aggregation is not required or preferred

Think about:

  • Axis - independent variable preferably on x-axis

  • Formatting of points

  • Annotate

18.3.2

18.3.3 Quadrants

  • Builds on the scatter plot

  • Divides area into 4 to indicate main message for each area.

  • Can be very effective to share main points

18.3.4 Associations/ regression plots

  • Builds on the scatter plot

  • Adds statistical information to a graph

  • Useful to see differences in trends between groups

18.3.5 Stacked bar charts

Useful for:

  • Displaying the overall total and the category breakdown, but the main goal is to focus on the total length of the bars

Do not use to compare categories directly

18.3.6 Line charts

Useful for:

  • Displaying changes and trends over time

  • Highlighting anomalies

  • Forecasting analysis

Not always the best for categorical data
If you need to include a categorical variable make sure it does not become a spaghetti jungle!

18.3.7 Gantt charts

Useful for:

  • Displaying time event data for categories

18.3.8 Radar charts

Useful for:

  • Comparing performance on different variables

  • Comparing to a benchmark or other players/athletes

They are not the easiest to understand. Simpler alternatives are available.


18.3.9 Slope charts

Useful for:

  • Displaying the direction of change from one moment in time to another.

Be aware that the absolute quantity of change is not as clear (requires more brainpower than say when you use a bar chart)

18.4 Building advanced plots in R

18.4.1 Plots in R

Time for a demonstration

18.5 Creating basic plots in Tableau

18.5.1 Plots in Tableau

Time for a demonstration