Tool – Visualization

Selection & Challenges:

The first tool I used was Visualization, or Visual Analytics to achieve visual data presentation  that was engaging and instinctive to all the stakeholders of the company as well as the  audience. I came across data visualization while I was reading an article about the human  brain, how the brain perceives information surrounding us, different parts of brain (Creative  & Reasoning) & how to engage each part of the brain. Data Visualization taps what we refer  to as the “Iconic Memory” of a user which helps in clear understanding of presenter’s idea &  predict things without much cognitive load which would be less engaging with the  traditional tools such as big data, statistics and so on. This creative way of presenting ideas  spoke to me & I have been working on Visualization since then.

Clearly, venturing into a new territory has some hardships associated with it. Let’s take an  example of a newly found island – first, you’ll have to clear forests and shrubbery to make  space for open lands, then, use technology to leverage the land & finally, make  improvements to the structures with the passing time. Similarly, I had to first learn about  the different tools associated with visualization (I choose tableau because it was easy to  understand), I did specialization courses with Coursera (provided by University of California,  Davis) & to improve my knowledge, I browse various data viz posted by people to develop  new ways of delivering visualization.

Application:

1. I start the process by gathering data and understanding the needs of stakeholders as well as

the customers. The data I have worked with is customer-focused & belonged to a big retail  business that covers customer credentials, appliances or items brought, frequency, retail  segment & so on. I work with my manager to understand the deliverables and requirements  of the projects so as to prepare efficient & clear visualization.

2. After gathering enough information & data, I devise a neat framework on B&W on how to

approach towards formulating a solution following a step by step through detailed process.  One of my problem was providing a current status of shipments according to the time they  were promised to be delivered. In this, I had collected data about the mode of  transportation, promised shipment delivery & actual shipment delivery details. I devised a  plan of providing an area graph between the number of records & order date to provide  details about their current status.

3. I used Tableau to prepare a data viz in which I had to create a new calculated field (Status of

shipment) which prompted the answer as Shipment early, Shipment on time & shipment  late. I used an area graph because the axis presented a single dimension & measure for the  problem.

4. Finally, I removed clutters (gridlines, unnecessary alfa-numerals & so on) and introduce

colour coding to help the end user differentiate between different segments that I wanted  to present.

 You can look at my final dashboard on

https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/eeshan2538/viz/ShipStatus_1621016367480 0/Sheet1.

Insights & Approach:

During my project I realized how crucial it is to keep in mind the following points:

1. Diverse team that I am working with - Diverse team with their different mindsets

approach the problem differently which is the core when an organization is leaning  towards design thinking for innovation. Collaboration of these different approaches  helps in formulating a solution at a faster pace by removing bias & gut feelings of a  single individual.

2. Business objective or Value creation towards the business – It is crucial to understand

how the solution proposed to the problem adds value to the company or  organization. We should also keep in mind the business core capabilities & goals in  mind.

3. Feedback – Design Thinking is an iterative process that works on trial & test basis. The

most important part of this process is feedback. Feedback tells us about the  expectation of our stakeholders & how far we are from reaching those expectations.

These are the most important aspects I have discovered in my nascent journey in the field of  visualization & I would work on improving these by removing my individual bias,  collaboration of people with different mindsets, encouraging feedbacks & keep in my mind  the value creation to the company by the said process.

