Speaker 1: Data visualization, the term just sounds complicated. Let's make it easier to understand. Hi world, Mike Ploeger back with my good pal and infographic genius, vizme. Today we're talking data visualization. In today's day and age, visuals are your best friends when it comes to presenting data. Spreadsheets, powerpoints, and lengthy word documents are no more. With average attention spans seeming to shorten by the day, you must be able to tell your story through data in a manner that's easy for the consumer to understand. But how can you do that? Hi, vizme and I are here to help and in this video, we're going to answer all of your questions regarding data visualization. What exactly they are, how you can use them, different examples, and more. Get out your pen and paper and let's begin, shall we? Let's start with what data visualization is. While the term sounds scary, a data visualization is meant to make understanding information easier. It's just a graphical representation of data. Rather than presenting data in a complex spreadsheet, you can create an image that will illustrate the information in a simpler way. Viewers don't have to scour a fact sheet looking for the story. They can easily scan and quickly find what they're looking for. And you don't have to be a data genius to create them. Anyone and everyone can create them no matter their profession. Marketers, teachers, healthcare professionals, consider this infographic here. Your profession is not an excuse to not create data visualizations. You can create so much value for your audience by spending just a little bit of extra time building them. I just mentioned creating value for your audience. Let's dive into four ways of doing so. The first reason is how easy it makes data to digest. You can write a full report if you'd like and hope that your audience reads it all the way through to understand your point. Or you can create an infographic like this, which is still somewhat complex, but simplifies the information in an easy to understand manner. Imagine if all of this was written in paragraph form. Yikes. The second reason is the ability to discover patterns easier. Trends emerge from data over time, and if you monitor that data through graphics, they're much easier to notice. Scatter plots or charts can help you identify them, and then once you do, present them with an infographic similar to this one. I haven't mentioned this yet, but all of the examples you'll see in this video are templates you can edit in VisMe right now. So keep them in mind. If you've been learning or gathering information for a long period of time, a data visualization can help you compile that information into one place. It's more engaging and an image is always easier to remember than text alone. Which is our fourth reason. The visual nature of a data visualization helps viewers understand and remember it better. They'll soak in that image like a sponge and will be able to recall the information that went with it. This is a detailed infographic about bioluminescence in Australia. The geographical image makes it easier to remember where it's present and where it's not along Australia's eastern coast. All right, we have our feet wet in the data visualization pond. Let's get a little bit deeper now and explore five ways data visualization can be used. One is to plan schedules. Are you familiar with Google Calendar? Well, that's become a data visualization. You can lay out a timeline or project plan for your days or months, whether through Google or on your own. If you're on deadline, a visualization showing what needs to happen before the big day is a great idea. I suggest starting at the end and working backwards. Another way data visualization is used is to pinpoint relationships. How are two or more things related? This is when a scatterplot becomes your new best friend. If time is one of the variables in your data, a graphic can help share changes over that time period. By recognizing the trends from the past, your data visualization will help you predict what outcomes to expect in the future. Frequency falls in line with predictive ability as well. After you've compiled so much data, you'll have an idea of the frequency you can expect something. This will require a lot of research, but will be helpful for both yourself and your viewers. And our last way that data visualizations are typically used is to interpret value and risk. Rather than sorting through pages of information, a simple data visualization can help you assess a situation and determine if taking action is necessary. Your brain can process multiple variables much more easily in an infographic than it can in a page full of text. Alright, you've heard me touch on various types of data visualizations already. To halt any confusion and answer any questions, let's touch on some of the most popular. Let's start with graphs. Let me preface this by saying there are dozens of graphs you can choose from. For the sake of this video, I'm only going to share a couple of the most popular. Pie charts were our best friend in 3rd grade and you should reconnect after all these years. If you have 7 or less percentage points and their differences in value are wide, use a pie chart. They're simple and everyone understands them. Bar charts are another good example for easily understood data visualizations. They mostly speak for themselves and I'm sure you've seen them before. Again, if you're thinking there's no way you can create these, Visme has your back. This is a template right here that you can edit to fit your data right now at visme.com. Line charts take one fixed value and however many variables and place them adjacent to one another. These are perfect to discover trends or to see how one variable may be superior or inferior to another. Pre-prominent charts that you can use include pyramid charts, stacked area charts, and radar charts. Pyramid charts showcase visual hierarchy. They can illustrate income, importance, or the difference between leads and actual sales as we see here. Stacked area charts are similar to your line charts. They'll visualize changes over different values over time. There's not one fixed variable here. And the last chart I want to put on your radar is the radar chart. You may have also heard of these by the name of spider or web charts, but it looks something like this. They're great for identifying if something is well-rounded or maybe lacking in one specific area against other competition. Infographics rely on text a bit more than a standard data visualization. It's still kept to a minimum, but it might be necessary depending on the type of infographic. One example is a timeline infographic. These will have some text, but you can follow along easier knowing exactly when events were taking place by actually seeing it along the timeline. An informational infographic will carry a lot more text and may even feature multiple data visualizations all in one graphic. You'll want icons, colors, and charts, but don't overload the graphic and make it too overwhelming. Keep it organized like we see with this FISMI template. And while there's plenty more infographics to check out, which I encourage you to do So, for the sake of time, I just want to touch on comparison infographics. This is for side-by-side comparisons of data, helping you or your audience make informed decisions. They're great for comparing cars, homes, or banks, as we see here. As we near the end of this video, I want to leave you with five tips for creating the absolute best data visualization that you can. First, know your audience. Understand their knowledge and if they'll be able to comprehend a complex visual or if you'll need to simplify it. Are you talking to high schoolers or experienced professionals? Or are you presenting a spider chart to your HR department or your communications team? The HR department will recognize it right away because they have more experience with it. Communications may not. That's another reason why you need to choose the right data visualization. As I mentioned, a pie chart would not be great for data points that are very similar. That's when you'd want a bar chart. A stacked bar chart is good for comparing maybe two to three variables, but any more than that and a comparison chart becomes your friend. Some quick design tips for you. If you follow our channel, you've probably heard me say these before, but don't use more than three fonts. Keep the sizing to between eight and 20 point fonts. Select colors that are easy on the eyes and complement each other well. Pro tip, blue and purple, green and brown, blue and gray, and green and gray are combos that colorblind people can't make out. So consider that. When a viewer reads a chart, they may need a legend to help them understand what exactly they're looking at. A legend is what will tell them how to read the chart. At the very least, they can show what colors mean what like they do in this chart. Always consider putting a legend along your charts. And you know, I couldn't end this video without encouraging you to use Visme for your data visualization needs. Visme can help you create animated charts and graphs in just minutes. Again, the examples you've seen in this video were taken straight from Visme's library. You don't have to design it from scratch. You can pick a template, input your own data, and Visme will do the hard part for you. Spend five minutes and go to visme.com to see for yourself. I promise you won't regret it. But first, please like this video and subscribe to our channel. Do I have to say that? Maybe. Could it benefit you in your search to create powerful designs? Absolutely. Just click through our channel and check it out for yourself. Thank you so much for watching and good luck with Visme. I'm Mike Ploeger, helping you make information beautiful.