Presentation and Visualization Methods

Data visualization is the method of consolidating data into one collective, illustrative graphic. Traditionally, data visualization has been used for quantitative work (info-graphics are a popular example) but ways to represent qualitative work have shown to be equally as powerful.

Why Visualize??
Its the best way to get the message across the audience among tons of competing data streams. In the current world of big data, Visualization plays roles a key role by depicting the underlying patterns, trends and relationships contained within data.They are quick to draw attention to key business metrics and observations that wouldn't be apparent from statistics alone.

In order to demonstrate few presentation and data visualization methods, I would make use of the following three vignettes:

HEALTHCARE

Healthcare data is difficult to measure as it can have inconsistent definitions for variables and new researches coming out every day makes it one of the most difficult to measure and present. Driven by industry trends, the analysis of large sets of data, such as medication usage or hospital readmissions, has enabled health care providers and policymakers to make smarter decisions and predict future trends. Electronic medical records and decisions by governments and companies to share data have made for smarter decision-making that can save money and provide better care.

Source: ASPE computations from Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Survey (CPS-ASEC) microdata for Calendar Year 2012.

The graph above is a Pie Chart that depicts the spread of Insurance enrollment by non-elderly Employed and Unemployed adults in the United States for the year 2009-2010. Here we deal with a large number of dimensions, such as people, date, employment and insurance. By looking at the graph, we may easily conclude that among the employed adults, maximum are privately insured whereas among the unemployed adults, maximum are uninsured.


TRANSPORTATION

Traffic updates are always helpful in our daily life. They inform us of the traffic conditions on certain main routes, delay if any and thereby give us options to choose the best possible route. The transportation stats can also be shown by means of a bar chart or pie chart to show a graph of routes having the least distance and the least delay.

The map approach famously implemented by Google is one of the best resources out there to visualize this because if implemented as such, the users can easily see which route to avoid and which to take. A map also ensures that the user focuses on only those routes he's travelling in or wishes to travel. A color coding of the routes makes it easier to identify this and any estimates related to travel time or delay are embedded into the map based on user selection.

Source: Google Maps


INSURANCE

The primary value chain of an insurance company is seemingly short and simple. The core processes are to issue policies, collect premium payments, and process claims. The organization is interested in better understanding the metrics spawned by each of these events. Users want to analyze detailed transactions relating to the formulation of policies, as well as transactions generated by claims processing. They want to measure performance over time by coverage, covered item, policyholder, and sales distribution channel characteristics.

Having said that let's have a look at an important parameter in insurance sector i.e. the trends in Insurance premiums over the years and  the contribution by employees to Insurance in health care.


We can also show the visualizations using pie chart or bar graph. But a line graph represents trends in insurance payments in a better way. The line graph clearly depicts the increase or decrease in the insurance trends over the years as shown in the following graphs:

Source: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2012/09/11/the-average-employer-health-plan-now-costs-15980-and-thats-kind-of-good-news/


In conclusion, what we need to learn from this is that its important to know your audience and present the information to them in the best possible way for them to understand. Visualization should be Intuitive, Simple, Appealing and Interactive.