The Value
Why Visual Analytics?
Technology is rapidly improving in such a way that we can track, store, and analyze more data than ever before. The problem is humans are not wired to read hundreds of rows of raw data, much less potentially billions of data records. We need a translator to make sense of data, in turn translating it into valuable applications.
Well, much like the side of the Rosetta Stone in Ancient Greek language was used to translate Egyptian Hieroglyphs, preattentive attributes, data visualization, and visual analytics can be used to effectively understand data in a matter of milliseconds.
Our Visual Analytics Process
The Playfair Venn
Are you doing visual analytics, or just analytics, or (gasp)… just data? Everything Playfair Data does, whether deciding how to structure a team for our clients or creating a training program for the Playfair+ training platform, revolves around a strategic framework called the Playfair Venn. The Playfair Venn is a mashup of two data visualization pioneers, our namesake William Playfair and John Venn, of Venn diagram fame.
The framework includes what we consider to be the four tenets of visual analytics: Strategy, Data Prep, Design, and Engineering. These four are equally weighted and skipping even a single skillset guarantees an analytics project will fall short of its potential.
Count the Nines
An introduction to preattentive attributes
See for yourself how the science behind data visualization helps you process insights faster and more accurately! Time yourself finding all the 9s. Then, try again using color or size to spot them faster—preattentive attributes help!
A Metaphor for Visual Analytics
The Playfair Perspective
We think of visual analytics as a mountain sitting next to a lake – a data lake, of course!
When you stand right next to the edge at the base of the mountain close to individual data points, you can’t see patterns or how the data fits together.
If you’re able to reach the summit of data visualization – the key to translating raw data – you gain a whole new understanding that helps drive decision making.
