This blog provides show notes for our May 27, 2021, webinar, “Power of Data Visualization.” The webinar was presented by Syncfusion developer Subhasree V. A recording of the webinar is embedded below. The Q&A portion of the webinar is provided at the end of this blog.
Overview
This webinar covers the following topics:
- Why data visualization?
- Benefits of data visualization
- How is data visualization categorized in Bold Reports?
- Use cases with examples
Why Data Visualization?
- Humans more easily grasp information through visualization.
- It conveys a story to decision makers, allowing them to act more quickly than if the data were presented as reports.
- It helps us to understand how the business data is being interpreted to determine business decisions.
- Leading the target audience to focus on business insights to discover areas that require attention.
Benefits of Data Visualization?
When considering business strategies and goals, data visualization benefits decision makers in several ways to improve data insights. Let’s explore six major benefits
- It helps to analyze reports regarding sales, marketing strategies, and product interest.
- It allows decision makers to be notified quickly of new data insights and take necessary actions for business growth.
- Visualizing your data helps quickly identify any errors in the data.
- By designing your visuals in a meaningful way, you help the target audience grasp the story in a single glance.
- Exploring the insights is important for business users or executives to set the right path to achieving the business’ goals.
- It is used to discover the latest trends in your business to provide quality products and identify problems before they arise.
How is data visualization categorized in Bold Reports?
In Bold Reports we can achieve data visualization in better way using
- Charts
- Maps
- Gauges
- Indicators
Chart Report Item
To transform numbers, figures, and measurements into visual information and present it in a meaningful way, RDL standard reporting provides a chart data region.
How is Chart Categorized?
In Bold Reports, the chart is classified into 3 categories
- Comparing distinct categories
- Understanding relationships within data
- Analyzing data distribution over time
Comparing distinct Categories
To compare distinct categories (dimensions) with measurable values, the following chart types are preferable.
Let’s see few use cases.
- Column chart can be used to visualize age distribution in countries.
- We can use stacked bar chart to visualize the products and its sales amount.
- 100% stacked column chart can be used to display the percentage of gross domestic product growth of countries.
Understanding relationships within data
To understand relationships among individual parts of a whole data collection, the following chart types are preferable:
Let’s see few use cases for understanding relationships within data
- We can use a pie chart to show expense statistics.
- The Doughnut chart can be used to represent the sales of each department in percentage.
- We can use a pyramid chart to visualize data in hierarchical structure. For example, a food pyramid, population pyramid, or business management positions.
Analyzing data distribution over time
To identify distribution of data over a time period and understand the outliers, trends, and range of data values, the following chart types are preferable:
Let’s see few use cases
- We can use a stacked area chart for trends in the sales of product.
- Line chart is used to visualize stock price analysis of two products for a certain period.
Gauge Report Item
Gauges are used to visualize key performance indicators (KPIs) that track the progress made toward achieving a target or goal.
How is Gauge Categorized?
The gauges can be classified into Radial and Linear
It can be used in a wide range of report scenarios, such as:
- Sales: target vs. achieved.
- Consumer Packaged Goods: demand vs. production.
- Retail: goods vs. sold.
- Rainfall: predicted vs. accumulated.
Let’s see a company revenue report that analyzes estimated versus actual revenue per year for five consecutive years
Map Report Item
A map can be used to present analytical data with a geographical background.
Use Cases
Map report item can be used in the following scenarios, such as population density, election results, sales, weather, and popularity of social networking sites.
Indicator Report Item
Indicators are minimal representations of gauges that visualize the state of particular data at a glance.
Use Cases
we can use state indicators in reports to show the following:
- Trends by using trending-up, flat (no change), or trending-down arrows.
- State by using commonly recognized symbols such as checkmarks and exclamation marks.
- Conditions by using commonly recognized shapes such traffic lights and signs.
- Ratings by using common recognized shapes and symbols that show progress such number of quadrants in a circle and stars.
Let’s see an example report, which shows smiley indicators visualizing the state of average response times.
Conclusion
In your day-to-day life, surely, you will come across data visualizations such as charts, maps, gauges, indicators. So, you can generate various types of day-to-day business reports using data visualization. This webinar covered the basics of data visualization, and how to design paginated reports using data visualization in Bold Reports. We hope you enjoyed this webinar and that you’ll keep an eye out for future Bold Reports webinars.
Recommended resources (related links):
Bold Reports website: boldreports.com
Bold Reports documentation: help.boldreports.com
Ticket Sales Analysis Report: Data Visualization
Webinar Q&A
Q1: How can I embed the designer in my standalone application?
You can seamlessly integrate our component into your application. We support JS, Angular, Blazor, ASP.NET Core, ASP.NET MVC, and ASP.NET WebForms. Please refer to our documentation for more information. (https://help.boldreports.com/embedded-reporting/)
Q2: Is it possible to export a report without previewing it?
Yes, you can export reports without previewing it using our Report Writer server-side control. In addition, you need the PhantomJS application to export data-visualization reports.
Q3: What are the data-providers available by default?
The most commonly used data-providers such as SQL, PostgreSQL, MySQL, WebAPI, and etc. are supported by Bold Reports. You can refer to our documentation for more information. (https://help.boldreports.com/enterprise-reporting/designer-guide/report-designer/manage-data/data-connectors/)
If you are unable to find the data-provider you are looking for, extend our source and create your own extension for the desired data-provider. We are also aggressively working on more data providers. You can submit the feedback in our portal, and we will consider implementing it as an on-demand feature.
Q4: Does the designer support Blazor?
Yes, the designer supports Blazor framework through our JavaScript controls. We also plan to implement native Blazor components in the near future.
Q5: Will we have access to the recording of this seminar as well?
Yes. We will share the video recording in our YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBTBJNc53OASH1QBdmu3J4g.
Q6: Are we covering anything else besides a “how to” on building reports?
This webinar planned for how to use data visualization components in Report building and upcoming webinar will cover other topics such as deployments, what’s new etc.
Q7: Is it possible to email the presentation to Bernie@maroonsoftware.com?
Yes, we will send a follow up email
Q8: How can we add more fields in mouseover column tooltip in column bar chart?
As for now, this is not supported. We will check the possibilities with our development team and get back to you., Now we are not allowed in Bold Reports due to multiple chart category not supported in chart component. It is considered as feature request and it will be available in future releases.
Q9: Can we draw a chart with line and bar?
Currently it is not possible to have two different series in one chart. It’s a feature in designer and will implement in future releases
Q10: Is it possible to add a chart inside a Tablix row/column and toggle it show and hide?
Yes, you can add a chart inside Tablix and customize it. Refer to the following link
