How does Data Visualization help in better decision making?

In today’s day and age, a picture is worth hundreds of essential data points sharing a goldmine of actionable intelligence. I am, of course, talking about representing data in a visual format, a.k.a data visualization.

You might be thinking, why is the world suddenly gung-ho about data visualization? Didn’t our ancestors paint the caves or something? Yes, they did, but something happened, read technology, which now allows us to capture data points and draw inferences from them.

Let me explain; if the hottest month of the year in Texas gets hotter every year, it’s probably global warming. Or, if a cluster of regional data-points shows similar health-related symptoms, it can be, you guessed it, a health-pandemic.

We live in a visual world, thus making sense of data through pictorial representation is a no-brainer. The same principle applies to business. Every business needs to understand what data is trying to tell them. That data can be from angry employees, few unhappy customers, or a sudden jump in sales.The importance of data visualization is dawning on businesses worldwide as it allows them to

See the data in a different light.

Data Visualization helps business stakeholders focus on the areas that require attention. Say the dashboard points toproduction being the bottleneck for a business. Now, increasing automation could solve the crisis.

Make better decisions faster.

As humans, we tend to process visuals better than any tedious tabular forms or reports. If the data communicates well, decision-makers can quickly take action based on the data’s insights. Few of the data-driven decisions include but are not limited to investment and divestment, sales and marketing budget, recruitment, and on-boarding.

Find hidden correlations

Not exactly your coffee leads to an increased productivity scenario. I am talking about tying marketing spend to actual sale conversions. C-Suite folks, I know you are all ears. Correlation of-course does not always imply causation, for I am sure sunny skies do not cause suicides.

Let me now point out the benefits of data visualization for a business. In case you don’t feel like trudging through this content, skip right to the infographic where I have summarized all the next paragraphs to follow. You are welcome.

Benefits of Data Visualization

1. Data Visualization is the key to unlock the real potential of Big Data. Most companies have been storing vast amounts of data that they want to compile and analyze. Any suitable data visualization tool can save the decision-makers hours of search-combing through reports and solve any data inefficiencies.
2. We humans process graphs, charts, and other visual forms more comfortably when compared to rows and columns of textual data. By comprehending faster, you can understand data correlations more clearly and consequently make faster decisions. But don’t take my word for it; this article says data visualization can shorten business meetings by 24%.
3. A big reveal of any differences in the trends and patterns is vital for any business’s survival. It is critical to know if the fall in sales is a dip or just an outlier data point. Data visualization can help in identifying errors and inaccuracies in data quickly.
4. Data visualization provides real-time information, which can help build quick strategies. E.g., Management can drill down on the operational challenges which are causing a decline in sales for a particular region.
5. Data visualization promotes storytelling in the most compelling way. Visuals can be used in the most meaningful way through bubble graphs, heat maps, or frame diagrams to convey the right message to the right audience.
6. Data visualization assists in exploring business insights to achieve business goals in the right direction. It helps to correlate the data from the visual representations or graphical representations. It allows for fast analysis and instantly digests critical metrics.
7. Unlike spreadsheets and slides, a data visualization tool enables enterprises to delve deeper into data and discover new patterns and trends in the data.
8. Without data visualization, businesses would have to spend tons of their time customizing reports and modifying dashboards, and replying to ad hoc requests. Data visualization tools optimize and instantly retrieve data via tailor-made reports, which significantly cuts down wasted hours.

Did you skip down to the picture before you finished reading the text? Most of us would do the same, and therein lies the importance of data visualization. It saves you the time and effort of going through all the data, and it conveys all the critical information, which helps you make better decisions faster.

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