Data visualization: you have to C it to believe it

 credit https://c1.staticflickr.com/9/8075/8448339735_e6626c28ff_b.jpg

I wrote this blog a couple of months before everyone started decrying the proliferation of fake news. Notice just about every fake news piece is accompanied by some sort of visualization, whether it is a graph or photo or video. They all capitalize on the "seeing is believing" concept, and one has to be extra vigilant about the lure of visual evidence.

As a regular big data blogger for several years now, I’ve noticed that in the last couple of years, data visualization has become a major focal point.  The old maxim of “Seeing is believing” is the real driving force behind visualizations of data.  While not all of us relate to spreadsheets, we tend to respond well to graphs, charts, and other visually appealing renderings of those numbers.  

As Brian Gentile, Senior VP and General Manager, TIBCO Analytics Product Group, TIBCO Software, wrote here there are business benefits to data visualizations.  They include making it easier to take in information, manipulating, data in various ways, and showing relationships.  On the latter, Gentile observes, that “finding these correlations among the data has never been more important.”

Indeed, the demand for that kind of instant insight that data visualizations can deliver is what drove Google to build its own data visualization product (currently in beta) called Data Studio. I saw a presentation of the features, including a report on the effectiveness of Olympics ads. It was that particular visualization that made me think of the danger inherent in relying completely on the story presented graphically.

In that analysis of the effects of ads on consumers, the report stresses that it asked people who saw the ads of particular brands what effect it had on their perception of them. Of course, the graphs are what grab your attention and that show that that 34.9% of viewers recall seeing the Coke ad. The graph does not show what the text admits that overall “only about 8% of viewers can recall both the brand and product in a specific advertisement.” So the graph here implies a much more positive effect for ad recall than the overall data actually shows.

 The next bar graph shows you that “Consumers who saw the ads were 18% more positive about the brand and were 16% more likely to find out more or purchase the product in the ad.” These are fairly modest numbers that don’t necessarily promise much bang for sponsor bucks. So this is followed by a third graph with the title “Which ads showed the greatest response?” That shows really impressive numbers ranging from 112%- 142% for the top 3 brands.

A mere glance would make you think that these show amazing results for the marketing efforts. Then when you read a bit, you realize that they merely reflect the increase in search.  In other words, the graph does not show that the McDonald’s commercial resulted in an increase of 42% in sales, merely an increase of that amount in online search that includes the brand. Still, you may say that is a positive metric that could possibly translate into improved sales down the road. But the chain of causation here is missing a few links. 

I got to speak to the Google people about Data Studio and asked if they had even determined if the people who were doing the search were the ones who had seen the ads as was the case for the first two graphical presentations. They had not.  True, it doesn’t say that the graph refers to the people who had seen the ads, but the context would make the viewer think that it does, and not everyone would even think to ask annoying questions like I do.

Ultimately, what makes data visualization so effective at conveying a point is that they don’t require much analysis on the viewer’s end because they’ve already done that kind of thinking for you. That’s both seductive and potentially misleading.

That’s exactly why we have to be careful about not merely accepting the visually expressed story at face value. Any data visualization should be subjected to a triple C test. 

Read about it here.

Also check out http://www.clickhole.com/article/greatest-all-time-statistical-portrait-babe-ruth-3983 

The one on the Babe versus the #12 may be my favorite example of the abuse of data visualization, and I'm not even a sports fan

Related post: 

EVERYBODY LIES WITH VISUALIZATIONS

Better tracking for better results

A nonprofit adopts a health information technology platform to decrease challenging conduct and restrictive residential living for people with behavioral issues.

Services for the UnderServed (SUS) is a New York City-based nonprofit organization that provides $185 million in services to individuals with disabilities, people living in poverty and those facing homelessness. The organization, which has a staff of close to 2,000, needed a way to track measurable results for people with behavioral issues, so it adopted a health information technology (HIT) platform.

HIT platforms make it much easier for health care organizations to gather and report results of value-based care delivery to governmental organizations and foundations. Proven success rates can also pave the way to get program funding

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Health IT Platform Results in Better Patient Care

Cost effective social media marketing

Reaching one's target market efficiently is one of the most appealing aspects about placing ads on social media. But to keep those ads effective takes a combination of accurate measurements and human creativity working together at a pace that keeps up with the demand for effective reach through new content. That's what ReFuel4, a Facebook 2016 Innovation Spotlight winner in the Creativity Category award, offers marketers.

Vernon Vasu, ReFUEL4's CMO says that two principle underlie the way the platform operates:

1. The vast amount of data associated with marketing campaigns are best dealt with by machine learning and AI, but
2. Creativity is still the province of humans.

Setting up a way for the two to work together with maximum impact and efficiency is what their Automated Creative Refresh platform is all about.

Read more in A Pay-for-Performance Platform for Marketers

A smart solution for restoring independence to wounded veterans

from https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/Reliance_Smart_Client.jpg

Smart homes represent a new level of convenience with the added cool factor of “look what I can do with this technology.” But for people who have limited mobility or prosthetics in place of limbs it can mean reclaiming an independent life. That’s why the Gary Sinise Foundation, created by actor Gary Sinise, launched the RISE program.

Read more in 

Smart Homes Restore Independence for Veterans

Getting the healing power of music to more patients

from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Maroper_Music.jpg

 When Bob Marley said, "When good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain," he was on to something that researchers are now bringing to light.

In "Music as Medicine," the American Psychological Association named numerous studies that documented the benefits patients derive from music. It promotes healing in a number of ways: It can alleviate anxiety, reduce stress, lower blood pressure, mitigate pain, and even boost the immune system.

Given the obvious benefits to patients—as well as to caregivers and staff ,who also get a lift from hearing the music—Griffin says that hospitals want to be included in the organization's program. However, the organization's growth has been fairly slow due to the manual processes involved in recruiting volunteers and matching up musicians and guide volunteers with the hospitals.

Read more in Software Helps a Nonprofit Bring Music to Patients

Identifying the caterpillars the will become butterflies

Photo by Ariella Brown on https://www.pinterest.com/writewaypro/

As Wayne Gretzky famously observed, "You miss 100% of the shots you don't take." What holds for sports also applies to business opportunities. If you don't look into new market areas, you won't disocver new areas for expansion. But how to do so intelligently? That's where predictive analytics comes into play.

Whereas almost all large companies are already using predictive analytics in some form, not all have tapped into the power of anticipatory analytics, which can identify changes in companies before they happen. Recent developments in the anticipatory analytics space fuel a business solution Dun & Bradstreet refers to as "material change"—the ability to identify "the caterpillars that will turn into butterflies," Nipa Basu, chief analytics officer at Dun & Bradstreet explains.

Read more in http://www.baselinemag.com/analytics-big-data/benefits-of-predictive-and-anticipatory-analytics.html#sthash.emrIGaLj.dpuf

Location, location, location with a dash of analytics

"Location, location, location.” That’s the mantra of the real estate profession. It sounds simple enough, but the question is what is one looking for to identify a desirable location? Now data analytics can provide a clear answer for at least one type of market: those who seek homes within commuting distance of jobs that provide a living wage.

Opportunity Score is a data-driven tool built by the real estate company Redfin in partnership with the White House Opportunity Project. It identifies which residential areas offer affordable housing and are within a 30 minute carless commute of jobs that pay at least $40K a year.

In its blog, Redfin explained what went into powering Opportunity Score....

Considering a move, or just curious about how your own city ranks? You can plug it in to get the score. Just don’t expect to find a perfect 100. As Redfin explains, a city can start out with the 100 because of the number of jobs that meet the criteria, but then be knocked down due to the home prices. There’s also quite a difference between scores for cities in general and addresses in particular.

The highest score it assigned to a city is a 70, and that went to San Jose where 78% of jobs meet the criteria. But that’s not the only thing that counts. The same job percentage was found in Detroit, the city with the lowest score -- just 3%. Individual addresses around Detroit, though can reflect very high scores, with, for example, one address on Harrison Street earning the description “Job Seeker's Paradise” with a score of 94.

Read more in 

If You Lived Here, You’d Be Home Now