Information and knowledge visualization for business applications

“You are the storyteller of your own life, and you can create your own legend,

or not.”

Isabel Allende

+ possibly share it online

Get inspiration at:

Google images: visual resume

http://www.vizualresume.com

http://feltron.com

http://pinterest.com/rtkrum/infographic-visual-resumes/

http://mashable.com/2011/02/21/dynamic-digital-resumes/

http://mashable.com/2011/01/17/tips-video-resumes/

Guidelines:

Proceed with caution and focus:

• Less is more
• Representing magnitude is tricky

Examples:

 Select a set of dominating colors

• Red-orange-yellow-white works for costs
• Green-light green - light brown-dark brown-grey-white works for atlases
• Grayscale is unambiguous but has limited range

Seth Godin: ‘No more than six words on a slide. EVER.’

Presentation Zen: min. font 30pt

Slideology: depends on the medium

and distance of audience -> test!

1. Color

2. Direction

3. Icons and symbols

5. Visual metaphors

6. Focus of attention

7. Nature of thought

Logistics

Course material available at: http://sabrinabresciani.com/lectures/ikv/

Password: IKV17

Literature

Eppler, M. & Bresciani, S. (2015). Working Visually (extracts), =mcm Institute, University of St.

Gallen: Switzerland.

Case study:

Kernbach, S. & Eppler, M. (2014). Brand Strategizing with a Twist. Visual Practices in Professional

Services Firms: The Case of Interbrand. The case centre.

Information and knowledge visualization

for business applications

Grading

50% Individual examination paper: Visual Resume

Deadline: May 3rd before midnight, by email

50% Group presentation - no PPT allowed

Group work date and topic should be sent by email before March 8th

with group members names. First-come first-served

Schedule

Class meets on Wednesday 14:15-16:00 Room 07-001

Prof. Dr. Sabrina Bresciani

University of St. Gallen

=mcm Institute

bresciani.sabrina@gmail.com

Master course: 8,032

Your interests:

Rules of the game

Introductions

Respect

Friendly and safe environment

If you were an animal,

which animal would you be?

Got questions? E-mail me (expect an answer within 2 business days)

Weekends are not business days

"I can't draw" -> no problem! Technology will save us

Contexts

Presenting

Visual CV

Slide:ology by Nancy Duarte (2008)

No mind maps, no tag clouds,

no slide share, no pie charts,

no decoration of classic CVs, please!

Meetings

“Presentations have become the de facto business communication tool.

Companies are started, products are launched, climate systems are saved –

Possibly based on the quality of presentations”

Nancy Duarte

Goal: map your resume/curriculum/life/portfolio

Application: as addition/structure to your CV/portfolio, map of your website/blog, etc.

Format: static, online, map, metaphor, diagram, sketch, video, poster, animation, interactive, website, etc.

facilitation and organizational learning

Creative & Professional

=> It needs to be targeted to the audience (consultancy vs. bank)

=> use visualization to give insight!

Not for decoration

Duarte, N., Slide:ology, Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, 2008: XVIII

Structuring

“How can we know what we think before we see what we say?” Karl Weick based on F. Scott Fitzgerald

An Inconvenient truth, 2006: Documentary film

(Social)

Entrepreneurship

(On your website, blog, LinkedIn, Pinterest...)

Be prepared to see it go viral

Be honest! You should create the visual CV by yourself

To ensure honesty, 2 students will be selected to re-create their visual CV in front of the professor

Whitespace

“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”

Al Gore presentation:

created by Duarte Design

with Apple’s Keynote

+ Illustrator, Photoshop, AfterEffects

(for more complex animations) and videos

Why Apple’s Keynote?

Steve Jobs, quoting Leonardo Da Vinci

Data

- anti-aliases fonts and graphics

- scales vector objects

Strategizing

Intercultural

Examples

http://presentationzen.blogs.com/presentationzen/2006/06/duarte_design_h.html

and performances

The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs (Gallo, 2010)

Communication

How many words? Which font size?

How many slides?

Gallo, C., The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, McGraw Hill: New York [etc.], 2010

Resources:

Business Model Canvas

Average: 1 slide every 2 minutes

Guy Kawasaki: 10/20/30 rule for entrepreneurs pitch: ‘ten slides, last no more than twenty minutes, and contain no font smaller than thirty points’

Depends on the style - fast paced presentations are intriguing

Dashboards

(= show visually what's going on)

Visualization is a universal language.

a template

Data Visualization Tools

Video

Yes

No

True?

Benefits

Visual display of the most important information needed to achieve one or more objectives

which fits entirely on a single computer screen

so it can be monitored at a glance

for creating charts, Gantt charts, diagrams, calendars/schedulers, maps, tables, sparklines, etc.

2. Providing double cues

1. Overcoming linguistic barriers

Case study: branding strategy at Interbrand

http://www.rleonardi.com/interactive-resume/

Anychart

http://prezi.com/lupa1gyslxq-/my-visual-cv/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

Infographics

Beyond PPT

Source: United Nations ESCWA public report

Tools that do not require design skills

Jamae Mosque, Singapore

(10m users)

What

Why

Digital

(psedu) 3D

Conventions of pictorial representation are culture-bound (Scott, 1990)

+ integrating simulations , holistic

- time-consuming to develop.

Tools: emaze

Price

3. Seeing the Big Picture

4. Surface misunderstanding

Limited free version

EDU: 39.99 $ for 12 months; lite version 15$ a month, pro version 29$ a month

Free version is powerful

$12 .95per user/month for more flexibility

+ complex animations, interaction

- time consuming to prepare

4. Humor

Limited free version

Pro version $36 a year for more templates, icons, charts

Pros

Videos

and the relations

Pros

Screen recording

Video editing

multipurpose tool (poster, menu, book cover, headers, invitations), 8,000 templates in free version.

Different canvas sizes; photo filters

(Adobe Flash)

600 templates 4000 icons/images

Charts integration with surveys

Tutorials

In Windows 10

Atomi

Camtasia

1000 templates (Reporting, Timeline, Process) with Pro version. Can show grid

atomisystems.com

In the United States it is typical and welcome to use humor in business conversations (Lewis, 1999), but in many other countries it is perceived as inappropriate, offensive and might not even be understood as humor

+ Most advanced screen recording tool (parts of screen, animations, etc)

- Not free:

Free:

Moviemaker (Win), imovie (Mac)

Most advanced:

Premiere (Win), FinalCut (Mac)

Hit the Windows key and G button

Click: 'Yes, this is a game'

Press the red symbol for recording

+Advanced options

+ Free with no recording time limits for non commercial use

Commercial use: $149/license

http://shop.techsmith.com/store/techsm/en_GB/home/Currency.EUR/ccRef.en_US

+ Free

- No advanced options

Cons

Free version has very few templates

Animated videos

Free version allows only low res

downloads

Powtoon

Videoscribe

www.powtoon.com

www.videoscribe.co

+ engage an audience emotionally

- require some video editing skills

(PowToons, Videoscribe)

Price

Free: max 5 min and low res video

Pro: $ 19 per month: up to 15 min videos

7 days free trial

€20 / month or €132/year

Pros

Free up to 5 min videos

Pros

Flexible, includes animated images

Cons

Cartoons style

7 main factors of cross-cultural differences

Degrafa

more tools...

+ holistic logic, zoom in-out, easy to create

http://www.businessmodelgeneration.com/canvas

3D virtual worlds:

(SecondLife)

Psedu 3D (emaze)

Flash animations

Videos, and animated films

Mapping Software:

(Prezi, lets-focus.com, mind-maps

Folios

(Hypefolio, Sway)

Posters, murals

Templates + post-its

Sketching

Tools: Prezi

+ easy to create

Metaphors fulfill their function only if they can be understood cross-culturally (Hogan 2007)

+free

+ canvas logic

offers overview

- printable pdf

is heavy

Tip: Open pdf with Adobe Acrobat Pro > File> Save as: "Reduced Size PDF"

Analogue

Only a handful of sports are well known globally (Beamer & Varner, 2008)

Price

Limited free version

Business version: 804$ a year

Free only for students

$49/month for businesses for high res

Pros

Free: up to 3 projects, download jpg/png

Standard: 120$/year - up to 15 Projects

Complete: 228$/year - Download as HTML5

and collect audience input

Pros

Data visualization

Embedding and

Integration into existing websites

100+ infographic templates

Can create interactive pdfs

Cons

Multipurpose tool: Visual stories, presentations, infographics, reports, web content

Cons

No free version for businesses

+ physical presence,

- cannot be seen clearly

Expensive

Limited number of templates

No flexibility of layout

Cons

Not specific for infographics

Source: http://www.slideshare.net/Alex.Osterwalder/business-models-beyond-profit-social-entrepreneurship-lecture-wise-etienne-eichenberger-iqbal-quadir-grameen-bank-grameen-phone

+ personal touch, allows interaction

- cannot be seen clearly; need sketching skills

5. Prevent personal conflict

Field dependence-independence (Witkin and Berry, 1975)

* Power distance

Required reading: Stephen Few (2006). Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data. O'Reilly Media

www.visualisingdata.com

Westerners: favor abstract and analytic reasoning, rules, categorization

East Asians: holistic view of the world, focus on relationships and similarities

(Nisbett & Miyamoto, 2005)

Visualization for SE

www.perceptualedge.com

Useful guide: http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/Whitepapers/Common_Pitfalls.pdf

What is SE

Idea generation

Bresciani S., Eppler M. (2010). Glocalizing visual communication in organizations,

In: Bertagni, B., La Rosa M., Salvetti, F., Glocal working (pp. 233-251). Milan: Franco Angeli.

Our studies

Strategy communication across cultures

Based in Zurich

Network security, application delivery, identity management and global connectivity

24x7

www.open.ch

Communicating strategy

- with text vs. visual

- with culture-specific visuals

Fingerprint

Idea promotion & fundrising

Glocalized websites

Dashboard

Source: Bresciani S., Eppler M., Tan, M., (2011). Communicating Strategy Across Cultures with Visualization: An Experimental Evaluation. Academy of Management annual meeting, 12-16 August 2011: San Antonio, Texas. Carolyn Dexter Award nominee.

Coca Cola around the world

Does it work?

360 experienced managers in Europe and Asia

Results:

- strategy is perceived as better when it is visualized

- subjects are more committed to implement it!

Cultural preferences:

- Westerners prefer linear abstract diagrams

- Non-westerners prefer metaphors and story-telling

Germany

crowded, people, faces

USA

very structured, clear categories

rules

vs.

relationships

China

External

Internal

Numbers

Knowledge Visualization:

What’s the difference?

Information Visualization:

“designates all graphic means that can be used to represent and convey complex insights, experiences, or capabilities” (Eppler & Burkhard, 2006)

“Knowledge Visualization is expressing concepts through meaningful graphical mapping. “ (Bertschi, Bresciani et al., 2011).

“the use of computer-supported, interactive, visual representations of abstract data to amplify cognition” (Card et al. 1999)

Domain: computer science

Domain: (knowledge) management and education

Similar concepts: conceptual visualization, qualitative graphic representation, infographic

http://www.infovis-wiki.net/index.php/Information_Visualization

Concepts / ideas

Source: Eppler, M.J. & Burkhard, R., Knowledge Visualization, Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management, Idea Group Inc., 2006.

Source: Stefan Bertschi, Sabrina Bresciani, et al., "What is Knowledge Visualization? Perspectives on an Emerging Discipline," iv, pp.329-336, 2011 15th International Conference on Information Visualisation, 2011

Eppler, M.J. & Burkhard, R., Visual Representations in Knowledge Management: framework and cases, Journal of Knowledge Management, 4(11), 112-122, 2007.

Knowledge Visualization

Information Visualization

1. Sketches

2. Diagrams

 To compare

Treemaps

Rectangular, space-filling approach for visualizing hierarchical data (multilevel / nested)

Parallel Coordinates

For visualizing highly multivariate datasets

 Overview-zoom

The tree nodes are encapsulated into the area of their parent node. The size of the single nodes is determined proportionally in relation to all other nodes of the hierarchy by an attribute of the node (Johnson and Shneiderman, 1991)

When to use which chart type?

Source: http://www.zukunftskongress.uni-freiburg.de/ergebnisdokumentation

In this age of information overload, a new solution is emerging that could help us cope with the oceans of data surrounding and swamping us.

It's called information visualisation.

Treemap

Standard and Poor's 500 index stocks categorized by sectors and industries. Size represents market cap.

Source https://finviz.com/map.ashx?t=sec&st=w1

www.macrofocus.com/infoscope/

Case: UBS Hand drawing library

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8381597.stm

• Supports client communication
• Creates involvement and invites participation
• Creates personal touch and simplicity

Tegarden, P., Business Information Visualization, Communications of AIS, Vol. 1 (4), 1999.

Fishbone/Ishikawa diagram

Source: compiled from www.corda.com

Standard and Poor's 500 index stocks categorized by sectors and industries. Size represents market cap.

Source: https://finviz.com/map.ashx?t=sec&st=w1

Roam, Dan. 2008. The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures. Portfolio / Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

3. Visual Metaphors

4. Knowledge Maps

5. Interactive vis.

Mindmap

http://www.gapminder.org/

Virtual Worlds

Primary tasks that an information visualization system

should support:

The information seeking mantra (Shneiderman, 1996):

"Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on demand"

"Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on demand"

"Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on demand"

"Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on demand"

"Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on demand"

"Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on demand"

"Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on demand"

"Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on demand"

"Overview first, zoom and filter, then details-on demand"

Training

Practice!

Use Gapminder to develop an (insightful) information visualization

Be prepared to present it to the class

Concept map

Lego Serious Play for strategy development and corporate identity workshops

Source: Ben Shneiderman, The Eyes Have It: A Task by Data Type Taxonomy for Information Visualizations. In Proceedings of the IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages, pages 336-343, Washington. IEEE Computer Society Press, 1996.

Source: www.knowledge-communication.org www.lego.com

Voting/ Decision making

Schmeil, A., Eppler, M.J. (2008). Collaboration Patterns for Knowledge Sharing and Integration in Second Life: A Classification of Virtual 3D Group Interaction Scripts. Conference Proceedings I-KNOW 08, Graz, Austria

Eppler, M.J. & Mengis, J., Management Atlas, Management-Methoden für den Arbeitsalltag, Hanser, 2011. ISBN-10: 3-446-42701-5

Theoretical and technical bases

Disadvantages

Why discussing disadvantages?

• To understand the most common and dangerous problems
• To learn to recognize them (evaluation)
• To avoid them in our work (creation)

• not to diminish the value of visualization!

Tools

Layout

Color

Perception

Advantages

CARMEN

• C oordination: it facilitates interaction.
• A ttention: it is noticed.
• R ecall: it is remembered.
• M otivation: it mobilizes the viewers.
• E laboration: it fosters understanding.
• N ew insights: it enables new discoveries.

Proportions

Purpose:

• Attention
• Distinguish
• Increases the number of dimensions
• Increase the appeal

Golden Section

Fibonacci

Bitmap and vectorial images

Premise: Seeing as an assumption-based

(Re-) Construction Process

Classification

Examples

Alignment

Color deficiencies

Non professional

Professional

Note: You can convert vectorial images into pixels but not vice-versa

Why?

Structuring

Overload

Rule of thirds

Test: print in black&white

Test for vision acuity:

http://www.xrite.com/custom_page.aspx?pageid=77&lang=en

Theory: Gestalt

Recall

All Forms of Visualization need to respect the Gestalt Laws

Why? Dual coding theory & Picture superiority effect

“Visualization provides multiple retrieval paths for accessing knowledge”

Aligned: left (or right)

Aligned: center

• Gestalt: form or configuration

• Idea: forms or patterns transcend the stimuli used to create them.
• Why do patterns emerge?
• Under what circumstances?

Dual Coding Theory

Japanese train time table

(principle used also by NLP)

Sources: Tufte E., Envisioning Information, Graphic Press, Connecticut, 1990

Source: Koffka, K., 1935, The Principles of Gestalt Psychology, Harcourt Brace, New York

Reading patterns

Fonts

Information is processed through one or two channels:

-the verbal/textual and

-the non-verbal or imagery (visual and spatial)

=> Using both channels together increases recall, engagement and attention (Paivio 1969)

Motivation

Please draw a house

Insight

Source: Duarte, N., Slide:ology, Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly Media, 2008

Business examples

What? Reasoning, evaluating, problem solving

Why? Lower computational effort compared

to sentential representations

(a-ha effect)

Why? Visuospatial reasoning (Tversky 2004)

i.e. pattern recognition, search, overview-zoom

Picture Superiority Effect

(Snodgrass Stewart & Stewart, 2001)

“the use of images in cognitive tasks leads to systematically higher recall than the mere use of words, thanks to the additional encoding enabled by pictures and their distinctiveness”

Source: Larkin and Simon 87: Why a Diagram is (Sometimes) Worth Ten Thousand Words

Visuospatial reasoning

Closure

Tversky (2004) and Larkin and Simon (1987)

When visualization is used, cognitive abilities for reasoning, evaluating and solving problems are enhanced

Visuospatial advantages (mapping):

• Structure
• Organizes information
• Reduce cognitive load
• Enhance representation of relationships among complex constructs (O’Donnel et al. 2002)
• Salience (Green; Suthers, 2001)

Color space

*Salience = how a representation facilitates focusing

and processing certain information, at the expense of others

Let's practice

Source: Tufte, E. R., The visual display of quantitative information. Cheshire, Connecticut,

Graphic Press, 1986.

Font: Frutiger

Connectedness

Improving visualizations: NYT case

Help the New York Times to present the information with a visualization which is: informative and not misleading

Figure and Ground

Note: the same color appears differently in RGB than in CMYK!

Why?

Source: Toschi, L. (Ed.), Il linguaggio dei nuovi media, Apogeo: Milano, 2001

Improving visualizations: NASA case

Does it seem easy? Obvious?

INSIGHT!

The evening before the launch,

the rocket engineers and managers considered the question:

“Will the rubber O-rings fail catastrophically tomorrow

because of the cold weather?”

Tufte, E. R. (1997): Visual Explanations. Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphic Press.

7 people died

Challenger (NASA) 1986