Data visualisations are a vital addition to any business intelligence (BI) report, allowing the viewer to understand and interpret complex information. When used effectively, they can be used to bolster decision-making, present evidence of your team’s successes, and even influence the way we think.
Strong examples of data visualisation provide a no-fuss, clear and concise message to the intended audience. Rather than having to do mental mathematics to work out the meaning behind large (and sometimes not terribly interesting!) amounts of data, the best visualisations present only the most useful information, in an accessible and appealing way.
In this article, we’ve asked our team of BI experts at RWA Pharmacy to provide some expert insights in how to properly utilise data visualisation as part of your overall strategy, and how BI tools can help.
Data visualisation refers to the graphic depiction of a particular data set, to make it easier to understand. Some popular forms of data visualisation include graphs, diagrams, and infographics. Translating raw data into a single image, or set of images, allows us to demonstrate data trends quickly and with ease.
Effective data visualisation techniques are crucial in today’s data-driven world. The demand for business data scientists and intuitive BI software is growing. However, it can be beneficial for staff at every level, including business owners, to be well-versed in data visualisation techniques, and sharing information to a wide audience.
An infographic is a graphic arrangement of images and text, with the purpose of communicating information to the audience in a simple, and pleasing way. They can be used to present complex data-sets or information clearly and effectively.
It's proven that humans naturally receive and retain information better via images, and can process them faster than text. When you have too much information, it can be difficult to present it visually and without making the infographic appear too busy and cluttered to be effective. We’ve included an example below, to demonstrate how infographics can be used successfully.
Infographics, or data visualisation which take the form of illustrations, encourage viewers to think differently when presented with information. By experimenting with different colours, you can also achieve different outcomes. For instance, using green to demonstrate positive growth, or red to highlight areas for improvement.
Infographics are a valuable way to increase the viewers’ level of engagement with the information, and even get buy-in from stakeholders within, or outside your business.
This is why data visualisations are important and vital in today’s data-driven world, as human attention spans decrease. It’s so important to present ‘boring’/‘heavy’ information in the form of visuals that are clear and easy for our brains to understand. The trick is to turn your data into a visual your audience wants to see.
This before and after of pharmacy dispensing data from the NHS is a perfect example of how you can transform your data to improve engagement and business performance.
This is just a small screenshot of the huge data set that was available.
(Publicly available NHS data, February 2019)
A more attractive and engaging representation of the data
This blog by Paul Counter is a great demonstration of how we turned a large piece of data from the publicly available NHS insights into an illustration on How RWA Independent Multiples Outperform the Industry. By using colours and graphics you can make your data more eye catching, fun and crucially more engaging. Keeping to your companies brand guidelines will also leave a lasting impression on your target audience.
Although illustrations and infographics tend to be the most visually appealing to viewers, there are some instances where traditional data visualisation methods are essential. There are few better ways to demonstrate data trends over a period of time than with a classic graph.
Even if you don’t have access to the latest BI software, linear graphs are simply to create from a dataset in both Excel and Google Sheets. Whether you are using them as part of an infographic, or a stand-alone data visualisation, graphs are familiar and easy to understand to most people in the business world.
When you wish to demonstrate growth, how seasonal changes can affect revenue, or even standard retail metrics such as footfall or average transaction value (ATV), bar graphs and line graphs can be a highly effective tool.
Whereas bar graphs are powerful in showing data trends over a period of time, if you’re keen to demonstrate proportionality, you can’t go wrong with a trust pie chart. Sometimes known as a circle chart, or seen as more modern variations such as the doughnut chart, pie charts are a great way to break down a dataset or metric by category.
If you wish to demonstrate the age ranges of customers visiting your retail pharmacy, for instance, breaking the total visitors down into categories can help inform decisions around merchandising, and even your overall sales strategy.
Pie charts have a wide variety of applications, and most importantly, can break down complex figures, so that they can be understood at a glance.
Business intelligence refers to the various processes by which data is collected, managed, and applied to a wider business strategy. Data visualisation techniques allow us to organise large and complex datasets, to be easily understood by stakeholders.
Whereas business intelligence may include hundreds of individual data points, a data visualisation such as a graph will organise that data and display it in an accessible and simple to understand way.
Without effective data visualisation, it can be tricky to communicate findings from large datasets or research to those who need the information. For instance, business owners, executives, or shareholders. With a strong data visualisation strategy, you will be able to communicate key messages, without confusing your audience with unnecessary information.
The four main types of data visualisation are:
Although there are dozens of ways to present data visually, most forms of data visualisation can fit into these four main categories.
By utilising data visualisation in a considered an effective way, you will find that it is easier to explain complex ideas to your audience, as well as demonstrating relationships between types of data, or trends which appear over time. By simplifying data in this way, and making it accessible to the average person, you may find it easier to get buy-in from your audience and to influence them with the message you wish to share.
There are a wide range of business intelligence tools and software available on the market, and most office suites such as Microsoft or Google will have some basic data visualisation options available.
However, for automated reporting which is tailored specifically for the retail pharmacy industry, we are proud of our bespoke BI solutions. By utilising your existing PMR data, among other metrics, our personalised KPI dashboards can help you to align your sales strategy with your long-term business goals.
RWA Pharmacy are industry leaders when it comes to providing detailed easy to read reports, empowering our customers to make better, more accurate, and faster decisions.
Real World Analytics delivers the right information, at the right time, to the right person to make strategic decisions to improve overall efficiency and profitability in the business. To request a callback, visit our contact page and a member of our BI solutions team will be in touch shortly to discuss your options. Or, for more insights into how to manage your pharmacy using data insights, you can visit the RWA Pharmacy blog for more expert articles.
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