With great power comes great responsibility. Data is that constantly flowing, indispensable power for businesses. But what will responsibly harness this potential and breathe life into business strategies?
According to a survey by the Corporate Renaissance group, 72% of businesses are currently collecting data they will never be able to use. As organisations grapple with vast and unwieldy data sets, the key lies in finding the most effective way to extract valuable insights and drive growth. Again, how to ensure the proper use of data?
The answer is simple - Cognitively Guided Visualisation.
It leverages human minds' most sensitive comprehension methodology, i.e., 'Visual Interpretation'. This approach goes beyond traditional data visualisation by incorporating principles from cognitive science and human-computer interaction. Studies have shown that 90% of information transmitted to the human brain is visual. It takes only 13 milliseconds for the brain to understand visual stimuli, which is 6 x 10^4 times faster than comprehending knowledge from text-based data. To top it all, 50% of our brain is active during visual processing! Inspired by such substantial and vast studies, cognitive analytics primarily focuses on designing visualisation that promotes smooth decision-making.
Cognitive Data Visualisation encapsulates robust data-driven strategies like none other; simply by exploiting humans' most basic ability. Let's see how.
Unpacking Efficiency:
Complex datasets are not only time-sucking but also overwhelming for individuals. Guided Data Visualisation significantly reduces the cognitive load on users by creating visualisations that minimize the efforts to process it. Designing user-centric visualisations enables stakeholders to focus their efforts on accelerating businesses through guided actionable strategies.
Promoting Simplicity:
The 'Purpose-driven design' functionality ensures that the dashboard answers targeted questions, reducing misinterpretations and eliminating unnecessary ornamentation of the analytics. It encourages straightforward and relevant business intelligence.
Underscoring Clarity:
One of the Gestalt principles [1] - 'The Law of Prägnanz' - states that our minds prefer to process complex data in the most organized manner. Infographics defined leveraging this principle promise structured decision-making. It enables stakeholders to have a clear vision of their targets.
Enhanced Interactivity:
It allows data to tell its story effectively. Interactivity enables users to navigate a dashboard dynamically using tooltips, filters, buttons, and much more. Thus, increasing engagement and user adaptability.
Guided Exploration:
Instead of overwhelming users with all the data at once, guided cognitive visualisations walk through a step-by-step exploration process. Presenting focussed views helps users to validate hypotheses and thus make informed decisions.
Multi-Dimensional Visualisation:
Making sense of billions of data points is just a few clicks away! Cognitive BI incorporates various charts, graphs, and maps to provide different perspectives of complex data sets.
Companies that adopted guided and advanced business intelligence have heavily benefitted, in terms of both time and money. I am not saying, the 2023 Gartner Magic Quadrant report says so [2]
One of the leading multi-business Fortune 200 companies incorporated data analytics and intelligence to increase transparency in operations across 1000s of locations worldwide. Incorporating cognitively guided data analytics assisted them in building a centralized data-driven solution. It enabled them to provide better quality of services, reduce wastage, and increase customer satisfaction. BI dashboards helped them to reduce response latency, accelerate strategizing, and improve collaboration across the organization.
In a data-governed world brimming with over 40 zettabytes of data, guided dashboard development tools, and services become essential companions for organizations seeking exponential growth. The Cognitive Data Visualisation approach aims to make data more understandable, actionable, and user-friendly, thereby aiding in better decision-making and insight generation.
Have any questions about how to transform your traditional BI or even Excel-based reporting into a decision-empowering machine? Feel free to ask us - hello@fluidata.co
Author: Tanishka Gupta
Senior Consultant, Data & Analytics, Fluidata Analytics LLP