Beginning Power BI for Business Users: Learning to Turn Data into Insights
Paul D. Fuller
Discover the utility of your organization’s data with Microsoft Power BI In Beginning Power BI for Business Users: Learning to Turn Data into Insights, accomplished data professional and business intelligence expert Paul Fuller delivers an intuitive and accessible handbook for professionals seeking to use Microsoft’s Power BI to access, analyze, understand, report, and act on the data available to their organizations. In the book, you’ll discover Power BI’s robust feature set, learn to ingest and model data, visualize and report on that data, and even use the DAX scripting language to unlock still more utility from Microsoft’s popular program. Beginning with general principles geared to readers with no or little experience with reporting or data analytics tools, the author walks you through how to manipulate common, publicly available data sources—including Excel files and relational databases. You’ll also learn to: Use the included and tested sample code to work through the helpful examples included by the author Conduct data orchestration and visualization to better understand and gain insights from your data An essential resource for business analysts and Excel power users reaching the limits of that program’s capabilities, Beginning Power BI for Business Users will also benefit data analysts who seek to prepare reports for their organizations using Microsoft’s flexible and intuitive software.
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The Big Book of Dashboards: Visualizing Your Data Using Real-World Business Scenarios
Steve Wexler, Jeffrey Shaffer, Andy Cotgreave
The definitive reference book with real-world solutions you won't find anywhere else The Big Book of Dashboards presents a comprehensive reference for those tasked with building or overseeing the development of business dashboards. Comprising dozens of examples that address different industries and departments (healthcare, transportation, finance, human resources, marketing, customer service, sports, etc.) and different platforms (print, desktop, tablet, smartphone, and conference room display) The Big Book of Dashboards is the only book that matches great dashboards with real-world business scenarios. By organizing the book based on these scenarios and offering practical and effective visualization examples, The Big Book of Dashboards will be the trusted resource that you open when you need to build an effective business dashboard. In addition to the scenarios there's an entire section of the book that is devoted to addressing many practical and psychological factors you will encounter in your work. It's great to have theory and evidenced-based research at your disposal, but what will you do when somebody asks you to make your dashboard 'cooler' by adding packed bubbles and donut charts? The expert authors have a combined 30-plus years of hands-on experience helping people in hundreds of organizations build effective visualizations. They have fought many 'best practices' battles and having endured bring an uncommon empathy to help you, the reader of this book, survive and thrive in the data visualization world. A well-designed dashboard can point out risks, opportunities, and more; but common challenges and misconceptions can make your dashboard useless at best, and misleading at worst. The Big Book of Dashboards gives you the tools, guidance, and models you need to produce great dashboards that inform, enlighten, and engage.
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Cool Infographics: Effective Communication with Data Visualization and Design
Randy Krum
Make information memorable with creative visual design techniques Research shows that visual information is more quickly and easily understood, and much more likely to be remembered. This innovative book presents the design process and the best software tools for creating infographics that communicate. Including a special section on how to construct the increasingly popular infographic resume, the book offers graphic designers, marketers, and business professionals vital information on the most effective ways to present data. Explains why infographics and data visualizations work Shares the tools and techniques for creating great infographics Covers online infographics used for marketing, including social media and search engine optimization (SEO) Shows how to market your skills with a visual, infographic resume Explores the many internal business uses of infographics, including board meeting presentations, annual reports, consumer research statistics, marketing strategies, business plans, and visual explanations of products and services to your customers With Cool Infographics, you'll learn to create infographics to successfully reach your target audience and tell clear stories with your data.
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Data-Driven Security: Analysis, Visualization and Dashboards
Jay Jacobs, Bob Rudis
Uncover hidden patterns of data and respond with countermeasures Security professionals need all the tools at their disposal to increase their visibility in order to prevent security breaches and attacks. This careful guide explores two of the most powerful data analysis and visualization. You'll soon understand how to harness and wield data, from collection and storage to management and analysis as well as visualization and presentation. Using a hands-on approach with real-world examples, this book shows you how to gather feedback, measure the effectiveness of your security methods, and make better decisions. Everything in this book will have practical application for information security professionals. Helps IT and security professionals understand and use data, so they can thwart attacks and understand and visualize vulnerabilities in their networks Includes more than a dozen real-world examples and hands-on exercises that demonstrate how to analyze security data and intelligence and translate that information into visualizations that make plain how to prevent attacks Covers topics such as how to acquire and prepare security data, use simple statistical methods to detect malware, predict rogue behavior, correlate security events, and more Written by a team of well-known experts in the field of security and data analysis Lock down your networks, prevent hacks, and thwart malware by improving visibility into the environment, all through the power of data and Security Using Data Analysis, Visualization, and Dashboards.
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Data Analytics & Visualization All-in-One For Dummies
Jack A. Hyman, Luca Massaron, Paul McFedries, John Paul Mueller, Jonathan Reichental, Joseph Schmuller, Alan R. Simon, Allen G. Taylor
Install data analytics into your brain with this comprehensive introduction Data Analytics & Visualization All-in-One For Dummies collects the essential information on mining, organizing, and communicating data, all in one place. Clocking in at around 850 pages, this tome of a reference delivers eight books in one, so you can build a solid foundation of knowledge in data wrangling. Data analytics professionals are highly sought after these days, and this book will put you on the path to becoming one. You’ll learn all about sources of data like data lakes, and you’ll discover how to extract data using tools like Microsoft Power BI, organize the data in Microsoft Excel, and visually present the data in a way that makes sense using a Tableau. You’ll even get an intro to the Python, R, and SQL coding needed to take your data skills to a new level. With this Dummies guide, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a priceless data jockey. Mine data from data sources Organize and analyze data Use data to tell a story with Tableau Expand your know-how with Python and R New and novice data analysts will love this All-in-One reference on how to make sense of data. Get ready to watch as your career in data takes off.
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Data Analytics in the AWS Cloud: Building a Data Platform for BI and Predictive Analytics on AWS
Joe Minichino
A comprehensive and accessible roadmap to performing data analytics in the AWS cloud In Data Analytics in the AWS Cloud: Building a Data Platform for BI and Predictive Analytics on AWS, accomplished software engineer and data architect Joe Minichino delivers an expert blueprint to storing, processing, analyzing data on the Amazon Web Services cloud platform. In the book, you’ll explore every relevant aspect of data analytics—from data engineering to analysis, business intelligence, DevOps, and MLOps—as you discover how to integrate machine learning predictions with analytics engines and visualization tools. You’ll also find: Real-world use cases of AWS architectures that demystify the applications of data analytics Accessible introductions to data acquisition, importation, storage, visualization, and reporting Expert insights into serverless data engineering and how to use it to reduce overhead and costs, improve stability, and simplify maintenance A can't-miss for data architects, analysts, engineers and technical professionals, Data Analytics in the AWS Cloud will also earn a place on the bookshelves of business leaders seeking a better understanding of data analytics on the AWS cloud platform.
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The Data Hero Playbook: Developing Your Data Leadership Superpowers
Malcolm Hawker
A powerful new mindset for data leaders in any organization In The Data Hero Playbook: Developing Your Data Leadership Superpowers, veteran data professional and thought leader Malcolm Hawker offers fresh and exciting new ways to collect, manage, and use data. Called “Heroic Data Leadership,” Hawker's new mindset for data professionals will unlock the true potential of your organization's data. It puts to bed the limiting, counterproductive mindsets that often plague data leaders and offers original and effective alternatives you can apply immediately to generate tangible business results. The book shows you how to re-center customer satisfaction within your data strategy and convincingly demonstrates why sound data management must be paired with the delivery of value to the customer in order to have a significant impact on your company's bottom line. Inside the book: Step-by-step recommendations for productive behaviors and best practices within your data teams Illuminating quotes and anecdotes from data professionals leading data functions at large companies today Narratives and stories explaining how to transition from stale, limiting data mindsets to more productive and effective approaches An essential resource for data professionals at organizations of all types and sizes, The Data Hero Playbook is the hands-on roadmap to data leadership that managers, analysts, executives, entrepreneurs, and founders have been waiting for.
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Data Points: Visualization That Means Something
Nathan Yau
A fresh look at visualization from the author of Visualize This Whether it's statistical charts, geographic maps, or the snappy graphical statistics you see on your favorite news sites, the art of data graphics or visualization is fast becoming a movement of its own. In Data Points: Visualization That Means Something, author Nathan Yau presents an intriguing complement to his bestseller Visualize This, this time focusing on the graphics side of data analysis. Using examples from art, design, business, statistics, cartography, and online media, he explores both standard-and not so standard-concepts and ideas about illustrating data. Shares intriguing ideas from Nathan Yau, author of Visualize This and creator of flowingdata.com, with over 66,000 subscribers Focuses on visualization, data graphics that help viewers see trends and patterns they might not otherwise see in a table Includes examples from the author's own illustrations, as well as from professionals in statistics, art, design, business, computer science, cartography, and more Examines standard rules across all visualization applications, then explores when and where you can break those rules Create visualizations that register at all levels, with Data Points: Visualization That Means Something.
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Data Visualization with Excel Dashboards and Reports
Dick Kusleika
Large corporations like IBM and Oracle are using Excel dashboards and reports as a Business Intelligence tool, and many other smaller businesses are looking to these tools in order to cut costs for budgetary reasons. An effective analyst not only has to have the technical skills to use Excel in a productive manner but must be able to synthesize data into a story, and then present that story in the most impactful way. Microsoft shows its recognition of this with Excel. In Excel, there is a major focus on business intelligence and visualization. Data Visualization with Excel Dashboards and Reports fills the gap between handling data and synthesizing data into meaningful reports. This title will show readers how to think about their data in ways other than columns and rows. Most Excel books do a nice job discussing the individual functions and tools that can be used to create an "Excel Report". Titles on Excel charts, Excel pivot tables, and other books that focus on "Tips and Tricks" are useful in their own right; however they don't hit the mark for most data analysts. The primary reason these titles miss the mark is they are too focused on the mechanical aspects of building a chart, creating a pivot table, or other functionality. They don't offer these topics in the broader picture by showing how to present and report data in the most effective way. What are the most meaningful ways to show trending? How do you show relationships in data? When is showing variances more valuable than showing actual data values? How do you deal with outliers? How do you bucket data in the most meaningful way? How do you show impossible amounts of data without inundating your audience? In Data Visualization with Excel Reports and Dashboards, readers will get answers to all of these questions. Part technical manual, part analytical guidebook; this title will help Excel users go from reporting data with simple tables full of dull numbers, to creating hi-impact reports and dashboards that will wow management both visually and substantively. This book offers a comprehensive review of a wide array of technical and analytical concepts that will help users create meaningful reports and dashboards. After reading this book, the reader will be able to: Analyze large amounts of data and report their data in a meaningful way Get better visibility into data from different perspectives Quickly slice data into various views on the fly Automate redundant reporting and analyses Create impressive dashboards and What-If analyses Understand the fundamentals of effective visualization Visualize performance comparisons Visualize changes and trends over time
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Functional Aesthetics for Data Visualization
Vidya Setlur, Bridget Cogley
What happens when a researcher and a practitioner spend hours crammed in a Fiat discussing data visualization? Beyond creating beautiful charts, they found greater richness in the craft as an integrated whole. Drawing from their unconventional backgrounds, these two women take readers through a journey around perception, semantics, and intent as the triad that influences visualization. This visually engaging book blends ideas from theory, academia, and practice to craft beautiful, yet meaningful visualizations and dashboards. How do you take your visualization skills to the next level? The book is perfect for analysts, research and data scientists, journalists, and business professionals. Functional Aesthetics for Data Visualization is also an indispensable resource for just about anyone curious about seeing and understanding data. Think of it as a coffee book for the data geek in you. https://www.functionalaestheticsbook.com
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Graph Analysis and Visualization: Discovering Business Opportunity in Linked Data
Richard Brath, David Jonk
Wring more out of the data with a scientific approach to analysis Graph Analysis and Visualization brings graph theory out of the lab and into the real world. Using sophisticated methods and tools that span analysis functions, this guide shows you how to exploit graph and network analytic techniques to enable the discovery of new business insights and opportunities. Published in full color, the book describes the process of creating powerful visualizations using a rich and engaging set of examples from sports, finance, marketing, security, social media, and more. You will find practical guidance toward pattern identification and using various data sources, including Big Data, plus clear instruction on the use of software and programming. The companion website offers data sets, full code examples in Python, and links to all the tools covered in the book. Science has already reaped the benefit of network and graph theory, which has powered breakthroughs in physics, economics, genetics, and more. This book brings those proven techniques into the world of business, finance, strategy, and design, helping extract more information from data and better communicate the results to decision-makers. Study graphical examples of networks using clear and insightful visualizations Analyze specifically-curated, easy-to-use data sets from various industries Learn the software tools and programming languages that extract insights from data Code examples using the popular Python programming language There is a tremendous body of scientific work on network and graph theory, but very little of it directly applies to analyst functions outside of the core sciences – until now. Written for those seeking empirically based, systematic analysis methods and powerful tools that apply outside the lab, Graph Analysis and Visualization is a thorough, authoritative resource.
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Hands On With Google Data Studio: A Data Citizen's Survival Guide
Lee Hurst
Learn how to easily transform your data into engaging, interactive visual reports! Data is no longer the sole domain of tech professionals and scientists. Whether in our personal, business, or community lives, data is rapidly increasing in both importance and sheer volume. The ability to visualize all kinds of data is now within reach for anyone with a computer and an internet connection. Google Data Studio, quickly becoming the most popular free tool in data visualization, offers users a flexible, powerful way to transform private and public data into interactive knowledge that can be easily shared and understood. Hands On With Google Data Studio teaches you how to visualize your data today and produce professional quality results quickly and easily. No previous experience is required to get started right away—all you need is this guide, a Gmail account, and a little curiosity to access and visualize data just like large businesses and organizations. Clear, step-by-step instructions help you identify business trends, turn budget data into a report, assess how your websites or business listings are performing, analyze public data, and much more. Practical examples and expert tips are found throughout the text to help you fully understand and apply your new knowledge to a wide array of real-world scenarios. This engaging, reader-friendly guide will enable you to: Use Google Data Studio to access various types of data, from your own personal data to public sources Build your first data set, navigate the Data Studio interface, customize reports, and share your work Learn the fundamentals of data visualization, personal data accessibility, and open data API's Harness the power of publicly accessible data services including Google’s recently released Data Set Search Add banners, logos, custom graphics, and color palettes Hands On With Google Data Studio: A Data Citizens Survival Guide is a must-have resource for anyone starting their data visualization journey, from individuals, consultants, and small business owners to large business and organization managers and leaders.
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Microsoft Power BI For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Jack A. Hyman
Make smarter business decisions with Microsoft PowerBI Microsoft PowerBI For Dummies gives you the foundation you need to use this powerful software platform to manage your data and gather insight for making better decisions. With PowerBI, you can visualize, model, and interpret large datasets, quickly revealing insights that once took weeks to dig out. This book takes you through the basics of getting your data ready, preparing your analysis, and creating reports. Then, you'll dig into more advanced features using DAX—the PowerBI programming language—even if you have no prior programming experience. This edition covers the latest updates to the software, including AI integration, enhanced customization, and improved real-time collaboration tools. Transform raw data into meaningful information and make data-driven decisions Import datasets and create dashboards, visualizations, and reports Use the Copilot AI assistant to speed up workflows and simplify tasks Integrate PowerBI with other Microsoft services like Excel and Azure Businesses of all sizes can use PowerBI to manage their data. With Microsoft PowerBI For Dummies, you can quickly and easily set up PowerBI, learn the fundamentals, and handle complex reporting.
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Present Beyond Measure: Design, Visualize, and Deliver Data Stories That Inspire Action
Lea Pica
Are you suffering from Data Presentation Zombification? Billions of dollars and thousands of hours are lost every year during ineffective business meetings worldwide. Data practitioners painstakingly present their valuable analytical insights, only to fall flat, inspiring more yawns than yeses. In Present Beyond Measure: Design, Visualize, and Deliver Data Stories That Inspire Action, Lea Pica provides a 4-phase, step-by-step blueprint for planning, designing, visualizing, and delivering compelling data storytelling in business presentations. Following her blueprint, you will learn how to use neuroscience and cinematic storytelling techniques to galvanize your stakeholders into action. By the final page, you'll know exactly how to: Choose the data that matters most to your decision-makers Speak to different stakeholder audience personality types (even the most challenging) Infuse your data presentation with a persuasive narrative storyline Craft strategic recommendations that get approved and implemented Design simple, stunning slides that communicate without confusing Transmit your data story with best-practice data visualization techniques Avoid the most common data visualization violations and charting pitfalls Prepare for and deliver your presentation like a professional speaker Navigate challenging meeting conversations and logistics with ease Whether you work with little or big data, this book will show you how to prevent presentation zombies and inspire the action and credibility you and your organization deserve.
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Tableau For Dummies, 2nd Edition
Jack A. Hyman
Make your data work for you! Tableau For Dummies brings order to the chaotic world of data. Understanding your data and organizing it into formats and visualizations that make sense to you are crucial to making a real impact on your business with the information that's already at your fingertips. This easy-to-use reference explores the user interface, and guides you through the process of connecting your data sources to the software. Additionally, this approachable, yet comprehensive text shows you how to use graphs, charts, and other images to bring visual interest to your data, how to create dashboards from multiple data sources, and how to export the visualizations that you have developed into multiple formats that translate into positive change for your business. The mission of Tableau Software is to grant you access to data that, when put into action, will help you build your company. Learning to use the data available to you helps you make informed, grounded business decisions that can spell success for your company. Navigate the user interface to efficiently access the features you need Connect to various spreadsheets, databases, and other data sources to create a multi-dimensional snapshot of your business Develop visualizations with easy to use drag and drop features Start building your data with templates and sample workbooks to spark your creativity and help you organize your information Tableau For Dummies is a step-by-step resource that helps you make sense of the data landscape—and put your data to work in support of your business.
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Teach Yourself VISUALLY Power BI
Alexander Loth
A comprehensive and fully visual guide to Microsoft Power BI Teach Yourself VISUALLY Power BI collects all the resources you need to master the everyday use of Microsoft's powerful data visualization software and delivers them in a single, easy-to-use volume. Fully illustrated, step-by-step instructions are combined with crystal-clear screenshots that walk you through the basic and advanced functions of Microsoft Power BI. Teach Yourself VISUALLY Power BI offers the best visual learning techniques with complete source material about the interface and substance of Power BI, as well as: Stepwise guidance on working with, transforming, and processing data sources Instructions for customizing data visualizations to create informative and presentation-ready charts and graphs Full-color, two-page tutorials on the more advanced features of Power BI, including app integrations and data access with DAX The fastest, easiest way for visual learners to get a handle on Microsoft Power BI, Teach Yourself VISUALLY Power BI is a can't-miss resource, loaded with useful tips for newbies and experts alike.
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The Art of Insight: How Great Visualization Designers Think
Alberto Cairo
Learn how expert data visualization designers reason about their craft In The Art of Insight: How Great Visualization Designers Think, renowned visualization designer and educator Alberto Cairo, in conversation with several leaders in the field, delivers an inspiring exploration of how they make design choices. The book is a celebration of visualization, and a personal journey that dives into subjects like: How the professional background and life experiences of every designer shape their choices of what to visualize and how to visualize it. What designers from different countries and cultures, and working in different fields, such as data art, data analytics, or data journalism, have in common, or how they differ from each other. How designers reflect on research, ethical reasoning, and also aesthetic judgments, to make decisions such as selecting the most appropriate ways to encode data, or the most appealing visual style. Perfect for data scientists and data journalists, The Art of Insight will also inspire artists, analysts, statisticians, and any other professional who uses data visualizations.
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Visualize This: The FlowingData Guide to Design, Visualization, and Statistics, 2nd Edition
Nathan Yau
One of the most influential data visualization books—updated with new techniques, technologies, and examples Visualize This demonstrates how to explain data visually, so that you can present and communicate information in a way that is appealing and easy to understand. Today, there is a continuous flow of data available to answer almost any question. Thoughtful charts, maps, and analysis can help us make sense of this data. But the data does not speak for itself. As leading data expert Nathan Yau explains in this book, graphics provide little value unless they are built upon a firm understanding of the data behind them. Visualize This teaches you a data-first approach from a practical point of view. You'll start by exploring what your data has to say, and then you'll design visualizations that are both remarkable and meaningful. With this book, you'll discover what tools are available to you without becoming overwhelmed with options. You'll be exposed to a variety of software and code and jump right into real-world datasets so that you can learn visualization by doing. You'll learn to ask and answer questions with data, so that you can make charts that are both beautiful and useful. Visualize This also provides you with opportunities to apply what you learn to your own data. This completely updated, full-color second edition: Presents a unique approach to visualizing and telling stories with data, from data visualization expert Nathan Yau Offers step-by-step tutorials and practical design tips for creating statistical graphics, geographical maps, and information design Details tools that can be used to visualize data graphics for reports, presentations, and stories, for the web or for print, with major updates for the latest R packages, Python libraries, JavaScript libraries, illustration software, and point-and-click applications Contains numerous examples and descriptions of patterns and outliers and explains how to show them Information designers, analysts, journalists, statisticians, data scientists—as well as anyone studying for careers in these fields—will gain a valuable background in the concepts and techniques of data visualization, thanks to this legendary book.
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