There are a lot of data about (literally) everything. Nowadays the biggest problem is how to analyze the data not how to collect it.
Collecting and storing data is cheap/free (just think about Google Analytics), but you have to make wise decisions based on your data. If you only have tables and raw numbers you won’t get the answers to your questions. You have to make the raw data more readable.
In this post, we’ll go through how to visualize your data with the help of Google Data Studio to get the most out of it.
Before you start
First of all, you have to answer the following questions:
- Who is the target audience?
- What I would like to tell?
If you know, who is your target audience, you’ll know their questions. You’ll know what you have to show them and how you have to visualize the data.
Now, you know who is your target audience, the next step is to find the right KPIs. These will be the skeleton of your dashboard, so choose it wisely. Maybe you have some KPIs, let’s use them if these match the audience.
Plan
You have the basics, you know the questions you would like to answer with your dashboard, the next step is to add more info. Based on your target audience, you have to create a list. What kind of data can answer more precisely their questions, what is the depth of these data? Add as many items as you can, later you skip the unnecessary ones.
Then, you have to create a wireframe for your dashboard. You can use whatever tool you want (I highly recommend the pen and paper), but you have to create a useful sketch. Just boxes and some notes, but this will help you to make a better dashboard.
Every box will be one item on your list. Play with the sizes and the type of the data visualization. Don’t worry, if your first version is not ok, create a new one and repeat it until you pleased with the result.
Design
You have to choose the fonts, font sizes, colors and the format (portrait or landscape, paper size, etc.) of your report.
You should start to use the design items of your site (if you make a report about your site). Use the fonts, colors, sizes of it. This will add a familiar feeling to your report.
The tool
At this stage, you have a lot of plans, you know what you would like to visualize. It’s time to use Google Data Studio.
This is a free data visualization tool. You can easily connect to almost every Google product and visualize the data.
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