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Visualize your data in new ways with Cognos Analytics 11.2.0!

  • 1.  Visualize your data in new ways with Cognos Analytics 11.2.0!

    Posted Tue April 06, 2021 06:03 AM

    In Cognos Analytics 11.2.0 we're introducing two new visualizations to enhance your dashboards (and hopefully see something you didn't see before in your data).

    Radar Chart

    Dashboard authors can now present data using a radar chart (sometimes called a spider chart) which compares a quantitative variable across one or more series.  Typically, the most effective use of the radar chart would compare series that are relatively scaled.  For instance, in the below American Time Use Survey example, we can see the "weekly hours caring for children" measure across various education levels and how that number has evolved over time.


    Whereas comparing completely unlike series provides less value.  Below is an example of a poor use of a radar chart, which compares disparate statistics of NHL teams for this current season.  

    In the above case, a more appropriate means of presenting the data would be to apply a percentage scaling at a per 60min rate for example.

    Boxplot

    Cognos Analytics 11.2.0 also contains boxplot visualizations for dashboard authors. This is a very quick way to understand any skewness in the distribution of your data.  Consider the below breakdown of weekly earnings by age range (data also provided by the American Time Use Survey):


    When you're building a boxplot like the above, you can populate the x-axis (for which I used Age Range), the y-axis or measure (for which I used Weekly Earnings) but in order to really demonstrate the value, authors can populate a key field.  In the above case, I used "Education Level" to provide that distribution.  The whiskers in this example provide the spread of the data, with the shaded region representing the interquartile range.  That is, the difference between the 75th and 25th quartile.  The median for each age range is denoted by the line, and the plus sign represents the mean, with the circles highlighting outliers. 

    We really hope that dashboard authors love the above visualization additions and are able to apply them to their own dashboards!


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    Matt Denham
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    #CognosAnalyticswithWatson