Data visualization:
Data visualization is actually a set of data points and information that are represented
graphically to make it easy and quick for user to understand. Data visualization is good if it
has a clear meaning, purpose, and is very easy to interpret, without requiring context. Tools
of data visualization provide an accessible way to see and understand trends, outliers, and
patterns in data by using visual effects or elements such as a chart, graphs, and maps.
Characteristics of Effective Graphical Visual:
It shows or visualizes data very clearly in an understandable manner.
It encourages viewers to compare different pieces of data.
It closely integrates statistical and verbal descriptions of data set.
It grabs our interest, focuses our mind, and keeps our eyes on message as human brain
tends to focus on visual data more than written data.
It also helps in identifying area that needs more attention and improvement.
Using graphical representation, a story can be told more efficiently. Also, it requires
less time to understand picture than it takes to understand textual data.
Techniques and Tools:
Various visualization techniques are employed in data mining, depending on the type of data
and the insights being sought. Common examples include:
Charts and Graphs: Bar charts, line graphs, pie charts, scatter plots, and histograms
are used to display distributions, comparisons, and relationships.
Heat Maps: Representing data values in a matrix using color gradients to show
intensity or correlation.
Tree Maps: Displaying hierarchical data as nested rectangles, where the size of each
rectangle corresponds to a specific value.
Network Graphs: Illustrating relationships between entities in a network structure.
Geospatial Maps: Visualizing data tied to geographical locations.
Categories of Data Visualization; Data visualization is very critical to market research
where both numerical and categorical data can be visualized that helps in an increase in
impacts of insights and also helps in reducing risk of analysis paralysis. So, data
visualization is categorized into following categories :
Figure - Categories of Data Visualization
1. Numerical Data : Numerical data is also known as Quantitative data. Numerical data is
any data where data generally represents amount such as height, weight, age of a
person, etc. Numerical data visualization is easiest way to visualize data. It is generally
used for helping others to digest large data sets and raw numbers in a way that makes it
easier to interpret into action. Numerical data is categorized into two categories :
Continuous Data - It can be narrowed or categorized (Example: Height
measurements).
Discrete Data - This type of data is not “continuous” (Example: Number of cars or
children’s a household has).
The type of visualization techniques that are used to represent numerical data
visualization is Charts and Numerical Values. Examples are Pie Charts, Bar Charts,
Averages, Scorecards, etc.
2. Categorical Data : Categorical data is also known as Qualitative data. Categorical data
is any data where data generally represents groups. It simply consists of categorical
variables that are used to represent characteristics such as a person’s ranking, a person’s
gender, etc. Categorical data visualization is all about depicting key themes,
establishing connections, and lending context. Categorical data is classified into three
categories :
Binary Data - In this, classification is based on positioning (Example: Agrees or
Disagrees).
Nominal Data - In this, classification is based on attributes (Example: Male or
Female).
Ordinal Data - In this, classification is based on ordering of information (Example:
Timeline or processes).
The type of visualization techniques that are used to represent categorical data is
Graphics, Diagrams, and Flowcharts. Examples are Word clouds, Sentiment Mapping,
Venn Diagram, etc.
Similarity and dissimilarity measures:
In data mining, similarity and dissimilarity measures are crucial for understanding
relationships between data objects. Similarity quantifies how alike two objects are, while
dissimilarity (or distance) quantifies how different they are. These measures are used in
various data mining techniques, including clustering, classification, and anomaly detection, to
group similar objects or identify outliers.
Similarity is a numerical measure that indicates the degree to which two objects are alike. It
typically ranges from 0 to 1, where 1 represents perfect similarity and 0 represents no
similarity.
Dissimilarity (or distance) is a numerical measure of how different two objects are. It can
range from 0 to infinity, with 0 indicating identical objects and larger values indicating
greater difference.
Common Measures
1. For Numerical Data
Euclidean Distance:
Standard distance in multidimensional space.
Manhattan Distance (L1 norm):
Minkowski Distance (general form):
Cosine Similarity
Measures angle between vectors; good for text and sparse data.
2. For Categorical Data
Simple Matching Coefficient (SMC):
Jaccard Index:
Where:
o a: attributes where both are 1
o b, c: mismatched 1s
o Used for binary or set-based data.
3. For Mixed Data Types
Gower’s Similarity Coefficient:
o Handles numeric, categorical, binary, and ordinal data.
o Combines partial similarities across attribute types.
How they are used:
Clustering: Grouping similar data points together based on proximity measures.
Classification: Assigning data points to predefined classes based on their similarity to
labeled examples.
Anomaly detection: Identifying data points that are significantly dissimilar from the rest of
the data.