PIE CHART - Data Visualization for Businesses Essay examples -- essays

Pie Chart Data Visualization for Businesses A picture is worth a thousand words. The ability to graphically represent your business data gives you the power to make informed business decisions quickly. (Microsoft.com, 2002) This representation must be visually appealing and easy to understand. By keeping it simple, it allows the broadest number of users to interpret the data, gain insights as to its meaning and facilitate communication on the data ultimately to solve the company ¡Ã‚ ¦s problem. Data visualization is the use of interactive, sensory representations, typically visual, of abstract data to reinforce cognition. (Wikipedia.org, 2005) That in itself is a method or technique of decision-making. To further break it down, the most popular and widely used tool of data visualization is the Pie Chart. There are two types of pie charts. The first type is your standard Pie Chart and the second is the Exploded Pie Chart. The standard pie chart shows parts and their relationship to the whole. Pie charts are always based on a circle, since the circle provides a true visual concept of the whole hundred percent. The parts or  ¡Ã‚ §pies ¡Ã‚ ¨ of the chart represent percentages of the whole. The Exploded Pie Chart is nearly identical to the standard with the exception that one  ¡Ã‚ §pie ¡Ã‚ ¨ is visually separated from the rest for emphasis. Pie charts are created with the help of a compass, protractor, circle stencil, can or jar and a ruler for drawing in the segmented pies. A pie chart should alwa...