As you can see above, Immersion Analytics’ patented Dimensional Engine™ layers special effects on each data point, intensity of each conveying an added dimension of the underlying data record. Notice how the Stepwise Storyboarding™ capability is used to layer dimensions, one at a time. Simply click the eye in the legend and Visualizer reveals an added dimension.
This clip begins with the standard X-Y-size-color scatterplot then layers a Z axis.
Another dimension is then added by using opacity of each point as an added axis — in this finance example, more solid points have a more solid Earnings per Share (EPS).
Next, EBITDA is added as a subtle blue glow. Notice how AAPL, T & VZ have some of the strongest EBITDA in this dataset. Notice this addition does not impede your ability to see prior dimensions.
Finally, an eighth dimension “book value” is layered using the shimmer effect as an axis. Notice how you can see GOOG has some of the highest book value, and notice how this addition also does not impede your ability to see prior dimensions.
That’s how wide data can finally be made intuitive.
"Things should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler."
Modern datasets almost always exceed four columns, yet each plot on a traditional dashboard compares only four by visually encoding the columns as X-Y-size-color as axes. Most practitioners experience this “wide data” problem regularly, often without realizing its impact.
The number of conventional plots required to see all unique interactions of your data grows geometrically with each added column. Consider an 18 column dataset for which you’ve created a dashboard with 10 plots based on a-priori assumptions you’ve made about what interactions matter. There are (18 Choose 4) = 3,060 unique, unordered combinations of X-Y-size-color plots. This math has been verified by MIT professor & MacArthur fellow Dr. Erik Demaine, advisor to Immersion Analytics. The reality is that any of these combinations may uniquely reveal insight not offered by the others. Said differently, your odds of seeing that insight from any one plot on your dashboard are 1 in 3,060. It’s actually worse because you’re also blind to interaction between more than four dimensions.
Imagine trying to view (and reconcile across) 3,060 unique plots on a conventional dashboard. If it took you a minute to view each plot, you’d need 51 hours to see the relevant possibilities. However, even if you did have 51 hours to explore a dataset that way, you’d unlikely recall at e.g. hour 49 what you saw at hour 2 to make the connection.
Practitioners lack time to visually inspect such a geometrically large set of X-Y-size-color plots. Learn more about conventional approaches (and resulting challenges) for trying to make sense of wide data. Bottom-line, classic plots offer poor information coverage, it’s a root cause of unknown unknowns and a fundamental problem limiting human understanding & progress across a wide array of disciplines. Check out our Solutions above for inspiration on how this can help you.
While they do add benefits, most wide data problems can actually be solved using the PC, Mac or iOS versions of our product without ever trying an XR device. Touchscreen aids interaction, though even a mouse can be effective. We do love the ability to use our hands to interact with data in augmented or virtual reality, expand a plot to fill the room and walk around the data. It’s also interesting to have data holographically next to (and integrated with) a traditional application running on your PC — interact with the familiar yet gain benefits noted above — or interact in completely new ways yet deliver results for those still using traditional systems.
We recommend beginning with a live demo of the Immersion Analytics Visualizer for PC, Mac or iOS, then later consider XR devices for added productivity boost if your dataset size merits. Contact us for a live demo and to discuss your use case.
