Data discovery should drive BI in order to support data-driven competencies for evolving data-centric organizations. However, organizations often struggle with bottlenecks and excessive friction while retrieving meaningful insights.
To help companies effectively frame the discovery process in order to reduce friction in revealing insights, Lindy Ryan will present “Improving Agility and Insights Through Visual Discovery” at Data Summit 2016 in NYC. Ryan is a research director of visual analytics at Radiant Advisors, and research associate at Rutgers.
Her session will cover how to navigate the four forms of discovery to maximize business value, and the emergence of visual discovery in the increasingly visual processes of exploration and analysis.
It will build off the previous discussion focusing on moving from traditional BI to data discovery.
The session, based on content from Lindy Ryan’s new book The Visual Imperative, also touches on the role of visual discovery in the days to come, and the unique challenges and opportunities it will bring as it becomes an increasingly fundamental strategic process.
“Friction is the result of these incremental events that add time and complexity to discovery through activities that slow down the process,” Ryan said. “These are things that many, if not all, IT used to do for business users but can be reduced or removed completely through self-service, visualization, collaboration capabilities.”
Friction is a speed killer in the discovery process, Ryan explained, as it adds time to discovery and interrupts analysts’ train of thoughts as they move through the process. “Ultimately, reduced friction equals faster time to insight,” Ryan said. “What we really want to do is remove that as much as possible because every second really counts.”
Along with presenting ways to reduce friction, Ryan will discuss the four forms of discovery beginning with traditional approaches via spread sheets and basic data visualizations and then moving on to advanced forms including visualizations that support new capabilities that leverage multifaceted search modes.
“They are all very important and all have their place in the larger data centric culture, it’s just a matter of how companies are leveraging all of them to make the most of their discovery,” Ryan said. “This paves the way for the emergence of visual discovery.”
Visual data discovery is essentially the use of visually oriented self-service tools that are designed to guide users to insights through the effective use of visual design principals, best practices, and kinesthetic learning facilitated by animation, interactivity, and collective learning, Ryan noted.
“I see it as the basis for true data storytelling,” Ryan said.
In addition to her presentation, Ryan will be holding an autograph session for her new book, The Visual Imperative, at Data Summit.
“I’m really excited, I love the team, and it’s one of my favorite events all year,” Ryan said. “It’s small enough where everybody is actively engaged with each other and large enough where there’s a huge amount of diversity and content.”
Ryan will present “Improving Agility and Insights Through Visual Discovery” at Data Summit on Tuesday 10:45 am at the New York Hilton Midtown in NYC. To register, go here.