Visual Data Insights Using SAS Ods Graphics: A Guide to Communication-Effective Data Visualization

SAS ODS graphics users will learn in this book how to visually understand and communicate the significance of data to deliver images for quick and easy insight, with precise numbers.

Many charts or plots require the viewer to run the eye from a bar end or plot point to some point on an axis, and then to interpolate between tick marks to estimate the value. Some design choices can lead to wrong conclusions or mistaken impressions. Graphic software relies on defaults to deliver something if you make a minimal effort, but that something is not likely to be exactly what you want.

Visual Data Insights Using SAS ODS Graphics provides examples using experience-based design principles. It presents examples of bar charts, pie charts, and trend lines or time series plots, the graph types commonly used in business, other organizations, and the media for visual insight into data. Newer graphs are also included: dot plots, needle plots, waterfall charts, butterfly charts, heat maps, bubble plots, step plots, high-low plots, and donut charts. In addition, there are basic tools of statistics: scatter plots, box plots, histograms, fit and confidence plots, and distributions.

Author LeRoy Bessler introduces unique creations, including sparsely annotated time series, maximally informative bar charts, better box plots, histograms based on interesting atypical rationales, and much more.

The examples use SAS sample data sets as input. Any SAS user can experiment with the code presented to see what else is possible, or adapt it to repurpose the design and apply it with a customized version of that code.

What You'll Learn

• Create graphs that are easily and quickly interpreted, and without ambiguity
• Supply precise data values that are correct on the graph and correctly associated with the graphic visual elements
• Take advantage of widely applicable (but not necessarily available elsewhere) design examples
• Avoid bad practices that are encouraged by poor examples elsewhere
• Get past sub-optimal designs and results that are built into software defaults
• Take advantage of less familiar capabilities available in the software

Who This Book Is For

SAS software users who want to understand their data and/or visually deliver their results

SAS ODS圖形使用者將在本書中學習如何以視覺方式理解和傳達數據的重要性，以提供快速且易於理解的圖像，並附上精確的數字。

許多圖表或圖形需要觀眾從柱狀圖的末端或圖形點運行眼睛到某個軸上的某一點，然後在刻度之間進行插值以估計數值。某些設計選擇可能導致錯誤的結論或錯誤的印象。圖形軟體依賴預設值提供一些東西，如果你付出最小的努力，但那些東西可能不會完全符合你的要求。

《使用SAS ODS圖形進行視覺數據洞察》提供了基於經驗設計原則的示例。它展示了商業、其他組織和媒體常用的柱狀圖、餅圖和趨勢線或時間序列圖等圖形類型，以便對數據進行視覺洞察。還包括一些新的圖形：點圖、針圖、瀑布圖、蝴蝶圖、熱力圖、氣泡圖、步階圖、高低圖和甜甜圈圖。此外，還有統計學的基本工具：散點圖、箱形圖、直方圖、擬合和置信度圖以及分佈圖。

作者LeRoy Bessler介紹了獨特的創作，包括稀疏註釋的時間序列、最大信息的柱狀圖、更好的箱形圖、基於有趣的非典型理由的直方圖等等。

這些示例使用SAS樣本數據集作為輸入。任何SAS用戶都可以嘗試使用所呈現的代碼，看看還有什麼其他可能性，或者適應它以重新設計並應用自定義版本的代碼。

你將學到什麼：
- 創建易於快速解讀且沒有歧義的圖形
- 提供準確的數據值，這些數據值在圖形上是正確的，並與圖形視覺元素正確關聯
- 利用廣泛適用（但不一定在其他地方可用）的設計示例
- 避免受到其他地方不良示例的鼓勵的不良實踐
- 超越內建軟體預設值的次優設計和結果
- 利用軟體中不太熟悉的功能

適合閱讀對象：
希望了解數據並/或以視覺方式呈現結果的SAS軟體用戶。

LeRoy Bessler has been a devotee of computer graphics tools in SAS since 1981, and is an award-winning, internationally recognized expert on data visualization. He has been on a continuing quest to find and promote best graphic designs and practices for delivering visual data insights. His book is a long-in-the-making and gradually evolved guiding compendium of his design principles for communication-effective data visualization, with widely applicable examples. He shares his SAS software knowledge, experience, and ideas at conferences in the USA and overseas, and contributes quarterly articles to the VIEWS Newsletter for SAS users.

LeRoy Bessler自1981年以來一直是SAS電腦圖形工具的愛好者，並且是一位屢獲殊榮且在國際上享有盛譽的資料視覺化專家。他一直在不斷尋找和推廣最佳的圖形設計和實踐方法，以提供視覺化數據洞察力。他的書籍是他多年來逐漸演變而成的指導性彙編，介紹了他的溝通有效的數據視覺化設計原則，並提供了廣泛適用的示例。他在美國和海外的會議上分享他的SAS軟體知識、經驗和想法，並定期為SAS使用者的VIEWS通訊發表文章。