Week 08 Flashcards
How should we use colour in a dashboard?
Sparingly and consistenly - make different colours be a different meanings and use soft colour. Some people are colourblind
Order what people are good at perceiving difference in visually - Quant perception
Position - good at
Length
Angle or slope
Area
Volume
Colour and density - not good at
Important points on chart design
Don’t distort reality using 3d charts
Circular shapes are harder to understand visually
Be consistent with chart scales and colours
Don’t clutter charts with data labels that are unneeded
Keep charts simple
Who are the market leaders in Power BI
Microsoft and Tableau (salesforce)
What is power BI
Power BI is a collection of software services, apps, and connectors that work together to turn your unrelated sources of data into coherent, visually immersive, and interactive insights.
Explain what a decision support system is
Data subsystem allowing modelling to help explore different solutions. It supports but does not replace the decision maker - accommodates lots of decision tyles
Explain the difference between DSS and Data processing
Data processing is concerned with getting the job done accurately and cheaply. Concerning with the past data and wants consistency.
DSS is measured by whether the system provides useful decision support. Concerned with present and future and wants flexibility.
Explain the difference between DSS and MIS
MIS provides regular structured reports for routine decisions.
DSS allows decision makers build solutions to novel problems
Where are the most recent areas of DSS applciations
DSS has been used in business for 4 decades, it continues to be used and changes as new technology is introduced, but the growth in DSS is coming from environmental applications and medicine.
Give three categories of Business analytics
Descriptive, predictive and presscriptive
What type of analytics does business intelligence use
Business intelligence is largely descriptive and there are many problems where if you know there is a problem that it is reasonably clear how to solve it. Involves analysing well defined business problems
What type of analytics does DSS use?
DSS starts with description but moves on to predict and prescribe using modelling approaches. - all about what will happen or what should happen to project future events (predictive) and make best posssible decisions (prescriptive)
Who is BI and DSS orientated towards differently?
BI has an executive and strategy orientation while DSS has been oriented toward analysts or specialist decision makers.
BI uses commercially available tools and components DSS more programming is used to construct custom solutions
Explain a DSS generator
A DSS generator is designed for a particular type of problem.
It should not just allow visualisation and modelling for that type of problem, it should make it as easy as possible. Ideally, a system will warn you that you are doing it wrong, which is only possible if it
understands what you are trying to do, which means it can only do so for a limited range of problem.
e.g. An accounting DSS could warn you that the debits did not equal your credits
Excel as a DSS
Potential DSS generator - only downside lots of people use it for lots of things so doesn’t always tell you when you are doing something incorrectly. Macros allow you to personalise Excel - recording a sequence of commands. Excel also offers a variety of interface features. A custom interface can be built in excel - don’t have to stick with standard functionality
