The performances of different business units can look similar at first glance but they not necessarily are. To avoid misinterpretation, it’s crucial to scale your data correctly when comparing different values. Only then can you really be sure that you’re not comparing apples and oranges?
You’ll learn:
Grab your materials and dive into a hands-on learning experience to get the most out of your lesson:
Scaling is the cornerstone of visual communication. In the next few minutes, you will learn about scaling in Zebra BI visuals, together with a concept called scaled groups – a very useful tool for scaling.
Cards visual is the only visual where the charts are not scaled out-of-the-box. Let me show you how to utilize scale groups to scale them with two examples. In the first, you will learn how to make a single scaled group out of two cards. In the second, you will learn how to create two different scaled groups out of four cards, starting with the first example.
Let’s have a look at the following set of Zebra BI Cards. Focus your attention on the two charts in the cards showing your revenue and gross margin figures. We have something very misleading here; similar to what we saw in the introduction. The charts are visually almost the same, but the numbers in the charts are much different. Let me show you how to bring them to a single scale.
Click on the second option on the top right-hand side of the revenue card called scaled grouping. And navigation and formatting bar appears at the top of the visual, along with the checkbox on each card. The checkbox and red color on the left-hand side of the card suggest that the revenue card has been assigned to the red scaled group, or group number one. Checking the box on the gross margin card will assign it to the red scaled group, or group number one. Click on Exit on the top right-hand side. Notice that the scaling of both charts is now aligned.
You can also define multiple scaled groups in the Zebra BI Cards visual. For example, using four cards, as shown on the screen. We will assign revenue and gross margin to group number one. Sales and marketing costs, and research and development costs to a separate scaled group, group number two.
Again, click on the scaled grouping option on the top right-hand side of the revenue card. Then check the box in the gross margin card to assign both cards to group #1. Click on the plus sign next to group #1 to add another scaled group, the blue group, #2. Then check the box in the Sales and marketing costs, and Research and development costs to assign both of them to the blue group, #2. Click on Exit on the top right-hand side, and note the change in the scale of the Research and development costs card. It is now on the same scale as the Sales and marketing cost card.
The Revenue and Gross margin cards remain in scaled group #1. In this case, two scaled groups are very useful. This is because the scale difference between the two sets of accounts is huge and could mislead your audience. Remember, you have the scaled group #1, with revenue and gross margin, and scaled group #2, with sales and marketing costs, and research and development costs.
To help users better distinguish between different scaled groups, you can change the background color of the cards in scaled group #2. Light gray or light blue are great options to make the cards more visually appealing and distinctive.
To change the background color, move to focus mode in the sales and marketing card. And in Background color, simply paste the RGBA combination you see in the description. Click on save, and note that the background fill is now changed to light blue. Go back to the report, and repeat the same procedure for the Research and development card. Background color in the focus mode. And paste the RGBA combination again. Back to the report. And note that the background fill is now aligned in the scaled group #2.
Now let me show you how to achieve the same in Zebra BI Tables.
Let me create a simple comparison table between Actual and Previous Year data for Group. Move Group field into the Category placeholder. Actual measure or AC to the Values placeholder. Previous Year measure, or PY, to the Previous Year placeholder. The charts in the Zebra BI Tables visual are in a single scaled group. So far so good.
Even if you display a bar chart in the PY column, the scaling remains consistent. On a smaller scale, but still consistent across all columns.
Where it becomes interesting is when you add more measures to the Values placeholder. This way, you will open the door to scaled groups in the Zebra BI Tables visual.
Now let me add the Gross Profit measure to the Values placeholder and the GPY measure, or the gross-profit-versus-previous-year variance, to the Values placeholder as well.
Click on the Gross Profit column’s drop-down menu. Change the chart type to bar chart. Do the same for the GP dPY measure. Finally, change the measure type of the variance column to Absolute variance.
Here is where the scaled groups step in. As in the Zebra BI Cards visual, we have two options. Have a single scaled group for all measures, or define two or more different scaled groups. Let’s start with the first.
Click on the Gross Profit column’s drop-down menu, and move down to Scale group. From here, you can control which scale groups to assign the additional measures to. By clicking on #1 in both columns, the scale of the charts will be aligned with the rest of the visual.
To assign the charts in the Gross Profit and Gross Profit variance columns to another scaled group, move to the column’s drop-down menu. And under Scale group, select the scaled group you would like to assign them to. I will select scaled group #2 for the Gross Profit column, and repeat the same process for the Gross Profit variance column. Now you have both gross profit measures’ charts in the scaled group #2.
Note that it is possible to assign additional measures and their charts, not just scaled group #2, but other scaled groups as well, from 3 to 6. Also note that when hovering over a specific scaled group, its columns will be highlighted. The same holds for scaled group #1 and scaled group #2.
To help the users further distinguish the two scaled groups, as you did with the Zebra BI Cards visual, you can color the background of the two Gross Profit columns. Move to the column’s drop-down menu, and under Format column, select Background fill, and simply paste the RGBA combination you see in the description. Click on save, and repeat the same process for the Gross Profit variance column.
Small multiples are a very effective tool for scaling multiple charts on a single scale. Here you can see a small multiple chart with Revenue, Gross margin, Product cost, and General and administrative cost charts. The scaling is applied out-of-the-box. There is no need to handle it separately.
In today’s lesson, you refreshed your memory of chart scaling. Use scaled groups in Zebra BI visuals to easily bring it to life. Utilize it on your own real-world examples as well.
