MINHAZ KAZI: Welcome to "DataVis DevTalk."
I'm your host, Minhaz Kazi.
Today's guest is Marc Soares.
Marc is the manager of analytic solutions at ClickInsight.
Marc is also a constant advocate for effective data
visualization and storytelling.
[MUSIC PLAYING]
Marc, welcome to the show.
MARC SOARES: Thanks, Minhaz.
It's good to be here.
MINHAZ KAZI: So tell the audience a little bit
about yourself.
What is your role at ClickInsight?
MARC SOARES: I am the manager of our analytics solutions team
at ClickInsight.
We are a digital analytics consultancy.
We are also a Google Marketing platform partner.
And my team is responsible for everything
from implementing analytics on a website,
setting up to Google Tag Manager,
creating reports and dashboards, often
with Google Data Studio, all the way to conducting analysis
and providing insights and recommendations to our clients.
So you could say we do the full stack of digital analytics.
MINHAZ KAZI: So you do a lot of visualizations
with Data Studio.
How do you get started with it?
MARC SOARES: I was interested in Data Studio
from the very beginning.
I started using it about as early as it was available.
And I think there were a couple key benefits
that I saw from very early on that attracted me to the tool.
One was the native integration with Google Analytics.
The other main benefit was the ease of sharing reports.
You can share a link, and the viewer
can have access to that report, even
without logging in or downloading
another application.
And so for those two reasons, I was really
attracted to Data Studio in the first place.
And what's kept me interested is all the updates
and enhancements that have been rolled out
over time to really make it a more powerful reporting
product.
MINHAZ KAZI: So you started with Google Analytics data,
and you've been creating reports that you
share with your key members and your clients.
But recently, you've been using Data Studio for other purposes
as well.
For example, you make almost weekly contributions
to the Makeover Monday contest.
So how do you get started with that, the whole practice
of taking this new data set every week
and then creating visualizations from that data set?
MARC SOARES: Makeover Monday is a community project
where, every week, there's a new data set,
and visual posted, with the idea being
that participants will take that same data set
and create an improved version of the chart.
I started participating in Makeover Monday
even before I started using Google Data Studio.
And it was for the reason of giving myself an opportunity
to practice and improve my data visualization skills.
And by having that different chart, different topic,
different type of data set every week,
it provides a great opportunity to practice and learn
new skills.
And with Data Studio, by forcing yourself to be in the tool
regularly, I can keep my skills up to date
and learn some of the new features
and enhancements in the tool.
MINHAZ KAZI: One of your visualizations
were also included in the Makeover Monday book.
What is your process for creating these visualizations?
How do you start with a data set?
What is your process for picking chart types, or forms
and colors?
And what would be the size of everything?
Where do you start, how do you go through the process,
and how do you publish?
MARC SOARES: I think I have established
a pretty consistent process over the time
that I've been doing Makeover Monday.
It always starts with the data.
The data set's usually provided in a spreadsheet or CSV format.
When I'm using Data Studio, the first thing I'm going to do
is create a data source, so that I have access
to those fields in Data Studio.
But before I jump into creating any charts or visuals,
I like to get to know the data set a bit more.
I take a look at what fields are available,
what dimensions and metrics are in the data set.
And that often requires reading some background material
on where that data comes from.
Often, it's part of a larger report,
or it was published as part of an article,
or there's some more description about that data set.
I think that's always important to understand
the data before you start using it,
to make sure that whatever interpretations
you're going to make or however you're
going to tell the story-- that it's consistent with what
the data actually represents.
Once I get to know the data, I can
go into creating some charts in Data Studio.
I try to choose the most appropriate chart
for the message that I would like to communicate
or the story that I want to tell.
Depending on whether I'm trying to show all the data
or focus on a particular aspect of it,
I may make different decisions about which
charts are most appropriate.
That often involves some experimentation in the tool.
But once I've decided on what the most appropriate way is
to visualize the data, I can then
add to it with more visual aspects
of colors and fonts and layout to really make
a more polished final product.
But I think that, overall, is the process
that I follow every week with Makeover Monday.
MINHAZ KAZI: It is interesting that when
you're talking into visualization,
it's not just the chart types.
You also have the data, so you have
to have some domain knowledge about the data.
Then there's the storytelling part--
what story am I going to tell with this whole data?
And then building the vis based on those two principles.
Your approach to data visualization
seems to be very unique.
You're using the common chart types, like bar charts
and scatter plots, and you're operating
within the same techniques and limitations,
but you're coming up with something very unique.
What inspires you?
How do you get inspiration for these unique approaches
to data visualization?
MARC SOARES: Yeah, I think I draw inspiration
from a lot of different sources.
With many of the Makeover Monday visualizations
that I've created, I do try to push the boundaries of what's
possible with the tool in particular, with Data Studio,
and try to show something that perhaps people
haven't seen before or they didn't think
was possible with the tool.
But at the same time, I always try
to respect the data and the story
that I'm trying to tell, and make sure
that the message is clear and that the visual doesn't
get in the way of them.
And in that context I have drawn inspiration
from people like Edward Tufte and Stephen Few, who
have written a lot about the field of data visualization,
and the principles of communicating clearly
with information.
I also draw inspiration from others that contribute
to the visualization community.
There are a lot of creative and talented people
that create and share data visualizations,
and I think I try and pull bits and pieces from everything
that I see and apply that in my own work.
MINHAZ KAZI: Talking about community,
you have built a number of community visualizations
and community connectors for Data Studio.
This community is still young and growing.
What do you think about the developer community
and the prospects that a new developer
has in building solutions with Data Studio?
MARC SOARES: I've done a bunch of work
with the community connectors and visualizations,
creating those custom components for Data Studio.
One thing I should clarify is that I don't
consider myself a developer.
I can certainly code, and I'm comfortable with JavaScript
and HTML and CSS, but I'm not a full-time developer,
nor have I ever been a full-time developer.
But I think that speaks to the ease with which the custom
components for Data Studio can be created.
It doesn't require an expert developer
to be able to connect to data sources
or create custom visualizations for Data Studio.
You do need a bit of programming experience and knowledge,
but I think what's more important is to understand
the structure of the data, how it would be
used in a report or dashboard.
And putting that knowledge together, I think,
gives anyone a really good ability
to create these custom components.
Right now the data vis community around Data Studio
is still growing.
But I think, because of the framework that's in place,
it provides a great opportunity for more developers
to get involved and build out more custom components.
MINHAZ KAZI: What would be your favorite tip
that you would give to our audience with Data Studio?
MARC SOARES: That's a good question.
At least one of my favorite tips is something
that I do in my Makeover Monday visualizations very frequently.
It's a rather simple thing, but I hide the page boundary.
What it does is creates a very clean and crisp look
to your visualization.
The background fills the screen.
And if you go into full-screen mode,
then you really have a true full-screen experience.
So it's something very simple, but I
think it has a great impact on the final visualization.
MINHAZ KAZI: When would you use a pie chart?
[LAUGHTER]
MARC SOARES: I think I may only use a pie
chart to explain to you why you shouldn't use pie charts.
They're certainly not my favorite chart type,
and there are many reasons why other chart
types are most often better.
MINHAZ KAZI: All, right folks.
That's the end of our show.
Thanks again to Marc for being here.
If you want to see more content on Data Studio,
make sure that you subscribe to the GCP channel.
And you can always visit our developers' site
at developers.google.com.
Until the next time, keep making more visualizations.
[MUSIC PLAYING]