Creating visualizations

This guide explains how to create and configure a visualization and add it to a dashboard.

Introduction

Visualizations are created based on data sets selected from the widget's data table.

In Data Explorer, a visualization data set is a set of values that you select from the data table to include in the visualization.

If you make changes to the data table, the visualization will only automatically update to show changes that affect the visualization data sets on which it is based. To see changes that do not affect the selected visualization data sets, select a new visualization data set to see this set and any changes affecting it on the visualization. For example, after adding a new metric to the data table, select a visualization data set for this metric to visualize it.

All dates and numbers displayed in Data Explorer are shown in the format matching your browser locale.

This setting depends on the language settings in your browser, which you can change as described in the Google Chrome, Firefox, and Safari documentation.

Week-related dimensions and date range filters are based on the first day of the week set in your workspace.

To change the first day of the week on a workspace level, contact Adverity support.

Prerequisites

Before you complete the procedure in this guide, perform all of the following actions:

Load your collected data into Adverity Data Storage.

Add data to the widget in Data Explorer.

Configure the data table to meet your needs.

Procedure

To create a visualization, follow these steps:

Selecting visualization data sets

To add data from the data table to a visualization, select a visualization data set. To select a data set, follow these steps:

Select the workspace you work with in Adverity and then, in the platform navigation menu, click Data Explorer.
At the top of the page, select the View tab that contains the widget.
Find the column in the data table that contains the metric you want to visualize.
Click on one of the metric values in this column.
In the pop-up Visualize menu, select a set of values to form the data set.

You can either select a group of values, which are the combinations of dimensions that can be displayed for the metric value selected in step 4, or a single value.

When you hover over each option in the Visualize pop-up menu, the values that will be included in the set are highlighted in the data table.

The created data set will appear in the Visualization data sets section below the data table.

Configuring visualization data sets

In the Visualization data sets section, configure how the selected data sets are used in the visualization. The following configurations are available for a visualization data set:

To display or hide a data set on the visualization, enable or disable the toggle for the selected data set.
To enable drilldown for the data set, click the Drilldown icon.

Drilldown displays data for inner dimensions on the visualization. This feature is only available when more than one dimension is shown in your data table and the selected data set is created on any dimension level except the innermost one.

When the drilldown feature is enabled, the values that can be displayed with this feature are highlighted in the data table.

For example, the data table contains two dimensions: Datasource and Campaign name in this order.

The drilldown feature is available for the All datasources data set because Datasource is not the last dimension in the data table. If drilldown is enabled for the All datasources data set, the visualization will show the Campaign name details for each datasource when you click on the datasource section of the chart.

The drilldown feature is not available for the Campaign names by Datasource data set because Campaign name is the last dimension in the data table.
To reorder the data sets, click and drag them into the new order.
To create a custom data set, click + Add custom set. For more information, see Creating custom data sets in widgets.
To delete a data set, click the Delete data set icon.
To delete all data sets, click the Delete all button on the right-hand side of the page.

Understanding visualization configurations

Visualizations follow these rules:

New dimensions are added to the visualization as a new x axis.
New metrics are added to the visualization as a new y axis.
Data series is a group of data points within the data set. Data series are created for data sets that can be separated into several groups based on the higher dimensions shown in the data table.
The visualization settings can be changed independently for each data series in the data set.
For data sets with drilldown enabled, a data series is created for each inner dimension included in the drilldown.
By default, if multiple data series are displayed on the chart, the data series names are displayed in the chart legend. To show or hide the data series on the chart, click the data series name in the legend.

The visualizations settings level determines how the chosen settings will be applied. To select a visualization settings level, select the required settings level from the drop-down menu to the right of the visualization.

General settings are applied to the whole chart.
Axis settings are applied to all data sets on the selected axis.
Data set settings are applied to the selected data set and all data series within it.
Data series settings are applied to the selected data series in the data set.

Visualization types

The following visualization types are available. Select the corresponding option at the top of the Visualization section to create a specific visualization type:

Bar/Line chart displays your data as a bar or line chart.

For an example of using the drilldown feature on a bar/line chart, see Creating simple bar and line chart visualizations.

For an example of using calculated metrics in a bar chart, see Visualizing potential impressions.

For more information on bar/line chart settings and an example of using stacking in a bar chart, see Creating advanced bar and line chart visualizations.
KPI box displays your data in a range of formats in a customizable box.

For more information, see Creating KPI box widgets.
Text displays your data as sentences.
Calendar heatmap displays your data as a heatmap on a calendar view representing the current year.
Heatmap displays your data as a heatmap.
Treemap displays your data as a treemap in which the area of each data point is proportional to its value.
Scatterplot displays your data as a scatter chart.
Funnel/Pyramid chart displays your data as a funnel or pyramid chart.
Pie/Donut chart displays your data as a pie or donut chart.

For more information, see Creating pie chart widgets.
Item displays your data as dots in a semicircle shape in which the number of dots representing each data point is proportional to its value (also known as a parliament chart).
Bullet/Gauge chart displays your data as a bullet or gauge chart, which allows you to compare data to a target value.
Geomap displays your data on an accurate geographical map. To use this visualization, your data set must contain a dimension that contains ISO region codes or geolocation data.

For more information, see Creating geo map widgets.
Word cloud displays your data in a word cloud in which the size of the word is proportional to the corresponding value.
Sankey diagram displays your data as a Sankey diagram.

For more information, see Visualizing duration data.
Radar chart displays your data as a radar chart.

Adding the visualization to a dashboard

You cannot save the visualization you have created unless you add it as a widget to a dashboard.

If you do not add the visualization to a dashboard, it will be lost if you close the View tab or sign out of Adverity.

To add the visualization widget to a dashboard, follow these steps:

In the top right of the page, click Add to dashboard.
Click Add as visualization.
(Optional) Rename the widget.
Choose one of the following options:
- Click Add to existing dashboard and select the dashboard to which you want to add the table.
- Click Add to new private dashboard and enter a name for the new dashboard to which you want to add the table.
Click Add.

Video guide: How to create a visualization in Data Explorer

This video guide explains how to choose the data you want to visualize, create and configure a visualization, and add it to a dashboard.

What's next?

Once you have created a visualization, use it in a dashboard. For more information, see Introduction to the Dashboards page.