Lab 4 — Data Visualization & Dashboard
Goal
Apply visualization design principles to turn your EDA findings into charts and an interactive dashboard. Each chart must answer a specific question — title and axes should make that question and its answer immediately clear.
Data
Visualization dataset from Google Drive, or the cleaned store sales data from previous labs.
Tasks
Part A — Chart selection and creation
Create five charts. For each, state the question it answers, choose an appropriate chart type, and apply clean formatting.
| # | Question | Recommended chart type |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | How does total revenue compare across categories? | Bar chart (horizontal or vertical) |
| 2 | How has total revenue trended month by month? | Line chart |
| 3 | What is the distribution of individual order amounts? | Histogram |
| 4 | Is there a relationship between Quantity and Amount? | Scatter plot |
| 5 | What share of total revenue does each region contribute? | Pie or donut chart |
For each chart:
- Add a descriptive title (e.g. "Electronics leads revenue at 38% of total")
- Label axes with units
- Remove chartjunk (3D effects, heavy gridlines, redundant legends)
Part B — Dashboard
Assemble all five charts on a single Dashboard sheet:
- Remove gridlines (View → Show → uncheck Gridlines).
- Set a white or very light background.
- Add two slicers: one for Category, one for Region. Connect both slicers to all five PivotCharts (right-click slicer → Report Connections → check all relevant PivotTables).
- Test: click "North" in the Region slicer — all charts should update simultaneously.
- Add a title cell at the top (e.g. "Store Sales Analysis Dashboard — Q1 2024").
Part C — Design critique
Examine the dashboard you built and answer (2–3 sentences each):
- Which chart is most effective? Why?
- Which chart would you replace or redesign, and how?
- Does the slicer interaction reveal any segment you would want to investigate further?
Submission
Submit one Excel workbook (.xlsx) containing:
- Source data (as Excel table)
- Five clearly titled charts
- A Dashboard sheet with slicers connected to all charts
- Part C critique as a text box or comment on the Dashboard sheet
Group Progress Report 4 is also due this week. Submit separately:
- Minimum 5 charts addressing your project research questions
- Preliminary interactive dashboard prototype
- Chart selection rationale and 2-page visual analysis document (+ Excel dashboard file)