Charts and graphs, commonly referred to as Data Visualizations are key elements of any business reporting environment.
With Yurbi, we feel the best user experience comes from visualizing data at a summarized, high-level from a dashboard and then being able to interact with that by drilling down to see specific data elements or by applying filters to view those summarized views across different parameters.
Up to this point, we have covered the essentials of creating data grids and KPIs. In this section, we discuss building charts.
The key to chart building in Yurbi is, similar to everything else, constructing a proper data set.
General rules for data set creation for charting
- Having a least one numeric column. Any type of data visualization has to have a value field to visualize. You can definitely have more than one, but at a minimum, all charts in Yurbi start with having a least 1 numeric column. As we show in the video, you can get this from applying a formula to calculate a value or you can have a numeric value directly from your database.
- Having a least one text column (or character-based). Regardless of the data visualization, you are looking at some value over some parameters. In Yurbi, the parameters are text-based.
Examples include:
- Total Sales by month. Total Sales is the value, month is the text field.
- Number of Tickets by Group. # of Tickets is the value, group is the text field.
- Profit Margin by Location. Profit margin is the value, location is the text field.
With this basic information, you can quickly build a chart in Yurbi via the visualization tab of the builder. However, there is a second part of the process when building a chart. Understanding the best type of chart to convey the information desired.
We discuss this concept in greater depth in this blog article, we encourage you to read here. But one of the key differences of Yurbi compared to many other BI tools, we on purpose only provide a limited amount of data visualizations. The full list is provided here.
We keep visualizations limited to a core set to focus the builder on the easiest possible way to display data without triggering overload of choice. It also keeps things simple (which saves you time and money).
In the video below, we go over how to create the core out of the box chart types in Yurbi. We also give you a quick look at when you may need to use Linked Reports to combine data sets for the purpose of charting, but don’t worry, while we go through this concept quickly in this video, the next section fully covers it.