Finally, our second visualization challenge comes to an end. We got a winner.
Background about Zoho Reports Visualization Challenge:
(skip this section if you know what I am going to say)
Back in November, 2009, I have asked the readers to come up with best possible ways to visualize a set of fictitious sales data. The objective is to make a dashboard (or chart) that would,
help a senior manager understand how the sales people have done in the 24 months. [more]
Readers from all corners of earth responded enthusiastically to this challenge and submitted 32 truly outstanding entries. I have compiled all of them in the sales dashboards post and asked you to vote for a winner.
And now we have winners.
Ladies & Gentlemen, the winner of this challenge is,
Option 4 submitted by Alex Kerin
Here is the winning sales dashboard:
click here for a bigger version
Alex Kerin – who writes at Data Driven Consulting, made this dashboard using MS Excel and Fabrice’s free sparklines add-in.
The dashboard clearly shows sales performance summaries at sales person level (a stated objective of this challenge), along with various key metrics. It follows key visualization principles, he used fewer colors, kept things as simple as possible and include headline messages.
Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2 | Link 3
Alex’s entry received 23 votes.
Congratulations Alex. You will receive an 8 GB iPod touch very soon.
The second prize goes to,
Option 7 submitted by Cuboo
Here is the dashboard:
click here for a bigger version
Cuboo – who writes at Open BI, made this dashboard using MS Excel & Palo. Cuboo is not new, he won the previous visualization challenge as well.
Download Source Files: Link 1
Cuboo’s entry received 22 votes.
Congratulations Cuboo. You will receive a copy of project management excel templates.
The third prize goes to,
Option 10 submitted by Esteban
Here is the dashboard:
click here for a bigger version
Esteban, made this dashboard using MS Excel.
Download Source Files: Link 1 | Link 2
Esteban’s entry received 15 votes.
Congratulations Esteban. You will receive a copy of project management excel templates.
Honorary Mentions
While there are several very good dashboards (and charts) submitted for this challenge, I *personally* liked these dashboards too.
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| (large) | (large) | (large) | (large) | (large) |
| Option 2 by Ajay | Option 5 by Arti | Option 11 by Hernan | Option 23 by Matt Cloves | Option 30 by Tessaes |
| Good colors, Layout | Interesting design, lots of dynamic stuff | Fewer charts, cool headlines | Rotatable panel chart!!! | Fewer colors, data tables |
| (details) | (details) | (details) | (details) | (details) |
Thanks to Zoho – the contest sponsor
Thanks to Zoho Reports and @aravind for pro-actively approaching me and sponsoring this contest.
Thanks to all the participants and voters
Thanks everyone for your support, participation and enthusiasm. You have made this contest a memorable experience for me as well as countless PHD readers. Thank you.
12 Responses to “Analyzing Search Keywords using Excel : Array Formulas in Real Life”
Very interesting Chandoo, as always. Personally I find endless uses for formulae such as {=sum(if(B$2:B$5=$A2,$C$2$C$5))}, just the flexibility in absolute and relative relative referencing and multiple conditions gives it the edge over dsum and others methods.
I've added to my blog a piece on SQL in VBA that I think might be of interest to you http://aviatormonkey.wordpress.com/2009/02/10/lesson-one-sql-in-vba/ . It's a bit techie, but I think you might like it.
Keep up the good work, aviatormonkey
Hi Chandoo,
You might find this coded solution I posted on a forum interesting.
http://www.excelforum.com/excel-programming/680810-create-tag-cloud-in-vba-possible.html
[...] under certain circumstances. One of the tips involved arranging search keywords in excel using Array Forumlas. Basically, if you need to know how frequent a word or group of keywords appear, you can use this [...]
@Aviatormonkey: Thanks for sharing the url. I found it a bit technical.. but very interesting.
@Andy: Looks like Jarad, the person who emailed me this problem has posted the same in excelforum too. Very good solution btw...
Realy great article
"You can take this basic model and extend it to include parameters like number of searches each key phrase has, how long the users stay on the site etc. to enhance the way tag cloud is generated and colored."
How would you go about doing this? I think it would need some VB
Hi,
I found the usage very interesting, but is giving me hard time because the LENs formula that use ranges are not considering the full range, in other words, the LEN formula is only bringing results from the respective "line" cell.
Using the example, when I place the formula to calculate the frequency for "windows" brings me only 1 result, not 11 as displayed in the example. It seems that the LEN formula using ranges is considering the respective line within the range, not the full range.
Any hint?
@Thiago
You have to enter the formula as an Array Formula
Enter the Formula and press Ctrl+Shift+Enter
Not just Enter
Thank you, Hui! I couldn't work out how this didn't work
is there a limit to the number of lines it can analyse.
Ie i am trying to get this to work on a list of sentances 1500 long.
@Gary
In Excel 2010/2013 Excel is only limited by available memory,
So just give it a go
As always try on a copy of the file first if you have any doubts
Apologies if I am missing something, but coudn't getting frequency be easier with Countif formula. Something like this - COUNTIF(Range with text,"*"&_cell with keyword_&"*")
Apologies if I missed, but what is the Array Formula to:
1. Analyze a list of URL's or a list of word phrases to understand frequency;
2. List in a nearby column from most used words to least used words;
3. Next to the list of words the count of occurrences.