Here is a quick visualization challenge for you.
There are 25 KPIs and each has a base value, current month, corresponding month values. The KPIs also have targets.
The data looks like this:
Download the data:
Click here to download the data for this contest.
Rules for this contest:
- Visualize this data using one Excel chart (one chart per KPI is ok too).
- You may omit any data
- You can use interactive charts.
- Do not use add-ins or VBA to make your charts
Go ahead and make your chart(s).
Last date & how to submit:
- Last date for this contest is 1st November, 2015 (Sunday).
- Once your chart is ready, email the workbook to chandoo.d@gmail.com with the subject “KPI contest“
- Winners will be announced in 2nd week of November, 2015.
What do winners get?
After carefully reviewing all the charts, 2 winners will be selected by our panel of judges. Each of them will get $100 Amazon gift card.
So what are you waiting for. Go ahead and visualize the data and show us how awesome you are.
Thanks to shaikhrulez @ Chandoo.org forum
Thanks to shaikhrulez at Chandoo.org forum for the data & question that became this contest.
34 Responses
Wooohoooo… It’s contest time again. Now I know what to do at the weekend 😉
Listened to your podcast this morning, happy Dussehra btw 😉
Phil
Thank you Phil… 🙂
Seems a o is skipped from email id.
Thanks for pointing it out. Fixed it now. For all: the email address is chandoo.d@gmail.com
At Nov,1st,2015 there is a very important general election in my country Turkiye. I use all my excel knowledge for the sake of the democracy. On the other hand I want to join this contest very much. My request is to change the final date of the Project as Nov,8th,2015.
This sounds exciting – wish I had time for this! I’m actually knee-deep at the moment in a visual analytics research project to figure out how best to represent the complex data generated and used during a nuclear power plant outage. The biggest issue is not the graphing of discrete variables, but how to synthesize sets of multivariate data into an integral graphic representation. Some people call this a “KPI glyph” or a “plant signature”. My idea is to approach this from a semiotic perspective, which essentially is an attempt to define in more precise terms exactly how people get meaning from the the graphic and how they know what action to take. In human factors terms, this is part of situation awareness, which is a vital requirement in control rooms and also outage control centers. There is a lot of theory behind all of this which I won’t burden you with, but I would like to know if any of the experts in this forum has experience with this kind of visualization.
I would checkout Information Visualization by Colin Ware. His book is probably more of a graduate text which is what you perhaps need. The first chapter deals with semiotics among other things.
Hi Jack, try googling Multivariate Analysis Using Parallel Coordinates (pdf). Regards, David
Hi R1C1,
One question, what if one has a question be it data or representation..should we ask it here or at the forum..(may be a silly question)
Please post your questions here.
Hello!
Is it allowed to use overlayed charts? I mean, a chart is considered 1 object(single chart) or can be a combination of many objects (singles charts overlayed) presenting 1 graphic?
Yes, you can use overlayed charts.
Looking forward seeing your awesome attempts!
Question – Visualize this data using one Excel chart (one chart per KPI is ok too). Is the challenge just to do one chart type? For example only use clustered bar chart.
Hi Alex, you may use any type of chart (including combination / custom charts). I meant one chart to visualize all the data for KPI.
Hi Chandoo,
On rules for this contest you wrote: “You may omit any data”. Does it mean any or several kpi and any or several columns may be skipped?
You can omit both columns and rows.
Hi chandoo, I prefer if i win, get another course for free… like macros & vba. 🙂
Hi. Is it ok to use VBA at all in the workbook, just not for the charts?
Like display fullscreen?
@Love S
I would assume it is ok to use VBA
Yes, Hui is right. VBA is ok. Even animated / interactive charts with VBA are fine too.
Sorry, I thought rules said:
“Do not use add-ins or VBA to make your charts”
@Love S’s original request was to “Like display fullscreen?”
I’m sure Chandoo will clarify
What I meant is VBA is ok when it is part of Chart functionality. But don’t use VBA to generate the charts (for example, using a script to automatically read the data and generate a custom chart is no-no, but creating a chart and then animating it using VBA is OK).
Hope that helps.
Hello Chandoo,
I want to participate in your contest, but am confused.
for instance when you say
“Visualize this data using one Excel chart (one chart per KPI is ok too).”
Do you mean for example, one chart per each KPI for all 25 KPIs?
And secondly, “You may omit any data”, can you give an example of such data to omit for some newbies in excel…
Thanks
@Shidaa, @All
You can display the data in any format you choose
Display types include Raw data, Tables, Charts, Dashboards items eg: Traffic Lights, Icons or Smartlines or any combination of all those types
Charts may be of any type of chart type of any combination of data eg(Actual, Budget, Forecast, Trends,)
You can arrange and display the elements how ever you want
You can use VBA to animate or control the charts if you desire
The Goal of a dashboard is to tell a story
So what you choose to use and leave out is also up to you
The actual only limitation is that you can only use Excel with no addin’s
Thanks for the feedback,
It will be very interesting to see some stunning results especially from those who emerge finalists to learn from their visual designs.
Thanks
Hi! Can you explain the columns in the data? I am confused
Sweetness!
Is there a limit to how many submissions we can make?
@JJ
No
Hi,
no news about this contest?
when the results?
Thanks for participating. We got 70+ entries and I am processing this. Results should be out in next 10 days.