A picture is worth a thousand words, the old saying goes, and it speaks to a simple truth: humans are visual animals. This is what makes data visualization the potential capstone of the analytic process and a key element in arriving at action-based findings from masses of data. No wonder many software tool companies are investing in new technologies to make data visualization an integral part of their solutions. Likewise, more organizations are using techniques to combine data from various sources, visualize it intuitively and discern trends or findings to make decisions.
Data Visualization in Higher Education
In higher education, data visualization is becoming standard in wide-scale initiatives to implement Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, to help scale business functions through automation and to drive access to the online education programs. Digital marketing teams are using CRMs and related technology to collect interested prospects and sort them by program interest so that tailored information on online offerings can be provided to them via email or other means. This data collection plays into an analysis phase which leads to data visualization to inform digital marketing campaign investment– critical to ensuring that program messaging is reaching individuals looking for career enhancing options in specific areas.
This use by higher ed is similar to the growing role of data visualization in modeling consumer behavior and making business decisions in the e-commerce industry. In the wake of COVID-19, e-commerce business has increased multifold and organizations are making webpage portal updates to capitalize on this trend, among other things. Buying patterns can be visualized and employed to refine web presence and to develop e-commerce business and marketing strategies.
The ability to use data analytics and visualization is now a skill that can enhance the careers of professionals in numerous fields. Purdue’s online graduate certificate in Applied Data Analytics can provide professionals with skills they need to identify and design analytic opportunities, including visualization, to improve the quality of information and decision-making within an organization.
Learn more about the Online Graduate Certificate in Applied Data Analytics
