The challenge of sorting through, and making sense out of increasingly massive amounts of data has given rise to new discussions about the value of data visualization. Often the emphasis is limited to the clever graphic illustration of information, and not focussed on achieving a real business objective.
In a commercial context, smart data visualizations are, of course, an excellent tool for guiding customers towards a product purchase. The ability for customers to sort through product decisions via visual guides, can be useful in providing an added intuitive level to searching for a product, verses, for example, a standard search field. Having eased the customers path towards the desired product, the transition from to the purchase process becomes much more natural.
For the University of St. Gallen, the leader in Executive Education in the Swiss-German market, traditional customer acquisition and sales relied on direct mailing course information to a known customer base. New customers, would have to find their way to the University, and then received individual advise on which course is appropriate, available, etc. In sum, a very clumsy, inefficient, low-tech approach. In a down economy, where large companies reduce investment in Executive Education, and individuals have less financial resources, the University felt pressured to improve on this recruitment process.
The trend in data visualizations tend to fall into two categories:
1. Graphic tools to help consumers understand data trends, process large pools of data, and find a relevant insight. Here is a recent, popular example of a NYC demographic map:
2. Helping consumers sort, and find relationships between information from a variety of sources. Classic examples include News visualizations, such as the Digg Labs “Arc” or the MSNBC “Spectrs News Reader”:
For the University, who maintains a constantly changing database of over 350 courses for different target audiences, business areas, start dates, costs, etc., we wanted to make it (a) easier for a user to find the relevant information and (b) connect this process to a real sale.
We developed a visual tool to help potential “customers”, sort through the over 350 potential courses of study. Users can modify their search by defining themselves by either their current job position and industry, or their “desired” position and industry. Which allows them in a dynamic way to connect the education required to reach their professional objectives.
Most importantly, from a business perspective, the path to registration and customer acquisition is rapidly increased. Having found the ideal course, users can contact the admin directly, or simply apply online.
I think we are just trying to understand how to use the power of data visualization effectively. As these possibilities and media are young, they have to be in line with customer needs and behavior. Nevertheless, the power of graphics can unleash the value of our offerings and services. This is the more important the virtual or intangible your services are. In the “knowledge age” the capability to communicate with fresh and ergonomically sound visuals becomes an essential and critical skill set. We at the Executive School of the University of St. Gallen will explore this “brave new world” of knowledge visualization because we know that humanbeings tend to capture 80% of knowledge by using visuals and only 20% by text.