Visualizations: Creation of Analytics

Summary

The visualizations functionality is a great way of extending your Hubble user experience in terms of creating analytics that draw out data that is both useful and easy to understand.

There are two forms of visualizations, charts and metrics. This document outlines some ways of using these, but be aware that there are many more applications than what are listed here.

Before you get started

General Report Suggestions

The below suggestions help you exploit Hubble Desktop’s features:

We recommend consolidating your report data so you have limited points to display. For example
<10 business units or <13 periods helps ensure that the data can be easily presented and, as a result, better understood by the reader.
Remove additional columns to help keep users focused on the data.
Include User Defined Captions (UDCs) to make things easier to understand. So instead of Period 3, AA, 2015, for example, you could have Mar Actuals 2015.
Enable Code and Description for your label columns so that these are shown on the visualization. This will assist Hubble Web viewers.
Use formatting themes to drive a consistent display.
Use RIO to drive this formatting across multiple reports.
Modify the report data using calculations to speed up creation and reduce formatting within metrics.

Build for the Web

Build your reports so they are optimal for the web.

When you create lists (reports)/charts/metrics, remember to populate them with tags as these can be used for advanced searches. We recommend including the following:
1. Module
2. Frequency
3. Department/Team
4. Process
Remember to add descriptions; they are searchable just like the saved report/metric/chart name.
When you create a chart/metric, remember to populate the title and subtitle. The title and the subtitle are shown in Hubble Web. By default, the title will be populated with the name of the underlying report which may not be useful to you. (The saved chart/metric name is available in Hubble Web via a Workspace’s Table Of Contents, but this is not as easily seen by new users). It is worthwhile to do the following:
1. Override the title to be the same as the saved name of your chart/metric.
2. Using the subtitle to include the special text “Base Report: <SavedName>”. That way users in the web can identify the base report.
Metrics and charts are designed so that you can double-click on them and load the underlying report on which they are based. Focus more on what is useful to see and less on the actual figures.
Aim to create your metric and charts in easily viewed sizes. Your end workspace product should not require scrolling.
Avoid noise or redundancy including distractions, upper/lower case inconsistencies, and misspelled words.

Visualizations: General GUI

Visualizations are available in the View Ribbon Tab:

To toggle the display of visualizations for the current report on and off, use the Show Visualizations option.
The Generate Silhouette option is used to add to the list of images available when adding silhouettes to metrics. See Silhouette Generator.
To create a new visualization for a report, first run that report. Then click New Visualization, and select either chart or metric from the drop-down. The Visualization Designer will then open.

Visualization Designer

The Visualization Designer screen is customized depending on whether you selected a chart or metric after clicking New Visualization.

Elements common to both types of visualization are described here. See below for visualization-specific elements.

There are varying sections of the Visualization Designer. These can be expanded and contracted based on what the end user needs to see.

Common: Menu Icons

These icons, in the menu in the top left of the Visualization Designer window, are disabled until a chart/ metric has been sufficiently designed for a preview of a visualization to be generated.

The icons, from left to right, are as follows:

Preview: Generates a preview of the visualization, which is displayed in the right-hand panel of the window.
Save: Saves the visualization. The first time a visualization is saved, a Save As... dialog is displayed so that the visualization can be provided with a filename and a location for it can be selected (if the inquiry it is based on has not been saved, you will be prompted to save the inquiry first, also using a Save As... dialog).
Save As: Opens a Save As... dialog. Used to save a visualization under a different name and/or to a different location.
Refresh: Used to refresh the preview of a visualization after you have changed its settings.

Common: Properties Section

Common to both charts and metrics is the Properties section within the Visualization Designer.

This section contains two fields to update your visualization:

Description: We highly recommended that you enter a useful description as this is a searchable field within Hubble Web. It is also displayed within the search, User Profile and Recommendation Pages.
Tag: We also recommended populating this as it is used for searching within Hubble Web.

Common: Icon Header

This GUI is common to both metric and charts:

Plus: Adds a new row to the section
Up and down arrows:
- First select a row by clicking on the small square.
- Then use the up and down arrows to move the column up and down in the list.

Trash can:
- First select a column by clicking on the small square on the required row.
- Then delete the column.
Undo/redo icons: Used to either undo/redo your actions.
(Note that this facility is only applicable to this part of the dialog.)

Chart Visualizations

Chart Basics: Creating Your First Chart

Load up a GL Balances Report. Filter down to a few object accounts that have amounts. Within the View Ribbon Tab, Click on New Visualizations and New Chart to open the Visualization Designer.

Click into the Series section. There will be a plus icon. Click on this to add a row to the chart.

Click into the Categories section. There will be a plus icon. Click on this to add a column to the chart.

Click on the Preview icon up the top left of the Visualization Designer. You should see a chart in the right panel of the dialog.

Congratulations. You have just created your first chart.

Chart Basics: Adding Additional Columns

Right now your chart looks fairly basic, however you can add more columns from your report to make the chart more useful.

In the Categories section, click on the plus icon again to add another column to the report. Click on the selection drop-down to specify which column to display.

Run the report again to see data change.

Chart Basics: Changing The Data Axes

By default, a chart will show your value columns as your vertical data (Y axis) and your label columns as your horizontal data. In the Series section, you can switch this order by selecting the Source drop-down and specifying Vertical.

Horizontal Data Arrangement:

Vertical Data Arrangement:

Chart Basics: Changing Column Colors

By default, the colors of columns in charts are assigned automatically. You can choose a different color for a column right-click on the color box of the column in the chart legend and selecting the required color from the pop-up that is then displayed.

A column’s colors for ‘Vertical’ and ‘Horizontal’ sources will be different.

Remember that the appearance of the chart in the preview will stay the same until the chart preview is refreshed. The selected color is highlighted in the pop-up. If there were no changes, ‘Auto’ will be highlighted.

To change the color of a column back to the default “Auto” color, access the color selection pop-up for the column as described above, and select the “Auto” option. Note that if that color is no longer available because it has been assigned to a different column, the next available “free” color will be selected instead.

Further Charting Options

Series Section

Item: Used to indicate what data will be displayed.
- If there are subtotal or grand totals on the base report, these can also be selected if the
- Series Section Source drop-down is set to horizontal.

Selection: Used to specify which column is specified.
- Only editable if the Series Section Source drop-down is set to vertical.
- Types include:
  - Line
  - Spline
  - Area
  - Area Spline
  - Column
  - Bar
  - Pie
    - Be aware that the use of the pie type should be limited as use of this format does not lend itself to comparison purposes.
  - Scatter
    - Good for use with data where you need to identify outliers.
  - Waterfall
  - Funnel
  - Often used to represent stages in a sales process and show the amount of potential revenue for each stage.
Type: Used to specify what chart should be shown.
Style: Used to specify whether the chart type is shown as:

Default
Stacked: Multiple columns will be shown on top of each other
Stacked 100%: Multiple columns will be converted into a percentage view.
- With multiple columns it is suggested to not show both amounts and percentages on the same chart.

Expression: Used to derive the column caption to display on the chart, but can be overridden to a hard-coded caption.
Axis: Used to specify which axis the charts amounts will be displayed against. Note that:
- You can specify either the primary or secondary axis.
- If you wish to use the secondary axis option, you need to make sure the secondary axis is enabled in the Value Axis section.
- Be careful when setting up a secondary axis because a user can become confused as to which axis applies to which amount in a Hubble Web context.

Advanced - Label Values: Provides the ability to have text overlaid on the graph for each point on the chart.
- This is not commonly used because visualizations employ a mouse hover over approach, where the data is shown for that one item. If there are large number of points on your chart, this can reduce readability.
Advanced - Show in Legend: Gives the ability to specify whether the given data will be shown in the legend.

Categories Section

Item: Used to indicate the way that the data is displayed.
- If there are subtotal or grand totals on the base report, these can also be selected if the Series Section Source drop-down is set to vertical.
Selection: Used to specify which column is specified.
- This is only editable if the Series Section Source drop-down is set to horizontal.
Expression: Used to derive the column caption to display on the chart, but can be overridden to a hard-coded caption.

Value Axis Section

Axis: Used to enable or disable axes in your chart.
Title: Used to override the title on your axis.
Alignment: Used to specify axis position on your chart (top, center or bottom).
Axis Placement: Used to specify where the axis is displayed.

Min/Max: Used to specify the minimum and maximum points on an axis.
- Applying a minimum axis can be useful for showing smaller amount variances, however be careful to not have a minimum value that is set higher than the actual amount as the data will not be displayed.

Category Axis Section

Axis: Used to enable of disable axes in your chart.
- You can override the text displayed as well using standard title formatting options.
  - This gives you the ability to put filter values into the title.
Alignment: Used to specify where the axis title is displayed (left, right, center).
Axis Placement: Used to specify where the axis is displayed.

General Section

Title: Used to specify the title in the chart. Note that:
- When a user loads the chart in Hubble Web, the title displays in the Workspace. The saved name of the chart is available in the Workspace Table of Contents.
- A title can be configured with the values specified in the original report filters to make the title more useful.

Subtitle: Used to specify the title in the chart.
- Similar to the title, a subtitle can also contain further information from the underlying base report.
- A suggested subtitle would be the following in order to display the base report, date and time in the subtitle:
- “Report: <SavedName> Run Time: <RunDate:d> <RunDate:t>”
Legend: Used to control the legend shown on the chart, its location (top, center, bottom), its justification (left, right, center) and layout (horizontal, vertical).
- For legends with long text (e.g. when Code and Description is enabled for a label column), we suggest enabling a vertical layout to increase readability.
Group Tooltip: When hovering over any point on a chart, a tooltip will be displayed to show the Amount figure for the given point. A Group Tooltip allows you to display multiple amounts when you have multiple value columns in your base report data for a given row.

Chart Visualization Example: 12 Months of Amounts

A common thing would be to track Business Units/Companies amounts over 12 months.

The challenge from a charting perspective is that this becomes very hard to analyze. The following example shows 4 business units total revenue over 12 months:

The data, however, is very hard to understand. A better way to see it is by changing within the Series section the Type to Area and the Style to Stacked. You then have the ability to compare one business unit’s activity to the total.

Chart Visualization: Waterfall

This is a very specific chart which is designed to show the positive or negative adjustment to a starting number that results in the final number. Conditions for a Waterfall report are that the first columns add up to the final column.

This can be done by including a calculation in the report, e.g. COL1 +COL2 + COL3 = COL4 or by using existing period logic CE1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10+11+12=CE12.

For my base report, my data set is the following:

Cumulative1	$	289,444.98
Period2	$	300.00
Period3	$	777,783.54
Period4	$	2,043,046.55
Period5	$	1,172,539.60
Period6	$	2,041,002.29
Period7	$	505,113.25
Period8	$	1,548,082.47
Period9	$	2,335,543.09
Period10	$	417,250.10
Period11	$	3,442,910.00
Period12	$	684,495.01
Cumulative12	$	15,257,510.88

All Periods are added within the Category section of the Hubble Initializer and once completed, a Waterfall Chart will look like the following:

Note: Waterfalls are designed to work with one row of data. Multiple rows will not be displayed correctly.

In the above Waterfall scenario, the figures were all showing positive growth towards the final total.

The following example shows how the Waterfall chart will show negative growth towards a final total by coloring the problem period in red instead of green.

Cumulative1	$	-
Period2	$	712,220.00
Period3	$	2,285,595.28
Period4	$	618,900.00
Period5	$	925,600.00
Period6	$	-
Period7	$	567,000.00
Period8	$	-
Period9	$	-
Period10	$	935,923.15
Period11	-$	2,047,586.13
Period12	$	1,445,913.76
Cumulative12	$	5,443,566.06

Metric Visualizations

Metric Basics: Creating your first Metric

Metrics require more a little more consideration than charts. We recommend that you have a report that has the following data:

Fill Amount: An amount that is based on current data, for example actuals.
Marker Amount: An amount based on planned/projected/targeted data, for example budgets, forecasts, etc.
(Optional) Variance: Any amount you want to show above the Fill Amount. Common practices are the dynamic difference between the Fill and Marker Amounts or the Fill Amount itself.

Metrics also contain additional formatting options to charts. As such, the formatting options for a metric are separate from the report formatting options. That way a metric can display figures rounded up to Thousands, with the underlying report shown in dollars and cents.

For example I have a GL Balances report that has Actual, Budget and Variance (based on a standard calculation) Ledger Columns.

Within the View Ribbon Tab, click on New Visualizations and New Metric to open the Visualization Designer.

Clicking into the Series section, click on the Plus icon to add your first Metric Series.

Unlike charts, metrics require manual selection of the cells that will comprise the metric.

For each cell, there is an associated Cell Selector, shown below.

Click on the cell selector for Measure Title and then select the label column in the background report result set that contains the text for your metric. In the below example case, this is the Object Account Label Column.

You will then need to repeat the same process for Actual, Budget and Variance.

Note: You can enter in hard-coded values, but you should use the values from your ERP.

Click on the Preview icon in the menu bar of the Visualization Designer. You should see a metric in the right panel of the dialog.

Congratulations! You’ve just created your first metric!

Metric Basics: More than one

Just like charts, metrics can display multiple data points in the visualization.

Within the Series section, click on the Add icon and use the Cell Selector to populate the Fill Amount, Marker Amount and Variance for another row of data in your reports result set.

Note: Be aware that you can add more than just two metrics within your visualization. This means that if you had two metrics within one visualization, either both of them will need to be displayed or neither of them. However for readability it is recommended to limit the number of metrics in a visualization as they will scale to all fit within the provided screen size, which may reduce reusability.

Further Metric Options

General Options

Title: Used to specify the title in the metric. Note that:
- When a user loads the chart in Hubble Web, the title displays in the Workspace. The saved name of the metric is available in the Workspace Table of Contents.
- A title can be configured with the values specified in the original report filters to make the title more useful.

Subtitle: Used to specify the title in the metric.
- Similar to the title, a subtitle can also contain further information from the underlying base report.
- A suggested subtitle would be the following in order to display the base report, date and time in the subtitle:

Layout Section

Type: This gives you access to different forms of metrics and options:
- Cylinder: A metric that fills up a cylinder based on your amounts selected. No variations are currently provided.
- Doughnut: Commonly used for the creation of speedometer.
  Users can specify if the needle is visible, the thickness of the doughnut and variations on the doughnut shape.
- Bar gauge: A metric that fills up a horizontal bar with variations on the display.
- Silhouette: A metric based on a shape in our system, selected from the Image list.
  - In conjunction with the Series section Stencil option, a silhouette can have another silhouette included within it (this can be useful for embedding company logos), or text.
  - If the “Multi Silhouette” option is selected from the Image list, images selected for the Stencil option will be displayed as the silhouettes instead (i.e. as opposed to being images placed within another a silhouette image).
  - New silhouette images can be created and added to the list of available images from the Generate Silhouette option on the View tab. See Silhouette Generator.

Pointer: This displays your Fill Amount
Large Normal Small
Tick Marks: Used to specify how many tick marks are shown along your metric. Options include Detailed, Minimal, Normal and Sparse.
Tick Positions: Indicates where the ticks to indicate amounts are shown on the metric. Options include Both Sides (not normally recommended), Hidden, Inside (for a cylinder to the right) and Outside (for a cylinder to the left).
Milestone Area Fill and Milestone Indicator (both covered later in Metric Milestone example).
Measure Title: Allows you to specify where the location of the title is shown as well as the justification.
Measure Subtitle: Allows you to specify where the location of the subtitle is shown as well as the justification.
Wrap: When you have more than one metric in your visualization, this can be used to force line wrapping. ZERO is the default, meaning the system decides when to wrap.
- If using this functionality, it is recommended to use the up and down arrows. Wrap Set To 0 (Automatic) Wrap Set to 1

Series Section

Measure Title: Used to specify the title for the specific metric in the visualization.
Color: Used to specify the color of the individual metric. We recommend changing the color to your company colors.
If left unchecked, the system will choose a default color designed to ensure variety.
Fill Amount: The amount that fills within the metric.
Marker Amount: The target/goal amount for the metric.
Variance: The dynamic difference between the Fill and Marker Amount.
Min/Max: Allows you to apply limits on the metric displayed.
- Be careful with data that may change over time using these functions. Also this is not recommended for metrics based on percentages.

Value Format Override: Allows you to define whether you want to enable the following features that can be applied to the metric values:
- Prefix: Useful for entering in a currency symbol
- Suffix: Useful for entering in free text so numbers can have units after them
- Decimal Places: Specify the number of decimal places To specify no decimal places, enter 0.
- Thousand Separator
- Reverse Sign
- Divisor
- Parenthesize Negatives
- Auto Suffix

Important: STRONGLY RECOMMENDED: Use of the Auto Suffix feature should normally reduce the need for the Thousand Separator, Divisor and Suffix. Will automatically convert to Millions and Thousands.

Variance Format Override: Similar options as to Value Format Override, except applied to the Variance displayed on the metric.
Milestones: Covered in their own section.
Stencil: Used to show a stencil image or free text in the middle of the metric.
Measure Subtitle: Can be used to display text associated with the metric. This is either taken from the ERP, or alternatively, can be free text.
General: Allows you to define default titles and subtitles for metrics.

Metric Example

Metric Visualization: Using Milestones in your Metrics

Milestones give a way of tracking progress within a metric.

In the example below, we will be using Revenue accounts and show how close they are coming to their Forecasted Amounts.

Milestones do allow for amounts to be manually selected or entered, but another way of doing this is to use Hubble Desktop’s calculation engine to create three Milestones calculations that are based on Forecast data:

MILESTONE1 is 1/3 of the Forecast Figure
MILESTONE2 is 2/3 of the Forecast Figure
MILESTONE3 is double the Forecast Figure (allows for Revenues to be higher than the Forecast)

Note: These Forecast Calculations cannot be disabled, but they can be hidden so that they don not show in Hubble Web.

Now that the base report is done, within the View Ribbon Tab, click on New Visualizations and New Metric to open the Visualization Designer.

Specify your Measure Title, Fill Amount, Marker Amount and Variance for each of the rows of data in your base report.

Now click into Milestones and click the Plus button for each Milestone.

Specify a color that suits each Milestone and either enter a value or reference a milestone from your original data. A traffic light red, yellow, green works well as a simple concept for your Hubble Web users.

Repeat this for each row of data in the base report.

Click on the Preview icon in the menu bar of the Visualization Designer and you will see the beginnings of your Milestone Metric.

To customize the Milestone Metric further, we recommend these settings in the Layout section:

Milestone Area Fill: Change from the default of Opaque to either Semi or Transparent. This setting allows you to specify how much of the Milestones are shown in the metric, shifting focus between the Milestones and the Actual Amounts.
Milestone Indicator: Allows you to specify if the Milestone is displayed. For this style of metric, Fill is suggested.

By changing these settings (Milestone Area Fill to Transparent) you will end up with Milestone Metrics that look like the following:

Using the original figures:

Object Account 5002 has exceeded its original Forecast and hence has a green color (as its within Milestone 3).
Object Account 5201 is still within Milestone 2 and therefore has a yellow color.
Note how both Variances shown on the Milestones are in their correct colors.

Silhouette Generator

The Silhouette Generator enables you to upload images that can then be used as silhouettes when creating and editing metric visualizations, in addition to those supplied with Hubble.

Note: In order to generate silhouettes, users must have Create permissions for the Silhouettes folder set in Administration.

The Silhouette Generator is accessed from the Generate Silhouette option on the View menu.

Note that a report (any report) must be open or else the option will be disabled.

Clicking Generate Silhouette displays the Generate Silhouette From Image dialog:
Enter the name of the new silhouette in the Name field.
Click Upload. A file browser will them be displayed. Use this to find and select the required image file, for example a .png file.
The selected image is then displayed in the preview area to the right and the name and location of the file is displayed above the Upload button.
The selected image file must be a minimum of 125 x 125 pixels. If it is smaller, a message will be displayed to advise the user of this:
Click Save to create the new silhouette.

The new silhouette will now be available for selection when creating metrics.