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Data Visualisation in Python
Quick and easy routes to plotting magic
Shane Lynn Ph.D.
@shane_a_lynn
www.edgetier.com | [email protected] | @TeamEdgeTier
edgetier Outline
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• Data Visualisation Basics
• Basic Python Setup & Core Libraries
• Code examples and comparisons
• What to avoid
edgetier EdgeTier
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EdgeTier specialise in data and artificial intelligence products for customer
contact centres.
Commercially focused
SaaS to increase revenue
and reduce costs
Focus on data science, AI system works alongside
machine learning, and customer service agents
automation to increase efficiency by
100%
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Data Visualisation
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Data visualisation is a general term that describes any effort
to help people understand the significance of data by placing
it in a visual context.
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Data Visualisation
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Choice of Data Visualisation Tool is important
Iteration speed
Un-intrusive
Flexible
Aesthetically pleasing
edgetier Chart Choice
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Source: www.extremepresentation.com
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Chart Choice – Fearsome Foursome
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BARPLOT HISTOGRAM SCATTER PLOT LINE CHART
Represents the An accurate Show the Shows the
value of entities graphical relationship evolution of
using bar of representation of between 2 numeric numeric variables.
various length. the distribution of variables.
numeric data.
Icons: www.data-to-viz.com
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Chart Choice – Fearsome Foursome
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Special Mentions
BARPLOT HISTOGRAM
BARPLOT SCATTER PLOT LINE CHART
Represents the BOXPLOT Represents
An accurate SANKEY
the Show CHOROPLETH
the Shows the
value of entities
Summarizevalue
thegraphicalDIAGRAM relationship MAP
of entities evolution of
using bar of representation
distribution using bar
of of of flows
Showing between
with 2 numeric
Display annumeric variables.
various length. the
various
distribution
numeric variables length.of links variables.
smooth aggregated value for
numeric data. each region of a map
Icons: www.data-to-viz.com
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Data Visualisation in Python
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Interactive
environment
Data
Manipulation
Python Visualisation Library
- Lots of choice of libraries
- Many tools, with varied APIs & outputs
- Best to conquer and become familiar Visualisation
Library
with one / two
seaborn
edgetier Matplotlib
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Grand daddy of Python Plotting
Low level plotting library with
Matlab-like API
+ Very flexible, complete control
- Verbose plots, aesthetically lacking,
sometimes difficult with Pandas
...need to know enough to debug…
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Pandas / Seaborn / Altair
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Higher level plotting
Pandas – Visualisation API built into
DataFrame & Series objects, interface
to Matplotlib.
Seaborn – extends and provides high-
level API on Matplotlib with
improved styling.
Altair – Built on “Vega-Lite”
visualisation grammar. Allows some
interactive plots in Jupyter
Notebooks.
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Basic Notebook Setup
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Imports on Matplotlib
Top of notebook – inline
vs notebook style.
Theme also can be
chosen here
edgetier Sample Data
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EdgeTier relevant sample dataset on chat system performance.
Agents answering customer chats from different websites and
languages – 5477 chats over 100 agents.
edgetier The Bar Plot
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The Bar Plot - Matplotlib
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Bar plot of chats per user
Python visualisation libraries often require that the
data for plotting is pre-formatted for visualisation.
For Pandas and Matplotlib, the visualisation library
often only present the values, and does not do
calculations.
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The Bar Plot - Matplotlib
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.bar() function does the work, manually position
‘x’ labels and positions.
Most code here is formatting and display.
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The Bar Plot - Pandas
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Plot output is Matplotlib – same manipulation.
Slightly simpler API / data access.
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The Bar Plot - Seaborn
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seaborn
Simpler data access again.
Same Matplotlib formatting functions
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The Bar Plot - Altair
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Not Matplotlib-based – very different syntax and formatting.
Ordering was difficult here.
Only one command for everything. JSON format behind.
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The Bar Plot - Altair
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Not Matplotlib-based – very different syntax and formatting.
Ordering was difficult here.
Only one command for everything. JSON format behind.
edgetier The Bar Plot
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seaborn
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Prettier Pandas Plots
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seaborn
Seaborn styles are applied to all matplotlib plots –
Cheat your way to nicer looking Pandas Plots!
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More Challenging Bar Plot
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For the top 20 agents, what was the split of the
top websites?
We want a ‘stacked bar’ for this visualisation.
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Stacked Bar - Matplotlib
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Stacked Bar - Matplotlib
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Stacked Bar - Matplotlib
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Stacked Bar - Pandas
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Plotting code is simple, but data manipulation
required.
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Stacked Bar - Seaborn
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seaborn
Elegant API, simple code structure,
but …
…embarrassingly…
no stacked-bar chart support!
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Stacked Bar - Seaborn
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seaborn
Elegant API, simple code structure,
but …
…embarrassingly…
no stacked-bar chart support!
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Stacked Bar - Altair
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Simple output, short code.
Some issues around data storage,
JSON formats, and sorting is difficult.
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Seaborn - Estimators
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seaborn
Calculations done as part of plotting – no
previous data manipulations.
Separation of data and visualisation code.
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Seaborn - Estimators
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seaborn
Very simple to change estimator function to
calculate different statistics.
Similar functionality available in Altair
edgetier Histograms
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edgetier Histograms
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seaborn
All libraries
good at
univariate
distribution
visualisations.
edgetier Histograms
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seaborn
edgetier Histograms
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Layering / comparison achieved unfortunately
by building up the histograms in place.
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Histograms - Seaborn
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seaborn
Some really nice options for
impressive and informative hints on
Seaborn graphs.
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Scatter Plots - Pandas
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Scatter Plots - Pandas
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Pandas: Good for quick single-coloured scatter visualisations.
Messy with multiple categories.
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Scatter Plots - Pandas
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Pandas: Good for quick single-coloured scatter visualisations.
Messy with multiple categories.
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Scatter Plots - Seaborn
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Seaborn / Altair: Better higher level representation, and better
for multi-category scatters.
seaborn
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Scatter Plots - Altair
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Seaborn / Altair: Better higher level representation, and better
for multi-category scatters.
edgetier Line Plots
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edgetier Line Plots
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Plot chats per language
over time
Pandas: Needs data
manipulation, simple
thereafter.
edgetier Line Plots
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Pandas: Needs data
manipulation, simple
thereafter.
edgetier Line Plots
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Pandas: Needs data
manipulation, simple
thereafter.
edgetier Line Plots
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Seaborn/Altair:
Operate directly on seaborn
raw data
edgetier More Options!
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Geospatial Viz
Folium: Generate interactive
maps using leaflet.js
Matplotlib: Basemap plugin
Interactive Plots
Bokeh: Makes visualisations for
web browser interaction.
Plotly: Online visualisations –
runs by default in cloud
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What to Avoid – Angles?
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Pie Charts: Radial angle for comparison. Humans are very bad at
accurate radial comparisons – we’ve evolved for speedy length /
distance comparisons.
https://blog.funnel.io/why-we-dont-use-pie-charts-and-some-tips-on-
better-data-visualizations
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What to Avoid – Angles?
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Pie Charts: Radial angle for comparison. Humans are very bad at
accurate radial comparisons – we’ve evolved for speedy length /
distance comparisons.
https://blog.funnel.io/why-we-dont-use-pie-charts-and-some-tips-on-
better-data-visualizations
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What to Avoid – Area?
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Area: We’re bad at area – rank these bubbles by area, and compare
them relative to each other.
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What to Avoid – Area?
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Area: We’re bad at area – rank these bubbles by area, and compare
them relative to each other.
https://www.data-to-viz.com/caveat/area_hard.html
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What to Avoid – 3d?
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3d: In general, 3D is “fake fancy”. Impractical but gee-whizz – avoid!
Caveat: Interactive Scatters?
edgetier Conclusions
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Wide variety of tools available in Python.
Get familiar with Pandas syntax for quick & simple
exploration, and use with Seaborn themes.
Learn one more high-level library in detail – Seaborn or Altair
for publication of output and more flexibility
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication”
Leonardo Da Vinci
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Data Visualisation in Python
Quick and easy routes to plotting magic
Shane Lynn PhD
@shane_a_lynn | @TeamEdgeTier
www.edgetier.com | [email protected] | @TeamEdgeTier
edgetier More?
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Resources
Tour of Python’s Data Landscape
https://dsaber.com/2016/10/02/a-dramatic-tour-through-pythons-data-
visualization-landscape-including-ggplot-and-altair/
Python Graph Gallery
https://python-graph-gallery.com/
From Data to Viz
https://www.data-to-viz.com/
