Complex systems have "response surfaces" that are multidimensional.  Visualizing the response of those systems to different tweaks to the inputs is important to understanding them.  Convenient, intuitive, and explanatory data visualization techniques are one way I plan to better understand how to navigate complicated decisions and to live more efficiently/effectively/joyfully.

 

More to come; initial foray below....

 

 

Exploring Tableau

 

I've heard a lot about Tableau and Qlik for making data visualization easy.  I figured I'd explore them with a simple, real-world example, and then apply what I learned to larger problems (business analytics for CIF, research for "Smart Cities" applications which incorporate OpenStreetMaps and Knowledge Indices for Neighborhoods, etc).

 

Below are a few screencaps of my diet and exercise data, which I'm tracking for my "goal tracking" project.  I save it in Google Drive, exported it to Excel, and imported the Excel file into Tableau.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Screen cap of data in Tableau