Dec 30, 2020
Data Studio — A must try product from Google
My regular little chit chats:
It is a holiday season and I just got back after 3.5 days off & an 800km drive during this Xmas. Since it is a new job, decided not to take a long vacation. Just opted to stay away from work during the holidays. Moreover, since covid19 is still not in control, there is not much to do even if we take an off. Most of the team members are on vacation and though I am back, I am unable to gain some momentum. And yes, so, I have some reason to blog. Unlike earlier, this space is not filled with “drama” anymore! Lol! But I still like this space because this is where I used to unwind when work or the thoughts about my career stressed me out. Lol, it is finally becoming a tech blog!
I don’t think I am fully qualified to do a complete product review on Data Studio. But, I have earlier worked a bit on Qlikview. For one of those projects that I got a chance to work on during the lockdown days, I used Tableau to visualize the data I structured with the help of Python scripts. Recently, I also got a chance to evaluate PowerBI & had quickly picked up some basic features of PowerBI. So, these are the three softwares that I have got a feel of earlier when it comes to data visualizations.
Edit: I was supposed to add this as a closing note. Thought, I should place this in my regular chit chat section itself. In the initial days of switching to this tool, I kind of struggled to get accustomed to Data Studio and all of a sudden, I was offered some help. For a long time (I should say, years together), I was on my own when it comes to work, and when someone offered to help after a long long time, it just boosted my confidence to explore data studio. I think I owe this post to that gentleman who offered to help with the tool. :)
Into the blog:
Why Data Studio?
Irrespective of the field of one’s work, I strongly believe that data visualization skill is a must-have skill for anyone who is into the management space. With the skills to visualize the data in hand, communications become much easier & better. We can get rid of a lot of ambiguities when data is used while communicating. Getting an excel or a CSV loaded onto a visualization tool helps plot your data really fast. Since google studio comes along with your Gmail or Google account, one does not have to keep looking for another software.
So, if you are still looking for a visualization tool or are planning to get a feel of some visualization software, just click on datastudio.google.com and get started.
Things I didn’t like about Google’s Data Studio:
Honestly, there is nothing that I didn’t like about Google’s Data Studio. Like many other products from Google, I am a big fan of this product as well.
Things I liked about Google’s Data Studio:
- Like Google Meet or Google drive, this is a cloud-based application and we do not need to install anything to start using the software.
- Like most of the other Google products, all we need is a Gmail account or a google account to start using data studio.
- The “google drive like sharing feature” of Data Studio — “sharing with everyone with a link”, sharing with selected users, sharing within the organization — We just need the link to share it with anyone else who would like to collaborate with or view the report.
Some features of Google Studio:
- Google did not go to re-invent the wheel. We can import a CSV or connect to any other data source and plot the charts for a given set of dimensions and matrices in a manner that is very similar to most of the other visualization tools in the market.
- For any given plot, the chart type can be changed by just clicking on an existing plot. (Most of the times, converting a bar chart to a pie chart or a line chart is achievable with a single click)
- One report can have multiple pages. That way, visualizations can be segregated better.
- On a particular report, we can bring in multiple data sources easily. Charts can be plotted on a report from multiple data sources.
- I haven’t used this yet — But, there are connectors to BigQuery and Google Analytics from Data studio. (Obvious feature for a visualization tool from Google!)
- Good & simple UI which has been segregated into two tabs — Styles and Data. Anything related to data can be managed through the data tab and any customizations required for the visuals can be managed through the styles tab.
- The edit/view toggle makes it very easy to switch between the edit and the view option. The editor gets a clear picture of how an end-user gets to view the report with the click of this button.
- Another feature of Data Studio that I liked is the scorecard control. In the above chart, there are four scorecards, which gives us the aggregated values corresponding to the selected matrices.
9. The best part of the reports in Data Studio is that the reports are dynamic from an end-user point of view. There are sliders and date controls that can be made available in the reports which help the end-user to view the data based on certain dates and parameters.
a. Above is a video of a feature that just makes Data Studio very powerful. There is a date control there. When we change the dates in the date control, we can make the entire report to replot accordingly.
b. Linked below is another video of a slider in action in Data Studio.
Here is the documentation on Google Analytics Academy from Google on Data Studio. Do check out if you would like to get a better hold on the tool.
New year wishes in advance to all my regular & new readers! Signing off for 2020. :)
