UPCOMING WEBINAR: Run Research Your Way With AI Skills In addition to some of the more basic checking and cleaning processes, you can make using your data even more efficient in Displayr by organizing it a bit. This will help when you are collaborating with other teammates as well as when you are under extreme time pressure. There are a number of strategies you can use to tidy your data:
For a more automated and comprehensive way of checking your data, you can use the Data Preparation Agent to check and prepare your data for you. See How to Automatically Check and Prepare Your Data with Data Preparation Agent.
Method - Which questions go where
Overall structure
Where the users are very familiar with the questionnaire and its structure, it is usually best to have the data file reflect the order of the questionnaire. In other situations, the following structures can be better:
- Ordering data according to how often it will be used, with the most regularly used data at the top (e.g., demographics and segments).
- General-to-specific. For instance, category questions could be listed first, then brand questions. And, in the case of trackers, you may choose to have questions that are current and consistently asked at the top and historic or ad-hoc questions at the bottom.
- WHO, WHAT, WHERE, WHEN, and WHY.
- SITUATION (when, who with, and other aspects of context), BEHAVIOR (i.e., action), and PERSON (personality, values, demographics, etc.).
- INFORMATION SEARCH, AWARENESS, CONSIDERATION, TRIAL, USAGE FREQUENCY, and SATISFACTION.
- DEMOGRAPHICS, MEDIA, ATTITUDES, CATEGORY BEHAVIOUR, BRAND BEHAVIOUR.
Data can be re-ordered by dragging and dropping in the Data Sources tree, automations in the Anything > Data > Move Data menu, and via right-click> Sort or Move in the Data Sources tree. See How to Move Variables or Variable Sets in the Data Sources Tree.
Standard analysis variables
Any standard analysis variables should be included in the data file or created. These will typically vary by client and industry. For example:
- In packaged goods and financial services studies, "family lifestage" is usually relevant.
- In media studies, Age-by-Gender is often valuable.
- Medical studies typically create variables on patient attributes.
Hiding uninteresting data
You can right-click the variable in the Data Sources tree and select Hide, or see How to Hide Uninteresting Data.
Creating folders in the data
You can group similar groups of variable sets together into folders in Displayr, such as demographics, funnel variables, ratings, numeric, filters, etc. To create a folder:
- Find a position where you want to create the folder in the Data Sources tree, select the variable above it, and click + > Folder.
- Select the variable sets you want to put in the folder (you can use Shift and Ctrl to select multiple), and drag those on top of the folder name.
Method - Tidying questions
Names and labels
Often, the names shown for the Variables and Variable Sets in the Data Sources tree are messy, containing strange programming characters and truncated question wordings. If you have Displayr AI enabled, the Data Preparation Agent can tidy these for you. Displayr AI will also tidy automatically when you combine variables into a new variable set in your data. Otherwise, it is generally a good idea to:
- Tidy them.
- Abbreviate them so that when they appear in menus and exports, they are easy to read.
- For questionnaires that are ordered by question number, include the question number in the name of the question (e.g., Q1. Age). Note that you can include the full wording of the question in the footer (see below).
The following can be useful ways of quickly tidying up names and labels:
- Ensuring that they are created in a neat and organized way in the original data file (e.g., see How to Set Up Your SPSS File for Importing into Displayr).
- Use the Data Preparation Agent.
- Modifications can be made to the label using Find/Replace, which supports wildcards (see Tips for Working Efficiently in Displayr).
- How to Suggest Better Variable Names from Source Labels
- How to Remove Truncated Text from Variable Labels
Sorting categories within a variable set
Sorting can be done by dragging and dropping, but there are also several options for automatic sorting. Most options are present in the Sort menu by right-clicking the item on the page and are available based on the item selected:
All sorting options, other than rows/columns in a table, will govern how the variable set is shown in all tables and analyses.
Merging small categories together
Merge categories with small counts (e.g., collapsing age categories and brands with less than 2% market share). The general process is to:
- Follow How to Create Tables for Data Checking to create tables that highlight low counts and outliers.
- Then review those tables and merge categories by dragging and dropping.
Removing irrelevant SUM and NET categories
Sometimes the SUM and NET categories are unhelpful. For example, if using a Numeric - Multi variable set to represent rating scales. They can be removed by right-clicking on them and selecting Hide.
Method - Creating a report "shell"
It is sometimes useful when setting up a project to create the "shell" of a report, which can be modified as per the requirements of users.
Creating tables
The Report tree in Displayr is a useful way of setting out the most important findings in the data, or for providing an overview against key groups such as segments, countries, or targets. Depending on the user, this will either be:
- A set of summary tables or charts that can provide a starting point for the user to use in exploring the project.
- A set of crosstabs with all the tables crossed by a few standard questions
Although there are lots of tools for quickly creating a number of overview tables, the most straightforward approach may be to use one of the following automations:
- How to Create Summary Tables
- How to Create Summary Plots
- How to Create Lots of Crosstabs
- How to Create Lots of Banner Tables
It is often useful to create Folders of Pages to make it easier for users to navigate. Pages can be grouped into folders by dragging one Page onto another in the Pages pane.
Filters
There are lots of ways to create filters from the data, depending on how it is formatted. You can create lots of filters at once from categorical data using the Create Filter from Selected Data automation. There is a list of all the different methods of creating filters in the How to Create Filters Using Variables in Your Data article.
Footers, also known as Captions, can be customized. In most cases, this is best done by editing the Caption settings on the table directly, see How to Show / Hide / Edit Captions for Tables and Charts. However, if adding footnotes containing longer wordings, this is best done using the process in How to Add a Custom Description Conditional on a Selected Question to a Footer (Caption). You can also add and edit footers to R-based items, see How to Add Custom Captions to R-based Tables, Visualizations, and Outputs.
Changing the Appearance of Charts and Tables
See How to Customize the Formatting of Tables in Displayr and How to Create a Template Document.
Sample size warnings and automated data hiding
There are a variety of automations and Rules that can be used to give appropriate warnings and to hide data. To apply these:
- Type the words sample size into the Search box at the top.
- Follow the yellow highlights to select the desired option. Popular methods are:
Transposing tables
Sometimes tables of Nominal-Multi and -Grid variable sets are easier to read if transposed. To do so, create a table of the variable set, and from the object inspector , click Data > Switch Rows and Columns.
Statistics
Statistics can be placed on multiple tables at one time by either:
- Multi-selecting lots of tables or pages in the Report pane and using whichever is appropriate of Statistics > Cells, Right, or Below in the object inspector
.
- Rules (adding a custom rule using the code in Modifying The Whole Table or Plot > Always Show Sample Size).
With tables involving Nominal-Multi or Nominal variable sets, it is often a good idea to use Statistics > Right and Statistics > Below when setting up the report, for things like How to Calculate an Average Value from Categorical Data in Displayr.
Customizing the names of statistics
Statistics can be renamed (e.g., changing Average to Mean or Net Promoter Score), by either:
- Following How to Change Statistic Names and Quarterly Date Labels.
- Using Rules (e.g., Row/Column Labels > Change Row Labels).
However, in general, it is often a bad idea to rename statistics, as it can make it hard for users to understand how Displayr works, as it will cause the version they are using to appear different from the version that appears in all of Displayr's documentation.