Tutorial Analyses Using Visualizations Tools 

  Information visualizations tools are very powerful.  We ran several analyses on different datasets.

1) Behavioral Data

This data set contains information in regards to bids done on the Ebay website for a variety of products.  Each item has information on the various bidders (experience, identity, highest bid, start date, end date) and various sellers (experience, identity).  The dataset consists of nearly 500 closed auctions for Palm M515 personal digital assistants (PDA) that took place between March 14 and May 25 of 2003.  A subset of these bid histories, which include the bid times, bid amounts, and additional bidder information for 158 7-day auctions that took place during this period. 

  • Tool used: Treemap

  • Goal: Find any patterns that could help understand the dynamics behind the bidders and sellers' behaviors. Please click here to see the analysis.

Ebay is a gold-mine of data. We will look at bid histories on several products to analyze online auction behaviors. The dataset consists of 10,000 closed auctions on a variety of items that took place between August 2001 and February 2002.

  • Tool used: Treemap

  • Data file: Click here to download the dataset with nearly 11,000 auctions.

  • Goal: Find any patterns that could help understand the dynamics behind the bidders and sellers' behaviors. Please click here to see the analysis.

2) Financial Data

We have selected end of month closing prices and return for several public companies in the financial industry.  The companies selected are: Citigroup, Bank of New York Company, Legg Mason, and Merril Lynch.  The time period covers February 1999 to August 2004.

  • Tool used: TimeSearcher 

  • Data file: Click here to download the dataset and save it as stock_data.TQD.  Make sure to have the .TQD extension.

  • Goal: Discover features and trends in time series using an interactive tool (TimeSearcher).  Please click here to see the analysis.

 

3) Online Behavioral Data 

For this analysis, we have selected data from a database that captures detailed browsing and buying behavior by on hundred thousand Internet users across the US. The data was captured for transaction done on July 01, 2002.

  • Tool used: HCE 3.0 

  • Data file: Click here to download the dataset and save its as ebay_data_amaz1.exp.  Make sure to use the .EXP extension.

  • Goal: Discover potential clusters for browsing and buying behaviors of Internet users.  Please click here to see the analysis.