A week ago I had the pleasure of attending MWSUG 2012 in Minneapolis.  There were many presentations on Data Visualization in various tracks including the following:

• Using SAS ODS Graphics - Chuck Kincaid
• Get the best out of SAS ODS Graphics... - LeRoy Bessler
• Program Assisted Patient Narratives - Faye Yeh

While I missed Chucks presentation this time around due to conflict, I have attended this presentation in previous conferences where he has presented innovative ways of using the SG procedures and GTL.  Link is provided to his paper from SAS Global Forum 2012.

LeRoy presented a comprehensive look at "communication-effective" graphic design and how this can be achieved using ODS Graphics.  LeRoy points out the strengths and some unexpected behaviors of the new graphics procedures and tools.

Faye presented an excellent paper on creating Patient Narratives that include graphs of adverse events on a common timeline.  The report also included information on concomitant medications and other relevant information.

MWSUG 2012 proceedings are posted.

On my part,  I presented the following:

• Van Gogh your data
• Introduction to Graph Template Language
• Quick Results using ODS Graphics Designer
• Clinical Graphs using SAS 9.2 - 1/2 day seminar

All the presentations were well received.  The paper "Van Gogh your data" was originally written by Natalie Parsons and described the ways in with to deliver information effectively in a BI application.  I was able to extend the presentation to include information that would be applicable to all cases where one wants to create a "Good Graph" that effectively communicates the data.  Some of the principles I describe include usage of "pre-attentive" graphical features help decoding of the information instantly.  Other principles include the optimization of data ink, reduction of clutter and noise, magnitude comparisons using linear elements, proximity of comparisons, reduction of eye movement and more.  I will present these ideas in a follow up blog article.

The presentations on Designer, SG Procedures, GTL and Clinical graphs were well received as more SAS users move to SAS 9.2 and the new graph procedures.