Sapient – Boston – Sapient Global Markets, a leading global provider of business technology and consulting services for the financial and commodity markets, today announced Visualizing Financial Data, authored by two of the firm’s information design and user experience experts.

While the value of data and its role in informing decisions and communications is well known, the true meaning is often lost or incorrectly interpreted, without appropriate data visualizations that provide context and accurate representation of the underlying numbers. In Visualizing Financial Data, authors Julie Rodriguez and Piotr Kaczmarek draw upon their understanding of information design and visual communication to show you how to turn your data into meaningful information.

“We wanted to improve how people see, and interact with, data displays and offer new solutions that can help firms to unlock new meaning, connect with their audience, and make informed decisions,” explained Julie Rodriguez, Associate Creative Director at Sapient Global Markets and co-author of the book.

Piotr Kaczmarek, Associate Creative Director, at Sapient Global Markets and co-author, added: “Our aim was to extend the data visualization vocabulary by creating distinctive, perception-facilitating solutions.”

The book is based on Julie and Piotr’s research and experience of working within the financial markets. At Sapient Global Markets their day to day interactions with leading financial institutions across front, middle, and back office functions helped them to realize the need for a book that provides solutions to common industry problems with data displays. Piotr is an information designer with over 20 years of experience in qualitative and quantitative data visualization, presented in formats ranging from print and digital displays to interactive animations. Julie focuses on user research, analysis, and design for complex systems. She has patented her work in data visualizations and compiled a data visualization pattern library (www.vizipedia.com).

Together, Julie and Piotr have created a collection of new and insightful techniques to optimize the representation of quantitative data across financial domains. Because data visualization methods are at the core of extracting meaning from data, the new visualization methods introduced in the book focus on those that provide greater clarity of the data. The work contrasts current conventions by catering to the unique requirements of financial organizations, such as the need to:

• Monitor a myriad of accounting, performance, risk, market, and transactional data
• Provide transparency and clearly report status
• Reveal issues and identify the strategies or tactics that need to change in order to succeed
• Communicate and market funds to a range of audiences
• And provide a foundational education in how to transform the presentation of complex information