Flow Visuals

Flow visuals enable us to explore user behavior across a sequence of discrete time-stamped events, towards a defined goal. They only plot data that achieves this goal.

Flows are an implementation of a Sankey plot: blocks represent individual events, and the width of the connection is proportional to the size of the measurement connecting any two events. The plot is defined by a path, or sequence, through time-stamped events. To learn how to identify and define events of a dataset, see Events.

Keep in mind the following 'best-practices' when defining the path of a flow visual:

  1. Use a single common event as a 'start' of the flow visual. This makes it easier to understand the sequencing and the pattern of the following events.
  2. Define the intermediate event to include more than one event type, and use range bounds (minimum and maximum) to correctly model the business use case. Also, ensure that the intermediate event excludes the end goal.
  3. Define the goal event to show the flow terminating when that goal is achieved.

For contrast, see Funnel Chart.

Availability Notes:
  • Flow visuals are available in Arcadia Enterprise, not in Arcadia Instant.

The following steps demonstrate how to create a new flow visual on a dataset Campaign. This dataset is based on data previously imported into Arcadia from the datafile campaign.csv. For an overview of shelves that specify this visual, see Shelves for Flow Visuals.

  1. Start a new visual based on dataset Campaign; see Creating Visuals.
  2. In the visuals menu, find and click Flow.

    selecting flow chart type
  3. Note that the shelves of the visual changed. These are:
    • Time sorts events by the value of the timestamp.
    • Session uses the unique identifier, such as user ID, to track the events of a session.
    • Path specifies the series and order of the events; in this article, we use events that were previously defined in Events of the Campaign Dataset.
    • Measure aggregates the measure that controls for the thickness of the 'flow' connections, such as Record Count.
    • Filters selects for particular conditions.
    • Top K selects the top N number of entries.

    All shelves, except Filters and Top K, are mandatory.

    shelves of flow visual type
  4. Populate the shelves from the available Fields:

    • Under Dimensions, select timestamp and place it on the Time shelf.
    • Under Dimensions, select user_id and place it on the Session shelf.
    • Under Events, select Start and place it on the Path shelf. Similarly, add to the right All non-purchase application events and Purchase, in that order.
    • Under Measurements, select Record Count and place it on the Measure shelf.
    • Leave Filters and Top K empty.
  5. Click Refresh Visual.

    The flow visual appears.

    basic form of flow chart
    Flow Visual
  6. Note that each connection has only two segments, which does not model the real business case.

    To model more of the path that satisfies the event conditions, set minimum/maximum range for the intermediate event, All non-purchase application events, through the following steps. Note that setting a higher maximum models more of the data.

    • On the Path shelf, on All non-purchase application events field, click the icon (down arrow).
    • Select Range, and then select Set Minimum. In the Enter a number window modal, enter the minimum number of events (we used 0), and click Save.
    • Similarly, select Range, and then select Set Maximum. In the Enter a number window modal, enter the maximum number of events (we used 5), and click Save.
    setting multiple event options for intermediate events
    Set Minimum and Maximum Range for Intermediate Events
  7. Click Refresh Visual.

    The flow visual appears, showing multiple paths towards a Purchase outcome. Note that in this form, the numbered steps include the Purchase event along the way, and each Purchase block terminates the flow of connections that flow to it, in a step-down manner.

    flow chart intermediate events 0-5
    Flow Visual, Intermediate Events Range 0-5
  8. Notice also that we can specify the Goal of the flow visual, to generate a plot with a single terminating goal block. Perform the following steps:

    • On the Path shelf, on Purchase field, click the icon (down arrow).
    • Select Behavior, and then select Set as Goal.
    setting goal event
    Set the Goal Event
  9. Click Refresh Visual.

    The flow visual appears, showing multiple paths towards the Purchase event. Note that in this form, the numbered steps exclude the Purchase event, which collects all flows on the extreme right, and then terminates them.

    flow chart with a single terminating goal block
    Flow Visual, Goal Set
  10. To remove the Goal option from an event, do the following:

    • On the Path shelf, on Purchase field, click the icon (down arrow).
    • Select Behavior, and then select Remove as Goal.
  11. You may wish to examine a particular business case scenario, such as how card impressions influence the final decision to purchase. To see this path, simply click on a flow leading to the first card impression, and the flow highlights the entire path.

    If the path is complicated, you can change the order of the nodes in any step of the flow visual, simply by clicking on that node and dragging it up or down.

    Flow Visual, Changing Node Order
    Flow Visual, Changing Node Order

    In the following visualization, we arranged the nodes to place all card impressions at the top, and all purchases at the bottom of each step.

    Flow Visual, Changing Node Order
    Flow Visual, Changing Node Order
  12. Consider the Tooltips in the following chart.

    • Tooltip 1 shows the information for the first card impression event: that there are exactly 4 items and that it represents 11% of the total.
    • Tooltip 2 demonstrates the correlation between two card impression events: that it represents half of the source and all of the target, as well as all of the link.
    • Tooltip 3 and Tooltip 4 are very interesting because they demonstrate that when the user starts their application interaction with card impression events, it typically takes 4 or 5 additional steps to get to a purchase event.
    using flow visual - tooltips
    Using the Flow Visual - Tooltips
  13. Click (pencil icon) next to the title of the visualization to edit it, and enter the new name.

  14. Change the title to Campaign - Flow.
  15. At the top left corner of the Visual Designer, click Save.

    clicking to save

Lastly, remember that flow visuals only show data that achieves the desired goal, in the specified number of steps. The visuals above cover 5 intermediate steps (specified as maximum), and contains 35 purchases.

Flow visual with 5 intermediate steps
Flow Visual with 5 Intermediate Steps

Contrast this with a visual that covers 20 intermediate steps (specified as maximum); it contains 51 purchases.

Flow visual with 20 intermediate steps
Flow Visual with 20 Intermediate Steps