Just for fun reports

The Wizard of Oz – The Yellow Brick Road, a story about anomaly detection

Anomaly Detection inside Looker Studio with a Yellow Brick Road

The story begins with the need to graphically represent metric variations and the related expected range values in Looker Studio.

A device for anomaly detection, displaying it to give context and identify quickly routine variations Vs real anomalies (for the bad and for the good).

The kind of thing that could also avoid a panic provoked by a simple % of variation, badly compared…and too strongly considered. I’m sure that you see what I mean.
A lot of tools offer this kind of viz trends, why not for a custom analytics data displayed in Looker Studio.

I didn’t find a builtin chart feature to represent this kind of area chart (even with a lot of tricks). So, I decided to create my own LS custom visualization using Chart.js library, one of my favorite libraries to do simple viz.đź“Š

I built a quick data set with weekly trends and some anomalies to feed the chart.

And then the thinking went a bit further, even slightly out of scope.👨‍🎨

This representation reminded me of the Wizard of Oz. Dorothy wasn’t supposed to leave the Yellow Brick Road.
Like our metric is not supposed to go out of the expected ranges.

So, let’s go for this funny design inspired by The Wizard of Oz.🧙🏻‍♀️

On the other hand, when you have to monitor metric trends, you don’t really need a date selector but fresh data.
So, I decided also to include a past period selector, as in financial stock chart…looking like yellow bricks 🧱…of course.

Finishing with some pictures from the 30’s movie et voilĂ .

So, be careful Dorothy, don’t leave the Yellow Brick Road, not even for a quick nap among the poppies.💤

We also need to be careful. Be exacting about the solution we deploy, the dashboards we design, the data we refine. As usual: As much as possible Specific, Informed, Contextual, Automated…with fun.

The link to the report is just below. The scarecrow, the tin man and the cowardly lion are waiting for you.

Come on, ease on down
Ease on down the road
Don’t you carry nothing
That might be a load
Come on, ease on down
Ease on down, down the road 🎶