One of the key aspects of design is understanding the classification of data which enables doing exploratory analysis, choosing chart types and layout decisions.

Data classifications are below

1. Qualitative

2. Quantitative

1. Qualitative:

Textual:

It’s unstructured stream of data

Example:

  • ” Are you alright ?”
  • ” Temperature now is 40 degree celcius”

Nominal:

It’s categorical data offering means of distinguishing, labelling and organising values . Its used to label values without any quantitative values.

Example :

  • Gender
  • Hair colour of kids

Ordinal :

It’s categorical data with characteristics of order

Example :

  • Academic Grades ( 1- Excellent , 2- Very Good , 3- Good , 4- Average, 5- Poor)
  • Survey Response ( 1- Unhappy , 2 – Neutral, 3 – Happy)

– Education level ( High Graduate, Undergraduate,Graduate)

2. Quantitative – Discrete , Continuous – Interval, Ratio

Discrete :

It’s data associated with all classifying variables with no inbetween states.

Example :

  • Head or tail of coin
  • Size of dresses

Continuous:

It can hold value of in- between state

Interval :

Numeric measurement defined on a scale

Example :

  • Weather forecast ( 5°C , 10°C )

Ratio :

Numeric measurement that has properties of difference and scale

Example :

  • Age of employee
  • Forecasted amount of rainfall

Hope this article will be helpful for you.