Bug 93854

Summary: Cannot understand relationships between numbers by looking at the chart
Product: LibreOffice Reporter: Jonathan Camilleri <camilleri.jon>
Component: CalcAssignee: Not Assigned <libreoffice-bugs>
Status: RESOLVED INSUFFICIENTDATA    
Severity: normal CC: aron.budea, ilmari.lauhakangas, libreoffice-ux-advise
Priority: medium Keywords: needsUXEval
Version: 5.0.0.5 release   
Hardware: Other   
OS: All   
Whiteboard:
Crash report or crash signature: Regression By:
Attachments: spreadsheet (ods)

Description Jonathan Camilleri 2015-09-02 10:30:54 UTC 
Created attachment 118333 [details]
spreadsheet (ods)

It is very difficult for me to try to devise formulae that analyze multiple regression and the analysis of dependent and independent formula on a scatter graph or plot, as the user interface does not seem to provide all the options in order to make the visual impact appear to indicate how variables might be correlated (e.g. liquidity and profitability scores in a credit scoring model).

Is it possible that I am missing out on some analysis toolkit or advanced formulaea or some tutorial on how to structure these analyses?

Formulae for statistics are written using all aspects of the Greek alphabet and usually I require my notes to decipher those letters which I do not understand their meaning as I am a software developer myself and I like to be on the safe side to avoid margins of error and discrepancy where at all possible.  From a user's perspective it can appear much more complex if there is no pro-active manner of guidance that is usable as to how to configure the graph.

The chart generated does not convey anything relevant to myself when I look at it, the numbers seem to have a clearer meaning and the idea behind charts is to clarify and simplify (usability).

References
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linear_regression
2. http://www.occ.gov/publications/publications-by-type/comptrollers-handbook/credit.pdf
Comment 1 Jonathan Camilleri 2015-09-02 10:33:29 UTC 
One question is whether it is possible to have multiple series of x-values, and, statistical measures as options within the chart itself (e.g. mean, median, mode, distribution etc).
Comment 2 Buovjaga 2015-09-14 13:50:43 UTC 
Let's give this to UX to mull over.
Comment 3 Heiko Tietze 2015-09-15 08:20:23 UTC 
I'm not sure to understand your request right. Is it to have more statistical features or do you want better graphics? LibO has some wizards to support statistics (Menu: Data > Statistics), and of course you can do any math yourself, and provides a lot of options to tweak graphics. Although both have room for improvements I think real statistics shouldn't be done with a spreadsheet tool.

Regarding your second question: There is some work ongoing (and almost finished) to make editing of charts easier. First of all the most relevant options will be available from the sidebar. In the current release you have to right click the chart and select 'Insert/Delete Axis' in order to add a secondary x axis. 

You should be very carefully with this feature since different y axis might be known but not x. And these features are rather a way to 'obfuscate' the information since normal people are not used to read those graphics right.
Comment 4 Aron Budea 2016-06-01 07:10:18 UTC 
Jonathan, can you reply to the comment?
Comment 5 QA Administrators 2016-12-07 12:45:09 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)
Comment 6 QA Administrators 2017-01-31 00:24:56 UTC Comment hidden (obsolete)