Three-Dimensional Decision Making: How Ternary Charts Reveal Hidden Patterns in Sports and Business

The Data Visualization Dilemma

Imagine you're an NFL scout at the Combine, tasked with evaluating the next generation of football talent. You have a wealth of data at your fingertips—40-yard dash times, bench press repetitions, body mass index—but how do you make sense of it all? How do you visualize the complex interplay between speed, strength, and size that defines an elite athlete?

Or perhaps you're a marketing analyst, poring over customer data from your latest rewards program. You want to understand how reward value, offer difficulty, and time to completion influence customer engagement. But scatter plots and bar charts just aren't cutting it.

Enter the ternary chart—a powerful visualization tool that's about to change the way you look at data.

What are Ternary Charts?

Ternary charts, also known as triangle plots or simplex plots, are a unique way to visualize the relationship between three variables. Imagine a triangle where each corner represents 100% of one variable and 0% of the other two. Any point within this triangle represents a combination of all three variables, always summing to 100%.

Traditionally used in fields like chemistry and geology to show compositions[1], ternary charts are now finding applications in diverse areas, from sports analytics to marketing strategy.

Ternary Charts in Action: The NFL Combine

Let's dive into our first example: the NFL Combine. This high-stakes event is where college football players showcase their physical abilities for NFL scouts. Adam McCann's blog post "NFL Combine & Triangle/Ternary Plot"[2] brilliantly demonstrates how ternary charts can revolutionize talent evaluation.

How to Read This Chart

• Each corner of the triangle represents one athletic attribute: speed, strength, or size.
• A player positioned near the "speed" corner excels in quickness but may lag in strength and be smaller in size.
• Players in the center of the triangle demonstrate a balance of all three attributes.
• Clusters of points suggest different athletic archetypes—perhaps speedy wide receivers near one corner, powerful linemen near another.

This visualization allows scouts (or even fantasy football teams) to quickly identify players who fit specific profiles or stand out as unique talents. It transforms raw data into actionable insights, potentially influencing draft strategies and team composition.

From the Gridiron to the Marketplace: Customer Segmentation

Now, let's shift gears from sports to marketing. The principles that make ternary charts valuable for evaluating athletes apply equally well to understanding customer behavior.

Consider a rewards program where we're analyzing three factors: reward value, offer difficulty, and time to completion. A ternary chart can reveal fascinating patterns in customer engagement.

?Decoding Customer Motivations

• Customers clustered near the "reward" corner are motivated by high-value offers, even if they're more challenging or time-consuming.
• Those near the "time" corner prefer quick, easy offers, even if the rewards are smaller.
• The distribution of points can reveal overall trends in your customer base's preferences.

Actionable Insights

Armed with these insights, marketers can tailor their strategies:

1. For reward-motivated customers, create high-value offers with engaging challenges.
2. For time-sensitive customers, design quick, easy-to-complete offers.
3. Identify underserved segments and create targeted campaigns to engage them.

The Power and Versatility of Ternary Charts

Ternary charts offer several key benefits:

1. Visualize Complex Relationships: See the interplay of three variables simultaneously, revealing hidden patterns and trade-offs.
2. Identify Optimal Combinations: Quickly spot areas of high performance or desirable attribute mixes.
3. Make Informed Decisions: Use these insights to drive strategic decisions, whether in team building or marketing campaigns.

Beyond sports and marketing, ternary charts find applications in various fields:

• Environmental Science: Plot soil composition or pollutant levels.
• Materials Science: Visualize properties of alloys or composites.
• Social Sciences: Explore demographic data or socioeconomic factors.
• Real Property & Asset Management: Understand the relationship between facility health, importance, and maintenance costs
• Weapons Trained Individual: Evaluate the tradeoffs between lethality, accuracy, and maneuverability

Conclusion: A New Dimension in Data Visualization

In the era of big data, tools like ternary charts are invaluable for extracting actionable insights. Whether you're scouting the next NFL superstar or fine-tuning your marketing strategy, ternary charts offer a powerful lens for exploring multi-dimensional relationships.

We've only scratched the surface of what's possible with ternary charts. As you begin to apply this tool to your own data challenges, you'll likely discover new insights and applications. So why not give it a try? Your next big discovery could be hiding in the corners of a triangle.

Learn More

Ready to dive deeper into the world of ternary charts? Check out these resources:

Examples in Sports and Entertainment

• R-Free Version of Adam McCann's Ternary Chart by Mike Cisneros
• Game of Thrones by Adam McCann
• Premier League by Toan Hoang

Marketing, Business, and Zoology Applications

• Deconstructing the Sustainable Cities Mobility Index (SCMI) by Mike Cisneros
• Maven Cafe Rewards Challenge by James Eselgroth
• Palmer Penguin Project by Nice Software Solutions Pvt Ltd

Tutorials and How-To Guides

• NFL Combine & Triangle/Ternary Plot by Adam McCann
• Creating Ternary Plots in Tableau by Toan Hoang
• How to Create a Ternary Graph by Andy Kriebel

Explore these resources, and you'll be creating insightful ternary charts in no time. Happy visualizing!

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ternary_plot#Derivation_from_Cartesian_coordinates

[2] https://duelingdata.blogspot.com/2017/04/nfl-combine-triangleternary-plot.html