Data is big in today’s world. As more and more companies and businesses are opting for digitalization, working with a large amount of data has become the norm. Data can get overwhelming and complex very soon and if data visualization tools are not used, relevant data impacting business may get lost.
What is Data Visualization?
Data Visualization is the graphical or pictorial representation of data in the form of graphs, and charts which helps the viewer to spot trends, patterns, and outliers which further aids in quick decision making.
What is the importance of Data Visualization?
- Analyze the data in a better way- Data visualization makes complex data more simple by converting them into visually appealing formats like dashboards, graphs, infographics, maps, charts, videos, slides, etc. Isn’t it better to look at an infographic than a long excel sheet filled with numbers? Our mind certainly believes so as it can comprehend visual images 60,000 times faster than text. And that’s what makes data visualization, a must-have for any business dealing with moderate to large volumes of data.
- Faster Decision Making- As mentioned above, when data is presented in a visually appealing manner and in relevant bits, it is easy to extract the information which is relevant and the result is expedited decision making.
- Spot Trends- Data Visualization makes spotting trends, emerging dimensions, and comparing correlated parameters of business super easy by representing them visually.
- Storytelling- Data visualization enables users to create compelling stories and narratives around the data being represented. With visual aid, the selling points are easier to explain.
- Choices- The modern data visualization tools offer far more than a few simple charts and graphs, from bubble graphs to heat maps to more sophisticated frame diagrams or Gantt Charts.
The various components of data visualization are:
- Time series- line charts, area charts, single or multiple variables behavior over time
- Ranking and comparison – Horizontal, vertical, grouped, or stacked bar charts
- Part to whole- Pie charts
- Correlation- Comparing two or three variables, scatter charts and bubble grapes
- Geo Mapping- Choropleth, a shaded or pattern-filled map used to compare data in a geographic region
What are the benefits of using data visualization tools?
Well dealing with large volumes of data without any tools is extremely hard and to be able to extract the right contextual information, maybe not be impossible, but impossible time consuming for sure. Data visualization tools help:
- Absorb a large amount of data and present them visually thus solving data inefficiency problems
- Identifies errors and inconsistencies in the data while allowing comparative analysis
- Helps build the narrative and send the correct message
- Grant access to real-time information thus aiding decisions
- Harnessing data to achieve business goals
- Keeping ahead of the competition
- Tailor-made reports and data on demand
Some of the best open source tools for data visualization are:
D3.js
A front-end JavaScript library that manipulates documents based on data to create interactive data visualization in a web browser. It uses f Scalable Vector Graphics, HTML5, and Cascading Style Sheets standards.
ECharts
ApacheEcharts is a free, powerful charting and visualization library and an easy way of creating intuitive, interactive, and highly customizable charts for your data.
Vega
Can customize vast datasets accessible on the web. Vega calls itself a visualization grammar and a declarative language for creating, saving, and sharing interactive visualization designs.
deck.gl
Used for exploratory data analysis for big data and can create high-performance GPU powered visualization on the web.
Redash
Cloud-based open source tool
Charted
Runs on MIT license but is open source and is an automatic data visualization tool, add a link to your data file and it creates a comprehensive visualization
Grafana Labs
Open source, an analytical tool for data visualization
Google Charts
Dygraphs
Open source tool to create interactive charts
RapidMiner
An entire suite of cloud-based software programs used for shoring up a data sequential data analytics environment
There are several other equally good tools to cater to your specific data visualization needs.
Data continues to grow and become an integral part of business decision-making. Data Analytics, Data Sciences, and Data Mining are some of the other aspects of big data and dedicated teams composed of trained professionals can really make a difference for any organization and its goals.
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