Data Visualization is defined as the graphic representation of data and information. We have already discussed how much this graphical tool can make information complex or difficult to interpret, understandable and accessible even for users with little technical knowledge. Thanks to data visualization, patterns, trends, and correlations between data that may go unnoticed can be more easily explained and recognized. Thanks to selecting the most suitable graphics for the context, it is possible to imagine and create a successful data storytelling capable of creating added value compared to traditional visualizations.
Today, in the digital world, quantities of data are available that was unthinkable until a few years ago, and analytical techniques have also evolved exponentially. Now thanks to Machine Learning, it is possible to observe the past and try to predict the future and intervene in advance. Consequently, even the type of information that needs to be integrated with storytelling is more complex and has deep roots, and it is more challenging to “tell” it in a way that is well understood. This is one reason why today, increasingly more time, assets, and energy are committed to Information Perception, looking for the best realistic structure to “recount the story” concealed in the information.
The Modern Graphic Trends
In traditional Data Visualization, the data can be displayed with more classic statistical graphs such as bar, line, area, and pie, up to more particular forms such as geographic maps and scatter charts, to arrive, for example, in the presence of models analytics, heat maps, animated graphs, etc. In the last period, however, we are witnessing the emergence of new exciting, and engaging ways to design and share complex data with any audience. This is linked, as already mentioned, to the new types of information that you want to transmit, in part it depends on the new orientation that companies are starting to follow, increasingly focused on the customer and his needs, customized for the user and to the context, so even the graphic form you choose must reflect this level of simplicity, completeness, clarity, and customization. Here are the trends that characterize this recent graphic evolution:
Animated And Video Infographics
The statistics regarding the use of videos are even more impressive than those of static images. Several studies have found that people who provide information through videos maintain a higher level of attention and consequently understand and metabolize information more than when it is supplied in static graphic or even textual form. Thanks to animations and videos, even very technical data and information, full of figures and statistics, can be transmitted effortlessly to a broad audience. The important thing, in this case, in general, for each of these tools, is not to abuse it, to exploit this type of graphics when necessary without trying to use it where it is not needed so as not to risk distracting the user from important information.
Static Images? Yes, But They Are Illustrations
The search for clarity in the presentation on the one hand and the user’s attention on the other remains the fulcrum of the choice of the graphic form on a case-by-case basis. Suppose you are slowly losing interest in standard static expressive forms simultaneously. In that case, you are looking for a format that is still static and graphic but one that can attract the user’s attention and curiosity.
This is why illustrations are booming in graphic design, social media, and web design. Illustrations are visual stories that represent concepts, actions, or whatever a company wants to convey to the user. Their completeness and static nature allow them to be used both independently, for example, for infographics, or to enter a larger picture, in an article or a report to complete and clarify the rest of the information. Using illustrations in the data visualization ensures that the information is clear and accessible and allows you to add a personal touch, for example, by recalling a particular subject or a brand logo.
Real-Time Data Visualization
Visualizing the data in real time takes the visual elements to a higher level since it allows them to be continuously updated so that no information is left behind. Data availability in real-time is strictly linked to the context and the underlying architecture. The fact of being able to choose, in this case, a “dynamic” representation, which evolves continuously with the arrival of new information, allows you to make more informed and aware based on current rather than historical data and to be able to apply patterns and trends to them that would otherwise remain hidden or that would be much more difficult to identify and understand.
So How To Choose The Best Graphic Form?
This evolution in data visualization also increasingly involves more significant attention to the tools companies can adopt to facilitate the creation of good data storytelling and graphics suitable for representing it. For Data Visualization, Bova has chosen Tableau, one of the most popular software in the field of visual analysis, capable of integrating aspects of a technical nature with the attitudinal and organizational values of the people who use data to make decision-making processes faster and more efficient. Tableau was born in 2003 as the evolution of a Computer Science university project. In short, it becomes a reference point for Data Visualization: it allows you to analyze all company data effortlessly and intuitively.
With drag-and-drop functionality, even users with little technical knowledge can query data regardless of their source or format. Tableau can process a lot of data efficiently. It can return them in different graphic forms (interactive dashboards, graphs, and information dashboards that are easy to interpret and share) to respond intuitively to user queries, thus bringing out the “hidden” information in data and valuable to business people. Among the features and potential of Tableau, in addition to its incredible simplicity and intuitiveness, we would like to mention its vision is always directed toward the future and the market’s new needs.
Tableau Mobile is “your organization’s drifting window on Scene, which permits you to keep awake to date on information any place you are, the point at which you want it” (cit). This last point, the developing consideration towards improved illustrations for cell phones, addresses a decision directed by the climate and by the way that an ever-increasing number of cell phones are utilized to show pictures, infographics, and so on. It is, consequently, pivotal that the information perception is additionally upgraded for these gadgets. What arises from the pattern investigation with Information Perception are the perspectives connected with making the data you need to pass clear and justifiable.
This is why the quest for a realistic structure is so significant. Therefore, it is a subject of ongoing development. With the correct information perception, organizations can take advantage of the genuine capability of their information rapidly, which assists with accomplishing a superior nature of items and administrations, quicker direction, and, subsequently, a substantial expansion in efficiency and proficiency. Needing to sum up the central issues behind this real advancement, we can say that it is fundamental:
Share Only What Is Useful
That is, consistently look at your information to guarantee it is brief, honest, precise, or supportive in that specific setting. Clients have very little time, and a decent information representation should empower them to be mindful of the location in the shortest possible time without squandering.
Choose What Works Best In Your Context
Notwithstanding patterns and forms, a definitive objective should be the clearness of the items. This can, once in a while, likewise mean consolidating extremely present-day structures with exemplary illustrations. The significant thing is to arrive at the last objective: to make a total and straightforward narration.
Make Your Graphics Engaging And Understandable
The best way to convey information is to pique the user’s curiosity. The visual elements are fundamental in this step. They must be informative but easy to understand and present users with a clear and valuable story. Anyone looking at your graphic form should be able to understand the information you are conveying and learn something new. In this way, the purpose is achieved.
