It’s big data time
You can look at mountains of data. Visualise it and it becomes of use
The importance of data visualisation in a world where data is everywhere is indispensable. Such mountains of data can be boring, but when we transform the data into visual information, the attention is a snapshot.
Simple numbers can transform into meaningful information, says David McCandless, a data journalist and information designer and one of the instructors at TEDTalk, a curated series of talks with partnership by Wiley Global Education. According to McCandless, the sense of sight has by far the fastest and biggest bandwidth of any of the five senses: About 80 per cent of the information we take in is visual and through our eyes.
Yet it is not so simple to transform data in an effective visual presentation, a wrong representation can lead to misunderstanding the message; the professional who can perfectly transform data in an interesting and effective design is highly appreciated in the market. The managing editor of Financial Times observed on CNN’s “Your Money”: “The people who are able to analyse that data in a sophisticated and practical way are going to have terrific jobs.” Those who learn how to present data in effective ways will be valuable in every field,
We are now living in the “big data” age, with technology it is possible to process large and complex information using database management tools. A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit reveals that companies that use data most effectively has the best financial performance; they are using their data to make decision for strategy development, production direction and operational efficiency.
What are the key responsibilities of a data visualisation professional? Analyse data and information and transform them into clear, accurate and compelling visual representation to be used in various platforms is one basic function.
Nowadays, anybody with a computer and an Excel program is able to produce visual data with almost no cost; for example, Tableau Public is a free software that can produce visual data easily: interactive graphs, histograms, maps and other visualisation tools that can be shared and published on the web. Google Public Data Explorer, is also a free service that allows anyone to explore public data. There are plenty of data visualisation programs: Stat Silk, Inkscape, Many Eyes, Plot.io and Gapminder Desktop . Remember, no software does miracles, the concept and execution is the designer’s talent and technology is just the tool.
