Data is a set of information which is complete, makes sense and is of use to you. Information and data are abundant. The biggest source of data today is the internet. As the usage of the internet is increasing day by day so is the amount of data being produced. Big multinational companies make use of large sets of data to understand the needs and wants of their markets, therefore, it is very important to learn how to visualize data, often done through the vital first step of data cleaning so you only see the data that’s relevant to your market.
1. Making Charts of Information
Larger sets of data can be difficult to go through and understand. To avoid wastage of time businesses, make different charts which can summarize huge data in one single diagram. The most common charts that are made include bar charts, pie charts, line charts, column charts. You can check your data against two axes, for example on the x-axis you can put the type of the product and on the y-axis, you can put the quantity of product sold. You will be able to compare different products on the basis of their sales. Line graphs do the same, but instead they show trends and have a central spike. Pie charts can tell you percentages of different things e.g. It can help you find the percent of sales of product A.
2. Mapping Software
Larger sets of data can also be understood and interpreted by visualizing it through a map. Multinational companies often save all their data on excel and other spreadsheets. This data can be placed on an interactive map to get a better understanding of your customers and your sales.
3. TreeMap
Companies have also been using network virtualization to take advantage of software-based compute and storage resources. This helps companies to monitor data from only one software-based administrator’s computer. To see how this is done visit www.techopedia.com. Since companies can now manage data from one data monitoring entity, it’s easier to understand data. Another tool used to visualize and understand data is a treemap. Treemaps display hierarchies between categories.
4. Polar Chart
A polar chart is very similar to a pie chart and it consists of a series of equally angular spokes. Each spoke depicts or represents a variable. The length of the spoke shows the weightage of the magnitude of the variable. The polar chart looks like a star because all the spokes are joined with a line. This helps you analyze any similarities between data.
5. Funnel Chart and the Cartesian Distortion
The funnel chart as its name suggests, is a funnel shaped chart showing decreasing values. So, if a company wants to analyze the number of sales of different products then at the top of the funnel would be the product with the highest sales followed by the product with the second highest sales and so on. The Cartesian is also known as the fisheye distortion helps data analyzers zoom into complex details. While analyzing if you hold your cursor at a point then that point will expand like a bubble in a fisheye view giving you a deeper insight into your data.
Conclusion
The importance of understanding and interpreting data can never be emphasized enough. Companies will not be able to cope up with the competition if they do not know how to view their data and will soon be driven out of the market. Using data visualization tools is important, but you should, however, make sure that you make use of these tools effectively. Make sure you use suitable software for the type of your data and the tool you want to use, otherwise you will not be able to view your data accurately.
