What would you prefer on your table — Flour, sugar, milk, eggs served separately or a beautifully decorated cake? Of course, the final well-presented output. Today, Data is the hot cake baked in every industry which needs to be organized to make it look presentable and edible.
Data Visualization is the technique used to represent this data in a visual framework which can be pictorial, graphic or any other comprehensible format that allows us to gain insights from it and make better business decisions. To explain in simple terms, if you have a raw data which you need to explain to your boss, then you would prefer converting it into a graph or chart which would be endurable and more convenient for you to clarify your points.
This process of converting your raw data into a presentable format and bringing the information in light is called Data visualization. There are four steps involved in any visualization process; Choose a Data – Choose a Visualization method – Customize – Publish.
The range of creativity used in data visualization in recent times is phenomenal. It is not something that has been invented in recent times, but the methodology has changed; what used to be simple graphs and tables have now got a little complex and got converted into attractive pictorial and video graphic formats. It has become more of designing.Data visualization is one of the most critical skills for any analyst, no matterhow good you are if you can’t package in a way for you to learn and other people to understand then a lot of that analysis gets lost.
Are you confused about which one to choose from so many visualization tools available in the market?In such a situation, thebelow criteria would help you make a sensible decision.
- Usage – Go for a software that suits your usage, particularly the data size.
- Ease of use – Some tools are complicated and need a lot of coding whereas there are some which don’t need coding at all. Its recommended to use the easy ones initially when you are not well versed with the technology.
- Quality of data visualization – It is, in fact, the most important factor to be considered while choosing a data visualization tool. If the output does not serve the purpose, it’s good for nothing.
- Cost – Different options are available in the market from the most expensive to cheap ones, some are also available at free of cost. It all depends on your usage and applications as some of them would have special features which a cheaper one would not suffice. But sometimes the cheaper ones are the best ones suitable for you as per your requirement.
- Usage – Go for a software that suits your usage, particularly the data size.
- Ease of use – Some tools are complicated and need a lot of coding whereas there are some which don’t need coding at all. Its recommended to use the easy ones initially when you are not well versed with the technology.
- Quality of data visualization – It is, in fact, the most important factor to be considered while choosing a data visualization tool. If the output does not serve the purpose, it’s good for nothing.
- Cost – Different options are available in the market from the most expensive to cheap ones, some are also available at free of cost. It all depends on your usage and applications as some of them would have special features which a cheaper one would not suffice. But sometimes the cheaper ones are the best ones suitable for you as per your requirement.
Let’s have a look on few commonly used Data Visualization tools.
Tableau
Tableau is the biggest visualization tool available around. It is more suited for Big data than small because of its setup. It is comparatively more expensive than the rest because of its applications.
Qlikview
It’s a very easy tool to understand. Many companies having other software also have qlikview because its cheap to install and flexible. It’s one of the tools that is suitable for both big and small data.
Power BI
It is available free of cost and very easy to use. Being cost-effective, it is the most commonly used tool for data visualization.However, Power BI doesn’t have the variety of features that Tableau and Qlick view offers but for most people it is more than sufficient as 90% work is covered by Power BI. It is recommended for small or medium-size data. It doesn’t really go well with Big-data however, it is expected to enhance with time. The Desktop version of Power BI is recommended.
Python and SAS – These are the programming tools and hence it’s obvious to be more complex compared to the ones mentioned above. It is also a bit expensive and more time consuming because of the set-up that needs to be implemented in the background.
There are many sources to get skilled in data visualization, the most trending career of the generation; one of which is E-learning where you upskill your existing knowledge on the said subject without affecting your usual routine.Irizpro is specialized in data analytics courses and provides an online certification course for data visualization with live trainingwhere we assureyou to guide at every step till you equip the skill.
If you have Love for data, then go ahead and enhance the skills within you because When Love and Skill work together, a masterpiece is generated.