Choosing Tools to Visualize Data
Nathan Yau · 2015
Some formats, such as Microsoft Excel or Google Documents, are meant for basic data management and graphs, whereas others were built for more thorough analyses and visual exploration. Some are out-of-the-box and click-and-drag. Others require a little bit of programming, whereas some tools were not designed specifically for data graphics but are useful nevertheless. This chapter covers these options. The more visualization tools we know how to use and take advantage of, the less likely we will get stuck not knowing what to do with a dataset and the more likely you can make a graphic that matches our vision. The chapter talks about Many Eyes, Tableau Software, your. flowingdata (YFD), Python, and PHP. Processing is an open-source programming language geared toward designers and data artists. Most interactive and animated data graphics on the web are built in Flash and ActionScript. Adobe Illustrator is the industry standard.