Data is everywhere. It’s in our computers, phones, cars, smartwatches - everywhere. By 2020, it’s predicted that about 1.7 megabytes of new information will be created every second, for every human being on the planet. In business, data is invaluable, and must be treated as such. Data visualisation highlights the importance of data, offering tools and techniques to improve organisations’ ability to understand and present information clearly and concisely.
Here, we will examine data visualisation, its position within enterprises, why it’s such a valuable resource, and how it can assist with maximising your toolkit.
What is data visualisation?
Data visualisation is the presentation of data in a pictorial or graphical format. It presents data in appealing and sophisticated ways, no longer just relying on Excel spreadsheets or Powerpoint presentations. Methods such as infographics, dials and gauges, heat maps and sparklines allow us to present data in a clear and more comprehensive manner. During a presentation, for instance, would you rather view information through long form text and spreadsheets, or with images, graphs and visual colours etc? Nearly all would go with the latter, and is why data visualisation has become such a powerful platform in the world of business.
Data visualisation is the tool that can bring big data to enterprises in a vibrant and insightful manner. It allows organisations to interpret data in new and eye-opening ways, and enables people to interpret and implement the data with new insights and analysis.
Why is it such a valuable resource?
For enterprises, data visualisation is a highly valuable resource. It can add credibility to your content, simplify the data and contribute to a more defined and accurate message. Through data visualisation, patterns and correlations that may have previously gone undetected can now be spotted far more easily, allowing organisations to see what areas may need attention or improvement. Information can be conveyed in a comprehensive and universal manner, enabling people to share ideas, changes and forecasts in a way not possible before.
For business presentations, data visualisation is invaluable. Once used, it almost becomes the equivalent between watching a colour TV or a black and white TV. Visual data, presented through graphs, interactive charts, infographics or other visual means, can seem a world apart from spreadsheets or a simple Powerpoint presentation, and gives people the best chance of both presenting and understanding the information delivered.
Maximising your toolkit
Data visualisation software can be an incredibly valuable tool for businesses looking to excel in presentations and expand on their data and information outreach. It shouldn’t, however, just be used as a single tool. Instead, maximise your toolkit and implement data visualisation within a larger software package, such as HighQ Collaborate, providing more value for both you and your clients. Combining data visualisation software with a collaboration toolkit allows you to combine collaboration, project management and social networking all in to one easy-to-use platform.
The power of data
Every second we create new data. We perform 40,000 search queries every second (on Google alone), which makes 3.5 billion searches per day and 1.2 trillion searches per year. Your data can define a lot about your company, what it's doing and where it’s heading; and accordingly, you need to both understand and present this data in a clear and concise manner. Data visualisation not only makes this possible, but allows you to dig deeper into your data and implement decisions and changes that may not have been possible in the past.
