One tool that I have recently used is Wordle. It is a free online application that allows you to quickly analyze word themes within your data.  All you have to do is copy your text and paste it onto the Wordle website. Hit create. It will generate a word cloud for you, giving the most prominence to words that show up most frequently in your text. From there you can change colors and styles.

It is a fun and quick way to get an overview of themes, wording choice, and content in your data before digging into the detail. It might also be a tool that you can use to help facilitate additional discussion around your topic.

Below is an example I pulled from the Wordle website:

Tools for visualizing public data:

Google Public Data Explorer makes large datasets easy to explore, visualize and communicate. As the charts and maps animate over time, the changes in the world become easier to understand. You don’t have to be a data expert to navigate between different views, make your own comparisons, and share your findings.

PolicyMap is a fully web-based Geographic Information System. It captures data in visually powerful ways through custom demographic maps, tables, reports and our analysis tool, Analytics. You can even use our GIS mapping services to easily incorporate your own data and leverage it against the thousands of indicators already available in PolicyMap.

2010 Census Interactive Population Map can be used to explore 2010 Census Demographic Profile data.

Gapminder is a non-profit venture promoting sustainable global development and achievement of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals by increased use and understanding of statistics and other information about social, economic and environmental development at local, national and global levels.

More Data visualization tools for the DIYer:

Stat Planet is a map making software for creating fully customizable interactive flash maps. StatPlanet also comes with over 250 world development indicators.

Many Eyes is a data visualisation tools from IBM. This site allows users to upload data and then produce graphic representations for others to view and comment upon.

Google Docs helps you create and share your work, maps, graphs and charts online, and manage documents, spreadsheets, presentations, surveys, and more all in one easy tool.

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

Open Heat Map turns your spreadsheet into a map. 1 – Upload your spreadsheet 2 – Get an interactive online map in seconds. Create your map. Gallery Documentation.

Do you have any other free data visualization tools you’d recommend checking out?

Yesterday I attended a webinar on “The New and Improved Nonprofit Annual Report” hosted by Kivi Leroux Miller. It provided a number of innovative ideas for presenting your annual report information.

One idea I thought was so clever…I had to pass it along. Imagine if your annual report fit on an over-sized postcard. What might that look like?

I thought what a great idea to reduce printing and postage costs, while still getting critical organizational information to your supporters (in a format that might actually get read). You can always direct your audience to your website or a more detailed pdf if need be.

Below is a mock up for a fictitious organization to give you the sense of what I’m talking about. I used stock photography, but I would suggest using original photos. This will allow you to further tell your story with your captions.

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For more information about putting together an effective nonprofit annual report, I recommend checking out the below resources:

• Kivi’s 2/7/11 blog post: Five Questions about Nonprofit Annual Reports. It includes links to other great resources and the recorded webinar.

• The website WhyAnnualReports.org. It also includes a number of great resources in addition to a free report titled: Talking to Ourselves, A Critical Look at Annual Reports in Foundation Communications (The report also utilizes some nice infographics)

I have been involved with development and implementation of Geographic Information Systems, GIS, for almost 20 years and one thing that has always bothered me is when someone would refer to GIS applications as a map. Don’t get me wrong. Maps are a large part of the GIS environment. Maps are used to show the results of a GIS query. Maps are used to select areas to analyze. Map coordinates are a key component in the development of the GIS database. But GIS is not a map.

Maps are static. Maps capture and present a picture of a point in time. Maps are documents created by trained cartographers. Documents based on rigorous measurement.

GIS is a dynamic environment founded upon a robust database and an interactive interface. GIS applications are created by professional information specialists. GIS provides the capability to query the database graphically and present the results in the form of a map. But it is not a map.

While not a map, a common application of GIS is the creation of a document like a map based upon a query of a database. An example is, list all the households in the Twin Cities with incomes over $100,000 per year. This is a common type of query that could be completed using any database. Without GIS the query results would be shown in a table as a list of households. With GIS added to the process the results are shown as points on a map.

When the GIS application is developed properly the user can mouse to a point on the GIS display and find additional information. This ability to drill down greatly enhances the value of the GIS application. When GIS applications are developed with a strong database at its core and with an intuitive interface, it becomes an excellent decision support tool for decision makers at all levels in an organization.

GIS applications when incorporated with other interactive media tools can greatly enhance an organization’s ability to present its message. The dynamic nature of GIS makes it an excellent tool for the real time access to information desired by persons inside and outside many organizations. GIS has many features that go beyond simple map creation. It has the capability to assist with analyzing areas. It can provide information to alert and draw attention to critical events. As I said in the beginning GIS is not just a map.

The author has over 40 years information systems development experience in public and private sector organizations. He is currently responsible for supervising regional environmental and utility coordination, and division internal web systems development and integration for a State transportation department.

Choosing a baby name can be a challenging and somewhat daunting task. Not to mention one that everyone seems to have an opinion.

So when I came across this website awhile back that uses interactive inforgraphics to highlight trends in baby names, it sparked my interest.

Not only does the website showcase how interactive infographics can make a massive database of information easy to navigate, but was also a timely resource.

Below are the links to the two infographics. If nothing else, you can always type in your own name to see how it compares.

Name Voyager

Name Mapper

1. Don’t pre specifiy data sources or methods before creating an infographic. Instead approach the graphic by using the “whatever it takes” approach to answer the question presented.
2. Respect your audience. Think of your audience as busy, not stupid.
3. When creating a flow chart, remember that the items are the nouns and the arrows are the verbs and the main reason for presenting information in a flow chart is to understand causality.
4. People think at their best at 12”-24”. Dedicate more time to your handout than your PowerPoint.
5. You should never need a legend for your graph. Instead put all the needed information for interpretation on the graph.
6. A graphic shouldn’t show one data point.
7. Find good examples and copy them.
8. Check out the sports or financial sections in the newspaper to find good examples of how to present lots of numbers in a table.
9. The principles of analytical design are the same as analytical thinking. Show causality. Show comparison. Show multivariate data. Integrate evidence. Document work. Assist thinking. Content counts most of all.
10. There is no such thing as information overload, only bad design.

If you don’t know who Edward Tufte is, here’s his quick bio from his website:

“Edward Tufte has written seven books, including Beautiful Evidence, Visual Explanations, Envisioning Information, The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, and Data Analysis for Politics and Policy. He writes, designs, and self-publishes his books on analytical design, which have received more than 40 awards for content and design. He is Professor Emeritus at Yale University, where he taught courses in statistical evidence, information design, and interface design. His current work includes landscape sculpture, printmaking, video and a new book.”

Matthias Shapiro posted on his blog the free chapter he wrote for the book Beautiful Visualization. In the chapter he discusses the importance of storytelling in information visualization, provides insights about the key steps he uses to create an effective infographic, and includes a quick tutorial of the most commonly used visual representations.

Below is an excerpt from the chapter.

“While many of the talents required for creating good information visualizations are widely recognized, there is one that is commonly overlooked in more formal settings—probably because nearly every visualization author engages in it subconsciously and because it is such a natural part of the process that is hardly seems worth mentioning.

This talent is the art of storytelling. Stories have a marvelous way of focusing our attention and helping us to discern why the data presented is important or relevant to some part of our lives. It is only inside of a context that data is meaningful, and using the data as part of a story is an excellent way of allowing the data to make a lasting impact. The most effective information visualizations will make themselves a pivotal point in a story or narrative within the viewers’ (or users’) minds.

Not every information visualization requires a story. Some are simply beautiful to look at and can exist merely as fine works of art. However, most visualizations have a goal or purpose and present their data in a meaningful way, in the context of some kind of story.

Question + Visual Data + Context = Story

Most visualization stories begin with some kind of question that orients the viewer to the topic and context within which the data is most meaningful. This can be done explicitly or implicitly, but the context must be clear. The question contains the premise and introduction to the story, and leads us up to the point at which the data can take over the storyline.

Many of the key parts of a story are related as part of the process of placing the visualization in a context. We frequently find the visualization context as part of an introductory text to an infographic or visualization. The context provides information that answers questions such as:

• What data are we looking at?
• In what time frame does this data exist?
• What notable events or variables influenced the data?”

Below are a few examples of the infographics posted on the website.

Walk This Way, Making the right choices to reduce your water footprint, by GOOD and Fogelson-Lubliner

The Most Target Books (in America) by GOOD and Stanford Kay

Portrait of a Volunteer, by the Pepsi Refresh Project

What is GOOD? “GOOD is the integrated media platform for people who want to live well and do good. We are a company and community for the people, businesses, and NGOs moving the world forward. GOOD’s mission is to provide content, experiences, and utilities to serve this community.”