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Data Visualization: Choosing the right visualization tool

Choosing a tool

Data visualizations range from being created with just a paper and pencil sketch to coded with interactive elements. Though data visualization as a discipline does not require any specific tool, there are some software products that are more suitable for specific needs - for example, a quick bar chart in a software you are already familiar with (perhaps Excel or Google Sheets), a dashboard in Tableau, or a network graph in Gephi. 

Charts and Graphs

Beginner-friendly

 Excel

Examples coming soon.

 

 Google Sheets

  • Free with a Google account
  • Basic tool to quickly create visualizations like bar charts and scatterplots, integrates with Google Suite and has the benefit of being web-based.
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Tableau

 

RAWGraphs

 

Datawrapper

  • Free with a premium tier
  • Build charts easily using CSV files or Google Sheets data. Work-in-progress can be shared with multiple collaborators. The free version lets you embed your charts as HTML, or download them as images in PNG format.
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Flourish

  • Flourish features 24 categories of charts and visualizations, with embedded guides to help you customize and build your own. Charts and visualizations can be grouped together into dynamic collections, called stories.
  • For the free account, please note that all data and charts are public by default.

 

Coding-based and powerful

R

  • Free software environment and language for statistical computing and graphics, common amongst statisticians and data scientists.
  • RStudio provides a user-friendly experience to R and ggplot2 is a package for creating data visualizations

 

Python

  • Flexible and popular programming language with many packages for enhanced data visualizations
  • Jupyter products, like Jupyter Notebooks and JupyterLab provide a user interface to track, organize, and comment your code

 

D3.js

  • Build interactive and custom-made data visualizations for the web
  • Steepest learning curve but most flexible 
  • Can be coded with Observable to collaborate and share the code and context

Maps

ArcGIS Online

 

QGIS

  • Free and open-source cross-platform desktop geographic information system (GIS) application that supports viewing, editing, and analysis of geospatial data. 
  • Available for Windows OS MacOS, and Linux OS. 
  • Details and tutorials are available from the Geospatial Data guide 

 

Find more tools for mapping and geo-referencing in the Digital Scholarship and Digital Humanities research guide. 

Infographics

Easelly

  • An easy-to-use, web-based infographic creation tool with a range of existing templates that can be customized. The "free" account provides a limited set of templates, icons and graphics, and supports four basic chart types (bar, column, line, and radar)

 

Infogram

  • Infographic creation tool as well as basic map and chart creation.
  • Free accounts let you create up to 10 projects which can be published online.
  • Easy to embed infographics into websites, though to download images in JPG, PNG or PDF format you need to upgrade to a paid account.  

 

Piktochart

  • Free for 5 active projects with unlimited templates and the option to collaborate with up to three team members

Dashboards

Tableau

 

Power BI

 

Google Data Studio

  • Free online platform for creating interactive charts and dashboards based on structured data.
  • Integrates with Google Sheets but it can also handle uploaded data in various formats (e.g. CSV, JSON). Partners have also created connectors for grabbing data from third-part applications, social media platforms, and data aggregators like Kaggle.

Timelines

TimelineJS

  • Free, open-source tool to easily make interactive timelines; can be embedded into other websites using an iframe.
  • Template in Google Sheets allows you to populate your timeline with custom date, text, images and other media.

 

Tiki-Toki

  • Creates visually-pleasing timelines, either through their wesbite or using the desktop application.
  • A free account has good functionality but only lets you create one timeline that must be published on their website.

Networks

Gephi

  • Free, open source software for creating and styling network graphs, available on Windows, Mac, and Linux
  • Flexible and powerful; supported by a wide community of people who have developed plugins for added features and specific functions, including support for geocoded data.

 

Cytoscape

  • Well-rounded network graphing tool, popular for its ease of use. 
  • Community-developed "apps" can be incorporated with the software to perform a wide range of additional functions and analyses.