Top 15 Data Visualization Tips
January 03, 2011 06:00 AM "Excellence in statistical graphics consists of complex ideas communicated with clarity, precision and efficiency," writes information visualization guru and author Edward R. Tufte. Preaching simplicity and offering practical advice, expert Stephen Few decries distorted 3D pie charts and graphics that are too hard to read. This image gallery offers best-practice examples, advice, free resources and insight from experts on the best of data and information visualization. If a picture is worth 1,000 words, then clear and effective data visualizations are worth more than a stack of spreadsheets or reams of reports. Learn from the New York Times, Gapminder, Zillow, Many Eyes, Google, Wordle and other successful practitioners of advanced data visualization.
Free Site Lets You Embed Compelling Visualizations
Videos and photos are typically the stuff of social networking. But data is typically a second-class citizen. Tableau Software hopes to change that with TableauPublic.com, a free site that lets you create a variety of advanced data visualizations and publish them to blogs, websites or intranets or share links via email or Twitter. This TableauPublic-generated graphic shows how long it took 100 technology vendors to reach $50 million in revenue. Hover over a line and it reveals details about the vendor in question.








