Interactive Data Visualization
- What is Interactive Data visualization?
- How can I use Interactive Visualizations?
- Interactive visualization examples
What is Interactive Data Visualization all about?
Interactive visualization focuses on graphic representations of data that improve the way we interact with information. Interactive visuals also refer to the graphic displays used by analytics and business intelligence tools. Most often, these visualizations are used in the form of interactive dashboards, which provide an easy way to understand insights that may be based on rapidly changing data.
For visualizations to be considered interactive, they must have an aspect of human input—clicking on a button, moving a slider—as well as a response time quick enough to show a real relation between data input and visual output.
The use of interactive visualizations is becoming increasingly popular in business intelligence and is a common part of most analytics suites, thanks to its ease-of-use and added value.
Visualizations grant users the ability to explore, manipulate, and interact with data by employing dynamic charts, changing colors, and shapes based on queries or interactions. Importantly, interactive visualizations also offer better access to real-time data, which makes them valuable in dashboards for organizations of different sizes and from a variety of industries. The ability to view data as it comes in and shifts is vital for making the best and most accurate decisions.
How can I use Interactive Visualizations?
Interactive data visualizations are an extremely handy tool to have in the toolbox for a variety of use cases, thanks to their ability to optimize the way information is displayed. One of the most common applications for interactive data visualizations is directly in dashboards, where using long tables of numbers and data would be impractical and time-consuming.
Instead, interactive visuals are an ideal tool for a high-level understanding of an organization, department, or project. Including them in a dashboard allows organizations to compartmentalize data and create hierarchies, moving granular information to inside the visualization or simply to a different tab.
Additionally, interactive visualizations are excellent when implemented in BI reports because they can make them more engaging, interesting, and easier to read.
These data visualization tools provide organizations with the ability to also diversify the way they display data. This allows for a deeper understanding and more customizable analysis which can produce different insights and unexpected results. Even when displaying information for clients, interactive visualizations supply a more attention-grabbing report.
Interactive visualization examples
In this new reality, when employees may be in the office or remote, and work gets done on a variety of platforms, it’s more important than ever to keep everyone in the business aligned. Dashboard visualizations can serve as a powerful collaboration tool. Dashboards democratize data. Interactive visuals can enable and promote a comprehensive data-driven office culture.
In the healthcare sector, dashboards are playing an integral role in helping enhance efficiency and target patients’ needs, while dealing with the unpredictable demands of a global pandemic. In the UK, the national health service has contracted with Resconsortium to increase capacity using interactive visuals.
See an interactive Hospital Performance dashboard in action:
Resconsortium uses Sisense technology to map the spread of the virus across the country on a dashboard. This enables the NHS to allocate resources when and where they are most needed.
Another example comes from the retail industry, where, according to a recent Sisense survey, the majority is planning to increase spend on data analytics to ensure that they weather the current economic crisis.
RetailZoom is a Sisense customer that helps supermarkets in Cyprus unlock their data to reveal useful insights. They use Sisense technology to provide dashboards to their clients to track the major shifts in supply and demand that 2020 has brought them.
