Data tools
IRISS’ Look
Many Eyes
Datawrapper
Google Fusion Tables
Tableau
Simon Rogers: How to make a map with Google fusion tables
D3
SVG editor
Inkscape
Raphael

Infographics
Visually
Easelly
Infogram
Piktochart

Timelines
Dipity
TimelineJS

Colours
Colourlovers
Color schemer
Color brewer
I want hue

Inspiration
Stephen Few
Edward Tufte
Tufte’s rules
David McCandless
Mike Bostock
Nathan Yau

Over the last three years IRISS has been publishing IRISS insights – evidence summaries to support social services in Scotland. Often we experience that the evidence contains data which does not lend itself to feature within the format of an insight, and therefore we have created Infopics.

Through the Infopics we explore how to best visualise the often dense data behind social services reports, and we endeavour to make the information easy to understand and engage with. – In the same process we enhance our abilities as data visualisers.

There might not be an Infopics edition with every IRISS insight but there will be for those with topics that have a lot of data associated with it.

We’re exited about this opportunity and would love to hear your comments!

rikke.iversholt@iriss.org.uk

Presentation related links:

Slideshare
The Guardian datablog
Where does my money go?
Bubbletree
BBC: Eurozone debt web
D3
New York Times: Euro debt crisis
Tufte’s rules
Stephen Few: The chart junk debate
Colourlovers
Color schemer
Color brewer
Simon Rogers: How to make a map with Google fusion tables
Mapbox
The Guardian: US election 

Tools:

IRISS’ Look
Many Eyes
Google Fusion Tables
Tableau
Ushahidi
Piktochart
Dipity
Visually
Easelly
Infogram
SVG editor
Inkscape
Mapbox

Here’s an example of what we came up with to tell the story in a better way

]]> https://blogs.iriss.org.uk/datavis/2012/03/21/data-visualisation-live-21st-march-2012-post-3/ Wed, 21 Mar 2012 14:36:02 +0000 http://blogs.iriss.org.uk/datavis/?p=240 Continue reading "Data Visualisation Live, 21st March 2012 (Post 3)"]]> Helen Harper, Volunteer Development Scotland has brought along disclosure data submitted for various services for 2011, which is sorted by location.

Paul (IRISS developer) has uploaded the data in an excel spreadsheet into a Google table (a Google app in Gmail) in order to create a visualisation of the disclosure data on a Google fusion table.

The Guardian data blog incorporates some of these fusion tables: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/interactive/2012/mar/19/housing-minimum-wage-map

As the disclosure data we’re looking at today contains postcode information, a geocode is created for this value which is then mapped out. You can also configure styles of map, among other things.

To try out using a Google fusion table go to: http://www.google.com/fusiontables/Home

For support using Google fusion tables, please contact: paul.hart@iriss.org.uk.

In this case, we’re specifically looking at Glasgow city data for different industries and differences for each one over a period of three years, 2008-2010.

Using the Many Eyes tool, we can show proportionate changes over time. The Matrix Chart can be used to do this:

A tree map may could also be used to visualise such data:

This is the tool we use and promote at IRISS: http://look.iriss.org.uk/

Many Eyes is another tool, which can visualise data.

So we’re starting with Claire Chorsley from North Ayrshire Council. Claire has brought along some case file data for the internal management team. It’s a simple spreadsheet document that shows tabulated data for each service.

Tip for organising data in spreadsheet:

• Try and not leave any empty cells, even if it’s just putting a 0 in the field.
• It’s important to define what kind of things you want to visualise – relationships, numbers etc.
• Choose a format that will work for the data – bubble chart, matrix chart etc.

Here’s an example of a bubble chart:

And here’s an example of a Matrix chart to visualise data:

These are just some of the ways to make data more accessible.

The look@iriss data visualisation tool (http://look.iriss.org.uk/) allows you to easily upload an excel spreadsheet – it will incorporate any formatting on upload, including colour.

When creating a visualisation just follow the easy steps: firstly upload your data. Then you’ll get to create visualisation – general, options and colours. Fill out all fields as necessary. Consider licence e.g. creative commons, and whether it will be visible to all or private.

Here’s a visualisation that we’ve produced for the Richmond Fellowship Scotland data.

On 21st March 2012 Paul, Ben and I are offering our time in neatly apportioned sessions to co-create data visualisations with people in the Scottish social services sector who would like to try to visualise the data they deal with on a day-to-day basis.

The event is free, the coffee will be strong, and all that is required to attend a session is some tabulated data. No prior knowledge of data visualisation is required.

Alongside visualising we also want to talk about what we do, how we do it and we want to hear people’s opinions and ideas. So we have also added chairs for spectators, commentators, people keen to talk about data visualisation. We call these curiosity seats. So if you are someone, or know someone, who would just like to come along and see how it all comes together then that is possible as well.

Details of the event can be found  here:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/event/2981954105/esearch?srnk=1&ebtv=C

Any questions or comments, please let me know!

Rikke

Together we came up with the above. What do you think? It’s more of a infographic than a visualisation but we like it. As usual, Ben was the programming and design wizard, whereas my own input was limited to data, fonts and colours, and Paul acted as our editor.

All comments welcome as well as suggestions for other data you think would be illustrated well with the use of isotypes. – Get in touch!

Rikke

I want to visualise

• IBM’s Many Eyes: http://www-958.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/manyeyes/
• Google Charts: http://code.google.com/apis/chart/
• Visually: http://visual.ly

I want data

• Infochimps – http://www.infochimps.com/ – Infochimps is a place to find, sell and share data with others.
• Scraping for Journalism: A Guide for Collecting Data – http://www.propublica.org/nerds/item/doc-dollars-guides-collecting-the-data
• Datamarket: http://datamarket.com/
• Buzzdata: http://buzzdata.com/

I want to see more

• 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes – http://www.gapminder.org/videos/200-years-that-changed-the-world-bbc/

I want to read more

• Information is beautiful blog: http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/
• Visualizing: http://www.visualizing.org/
• Perceptual Edge: http://www.perceptualedge.com/
• Fell in love with data: http://fellinlovewithdata.com/

Image by http://www.flickr.com/photos/41894148532@N01/2517652/