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Charts And Graphs: Modern Solutions

By Smashing Editorial, October 18th, 2007 in Developer's Toolbox | 120 Comments

Charts are supposed to visualize data in order to give a more profound understanding of the nature of a given problem or recent developments. Whatever type of data presentation you prefer (pie charts, bubble charts, bar graphs, network diagrams etc.), you can create charts in graphic editors manually or use special desktop-software instead. In both cases you have a major problem: once you’d like to update an old chart, or create a new one, you have to run the application and create new images over and over again. That’s not flexible. That's also not usable — e.g. if you'd like to update your chart live.

Server-based solutions, implemented with Flash, JavaScript or pure CSS, offer a more flexible alternative. In fact, since Flash offers significant advantages over static data presentation with CSS and JavaScript, most solutions use it for dynamic data visualization. The data itself is often stored in XML-files which are loaded and updated via PHP or ASP. The price range varies enormously — depending on the flexibility and level of customization you'd like to have. However, if you don't want to pay, you don't have to — there are powerful free solutions as well.

This article presents an overview of tools, applications and techniques for visualizing data in charts and graphs. Among other things both free and commercial chart tools, services, desktop-applications and web-based solutions (Flash, JavaScript, CSS) — you can use them on your server — are presented.

Please notice that the solutions listed below don't necessarily produce charts which serve the main purpose of data visualization — namely, to provide an easy-to-use visual presentation of (possibly) complex data sets. It's far more important that the presented information is usable and comprehensible rather than presented in a visually appealing way. Outstanding data visualizations aren't achieved by the beauty of data presentation, but by an effective interpretation of the data it represents.

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Attractive Online Diagrams, Charts And Maps

By Smashing Editorial, September 20th, 2007 in Developer's Toolbox | 43 Comments

Data charts and diagrams are used when statistical data has to be presented in the most convenient and usable way. Visual charts are clear, visually appealing and easier to perceive than some simple enumerations or tables - mainly because users don't have to analyze the meaning of presented facts, but can perceive main tendencies through the visual weight of the facts — directly. You can create charts in graphic editors or use special applications (software or web-apps) which can help you to create your charts in few minutes. However, once you'd like to update an old chart, or create a new one, you have to run the application and create new images over and over again. That's not flexible. Or maybe you just want to offer your visitors not a simple image, but a powerful dynamic chart. To gain a greater level of flexibility you need to take a closer look at further approaches.
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Data Visualization: Modern Approaches

By Smashing Editorial, August 2nd, 2007 in Graphics | 548 Comments

Data presentation can be beautiful, elegant and descriptive. There is a variety of conventional ways to visualize data - tables, histograms, pie charts and bar graphs are being used every day, in every project and on every possible occasion. However, to convey a message to your readers effectively, sometimes you need more than just a simple pie chart of your results. In fact, there are much better, profound, creative and absolutely fascinating ways to visualize data. Many of them might become ubiquitous in the next few years. So what can we expect? Which innovative ideas are already being used? And what are the most creative approaches to present data in ways we've never thought before?

Let's take a look at the most interesting modern approaches to data visualization as well as related articles, resources and tools.
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Diagrams: Tools and Tutorials

By Smashing Editorial, September 1st, 2006 in Developer's Toolbox | 32 Comments

Being a web-developer means not only being able to design web-sites or program their functionality. Sometimes it also means to be able to explain complex issues clearly and be able to present to your potential customers reasonable and convincing arguments - in order to find the best compromise between the customer's wishes and the standards you respect. In fact, it is essential to make sure the customer understands which advantages you are actually offering and why this or that layout and markup are better for a given web-project. Developing web-sites over the last few years, I've been stumbling over the same problem over and over again: how can I visualize my idea easily and quickly? Since human being is used to visualize things, trying to understand the idea behind them, recently I've spent hours googling for useful tools and tutorials which would help me to create images - mostly, diagrams, charts, chart-flows etc. to visualize my personal ideas to my potential clients. I'd like to present the results of my search. If you have any further suggestions, ideas or constructive criticism, don't hesistate to comment on this article!
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