Tools and Technology - Canadian Association of Research Libraries

Factors to consider when selecting visualization software

Skill level:	Do you already have people skilled with a particular software? Learning any new tool will require time and effort. Does the software require coding or programming skills? Do you have those skills? Or access to training?
Your data:	How much data do you have? Where is your data stored? Cloud or local storage? Web-based or desktop? Can it be public, or does access need to be restricted?
End product:	What kind of user interface do you want? Real-time data? Synchronizations? Stand-alone or integrated within a business intelligence platform?
Features:	Does the software have the type of visualization that makes the most sense for your data and the point you are trying to convey? What features do you *really* need? 2D or 3D? Variable axis scales? Geospatial configurations? …Sometimes simpler is better. Can you easily update your dataset without having to redo the visualization? Can you easily convert from one visualization to another to explore which visualization works best?
Budget:	Do you have any money set aside to pay for visualization software? Or does your IT department have any existing contracts with companies with visualization software? Be careful – there are several ‘free’ versions available, but when deploying a visualization or report, exposes your data to the public.

Types of Visualizations

Software Reviews

Baker, P. (2019, March 5). The best data visualization tools of 2018. PC Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.pcmag.com.

Dingeldein, T. (2019, October 28). Top 4 free data visualization tools to grow your business [Blog post]. Retrieved from https://blog.capterra.com.

Marr, B. (2017, July 20). Seven best data visualization tools in 2017. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com.

Suda, B., & Hampton-Smith, S. (2019, February 12). 38 best tools for data visualization. Creative Bloq. Retrieved from https://www.creativebloq.com.

Software Options Most Often Used by Libraries

Tool	Skill Level	Max Size	Data Stored	Interactive	Free version?
Excel
Spreadsheet software that provides calculations, graphing tools, pivot tables & charts, and a macro programming option. Best used for conditional formatting and building great charts to add meaning to basic tables, pivot charts, PowerPoint-friendly. Limitations include size of dataset, conversion problems with scientific data.	No coding	2 GB	Locally	Limited	Discounts often available for university faculty, students and staff.
Tableau
Ability to connect to multiple data sources, combine disparate data without writing code and create interactive visualizations and dashboards on the fly. Best used for fast actionable insights, statistical analysis, interactive maps, and sharing dashboards. Can be cost prohibitive, requires SQL knowledge if wanting to connect to a database and has no concept of versioning.	Mostly no coding, but minimal SQL may be required.	Does not have any enforced row or column limits for the amount of data that can be imported.	Locally or Cloud	Yes	Yes, but when publishing reports or dashboards, data is made public.
Tool	Skill Level	Max Size	Data Stored	Interactive	Free version?
Google Data Studio
A dashboard and reporting tool that is very user-friendly with drag and drop features, and is easy to connect to other Google data sources (ie. Google Analytics and Google Sheets). Best used for interactions with visualizations including filtering through content with dimension and date range selectors, and sharing and setting permissions for viewing reports and dashboards. Limitations include being available only in beta, will only connect to a limited number of data sources, limited types of visualizations, and doesn’t allow you to bring together more than one data source at a time.	No coding	Most charts now allow up to 20 dimensions and 20 metrics. Time series support up to 20 metrics. Tables support 10 dimensions and up to 20 metrics.	Cloud	Yes	Yes, with a Google account or Google Cloud Platform customers.
Microsoft Power BI
A suite of business analytics tools for analyzing data and sharing insights. Allows for simple uploading of data from many sources, including .xls, .csv, and .json. Can create custom reports and dashboards, with over 20 built-in visuals and an active community for custom visualizations. Best used for combining data from multiple data sources, custom and interactive visualizations, and the ability to access data and reports from anywhere. The free version only allows public sharing, and reports and dashboards can only source data from a single dataset.	No coding	Please refer to: link	Locally or cloud	Yes	Yes, but when publishing reports or dashboards, data is made public.
Tool	Skill Level	Max Size	Data Stored	Interactive	Free version?
D3.js
A Javascript library for producing interactive data visualizations in web browsers. It uses scalable vector graphics (SVG), HTML5 and CSS standards. With minimal overhead, D3 is extremely fast, capable of handling large data sets and dynamic behaviour for interaction and animation. D3.js can be rather cumbersome for small amounts of data. In addition, it cannot easily conceal original data nor generate pre-determined visualizations for you.	Javascript required, SVG, HTML and CSS optional	Rendering is based on number of SVG objects used. Please refer to link for some more details. Pre-rendering on the server side is recommended.	Locally or cloud	Yes	Yes
Python
Python is a high-level programming language that is free to use and is designed to be easy to read and implement. A few Python libraries that are designed in particular for data visualizations include matplotlab and ggplot. Python is widely used in the whole data science workflow (including related technologies like machine learning, natural language processing, etc.) and is becoming a very popular language.	Python coding skills are required.	N/A	Locally or cloud	Yes	Yes
Tool	Skill Level	Max Size	Data Stored	Interactive	Free version?
Plot.ly
A charting library for creating interactive graphs and charts containing some 20 chart types, including 3D charts, statistical graphs, and SVG maps, built on top of open source software. Best used for when you need to build highly interactive graphs, has a large number of available visualizations, and includes geo data and maps. More of a demand on internal system resources than other products. Some previous knowledge of Python or Matlab would be an asset.	Python and Matlab experience would be an asset.	Too much visualized data can cause browsers to freeze or fail to load.	Locally or cloud	Yes	Yes but there is a maximum limit of 100 image exports and chart saves per day.
Google Charts
Google Charts is another way to present interactive data visualizations on your websites using simple Javascript and pre-defined charts/objects provided by Google. The graphs are customizable and rendered using HTML5/SVG allowing cross browser compatibility. It is considered easy to learn and is completely free with a Google account. Some downsides include limited customization, minimal statistical processing, and Google having your data.	No coding (except if you want to customize using Javascript)	Based on server and webpage loading on client side.	Cloud	Yes	Yes (with Google account)