Data visualization design is a powerful type of graphic design that isn't recognized as it should be. It will seriously help any business. Designers often need tools to optimize their job, in this post you'll find the best data visualization tools.
What Are Data Visualization Tools?
Data visualization tools provide data visualization designers with the possibility to make visual representations of large data sets in an easier and faster way.
These data visualization tools can then be used for many purposes: dashboards, reports, marketing materials, and many more.
Infogram
Infogram is a fully-featured drag-and-drop tool that can be used not only by professional designers but also by non-designer that need a data visualization design tool. It has various and large amount of features that will allow you to make almost every design. Infogram gives users the possibility to export the designs in different formats, such as PNG, JPG, PDF, and more. It also provides us with the possibility of generating interactive visualizations, that are an excellent option for website and application design. If you are a WordPress user, Infogram has a plugin that will facilitate embedding the visualization. This tool has a free option with limited features. The best thing about Infogram is that its drag-and-drop layout facilitates the whole design process.
ChartBlocks
ChartBlocks is one of the greatest data visualization tools for professional designers. This tool allows users to customize the final product, resulting in better visuals. The device offers an extensive selection of chart options, allowing users to express all kinds of information. It has a free option but I recommend paying for the complete version, it's pretty cheap and better.
Datawrapper
Charts can be produced after data has been imported with only one click. They use a variety of visualizations, including choropleth and symbol maps, column, line, bar charts, election donuts, area charts, scatter plots, and locator maps. The final visuals resemble those that may be found on websites like the New York Times. Many magazines use this tool for their data visualization design. I highly recommend the paid version of this app, however, the free option is all right. This tool is ideal for newsroom data, so if you have an informative blog it might be a great option for you. However, the paid plans might be pretty expensive. If it goes over your budget, maybe you need to try another tool. Datawrapper has limited data sources, this can be a huge disadvantage over other tools. Despite this, I believe is one of the safest and most efficient options.
Google Charts
Create dynamic charts for web embedding using Google Charts, a free tool for data visualization design. Because it uses dynamic data and only HTML5 and SVG for outputs, browsers can use it without the need for additional plugins. Google Spreadsheets, Salesforce, and other databases are some examples of data sources.
Maps, scatter plots, column and bar charts, histograms, area plots, pie charts, treemaps, timelines, gauges, and numerous other forms of charts are among the many different types. Through straightforward CSS manipulation, these charts can be modified. This wide variety of chart formats is probably the best feature of this tool. Google charts are ideal for designers that know about coding. It's a great option for large data sets.
FusionCharts
Another JavaScript-based solution for building online and mobile dashboards is FusionCharts. It has loads of different map types and more than 140 different chart types. It can integrate both with server-side programming languages and with well-known JS frameworks (such as React, jQuery, and Angular).
Even for designers with no programming experience, FusionCharts provides ready-to-use code for every chart and map option, making it simpler to embed in almost any website. FusionCharts is an expensive alternative because it's designed to create dashboards rather than just simple data displays. However, it's also among the most potent. If you are willing to pay the price, you'll have an enormous amount of original map format options, far more than all the other data visualization tools. You also need to be a pretty experienced designer to fully use the app, some options are a bit complex for beginners or non-designers.
Grafana
Users can create dynamic dashboards and other visualizations using Grafana. This is a free and open-source data visualization tool. It can be customized with the help of the many available plugins and supports mixed data sources, annotations, and customizable alert features. It is one of the most potent visualization tools.
Designers can invite other people to contribute and exchange screenshots of dashboards using export functions. Through plugins, Grafana may access more than 50 data sources. It can be downloaded for free or for $49 per month if it is hosted in the cloud. The downloaded version also has support plans available, something many other open-source programs don't provide (there is also a highly constrained free hosted version). The large selection of data sources is a big advantage over other tools, this allows designers to create unique and fresh designs. However, Grafana doesn't have many visual customization options as other tools and dashboards cant be embedded in websites.
Sigmajs
Sigmajs is a single-purpose visualization tool that allows users to create network graphs. The best thing about Sigmajs is the variety of customizations a designer can make. However, it requires some experience with JavaScript. You can embed the graphics on any website. You can also generate interactive graphs, ideal for apps and websites of any kind. It's also free and pretty easy to use, if you are a professional designer and have basic JavaScript knowledge you'll easily manage with this tool, but I suggest you look for a more complete option.
Polymaps
Polymaps is a JavaScript library specifically for mapping. The outputs are interactive and have a big variety of styles. It's free and easy to embed in websites and apps. It's only useful for mapping. If you want to create other visualizations, go look at some other options.
Final thoughts
We've talked about the best data visualization tools. Now you know the best and worst features of each tool, as a designer (or not) you must decide which is the best one for improving your data visualization design products. Choose wisely.
