As Google (Public Data Explorer) and Microsoft (Pivot) are getting into the mix of online data visualization tools, it is evident that this is a realm to carefully watch. Public data is de rigeur and blogs in this field are becoming ubiquitous, hence the perfect storm for online visualization. While public data is not necessary for online viz, it certainly makes it easy for the masses to enter the fray of data analytics.
As we announced a few months ago, we will be starting a new feature aimed at reviewing visualization tools. There are many tools out there that suit different needs and sport varied features. This ongoing feature will hopefully shed light on these tools and if they might fit into your workflow. In the meantime, please feel free to give your opinion on this new reviewing feature in the comments section below. Should we change any of the criteria? Are there any inaccuracies? What did we miss?
Our first software review will focus on the arguably current big three of online dataviz tools: Swivel, Many Eyes, and Tableau Public. During the next weeks, we will be publishing these in succession and culminating with a comparison of all three.
We chose the criteria based on user comments from our previous posts. Additionally, Benjamin, Patrick (who is reviewing Many Eyes), and I collaborated on refining the list and adding features we thought were compelling. We included a list of supported charts at the end of the post.
First, we want to focus on Swivel. Swivel was an early entrant to this field and thus is playing with the big kids in terms of online visualization. Benjamin Wiederkehr of Datavisualization.ch completed this review of Swivel.
| CRITERIA | |
| Cost | Free as long as the data is public. $12/month for 20 Spreadsheets, 20 charts, 3 reports $48/month for 80 Spreadsheets, 80 charts, 20 reports $96/month for 200 Spreadsheets, 200 charts, 50 reports Every plan comes with 15 days free trial |
| Free Version available | Yes |
| Ease of Use | Easy |
| Embeddable (into a web page) | Yes |
| Shareable | Yes |
| Comments / Discussion | Yes (Comments for datasets, charts and reports) |
| Private workgroup | Yes |
| Plugin Required | None |
| Software Required | None |
| Export Formats | CSV, PNG |
| Data Storage | Unlimited |
| Maturity (age of software) | > 3 years |
| Customer Service | Swivel provides assistance on various channels. User can get in touch with customer support using the feedback form on the website or via email. Developers receive guidance on the Google Group, the API Wiki on GitHub or the Swivel Code Blog. |
| Data Import Formats: | |
| Oracle | No |
| SQL Server | No |
| Sybase | No |
| DB2 | No |
| PostgreSQL | No |
| mySQL | No |
| Excel | Yes |
| Text | Yes |
| other | CSV (coma and tab separated), HTML, OpenDocument, Google Analytics, Google Docs, QuickBooks, Salesforce.com, Custom URL (HTML Documents) |
| COMMENTS | |
| Other features | Ability to combine multiple charts to a sharable report. Charts can be arranged freely on a blank canvas. Additinal text and images can be included as well. Data, Charts and Reports can be saved as drafts before making them available to the public or the private group. Other users can comment on data, charts and reports. |
| Pros | Easy to use and solid interface for manipulating the data (Spreadsheet application). Simple customization possibilities for charts. Private groups for confidential data create a real value for business use. |
| Cons | The charting options are very limited and may not suffice all your business needs. Also the ability to customize colors and layout is very limited. Especially with a large amount of labels the legend as well as the mouse-over tooltip get overcrowded quickly. Reports can’t be exported – I could see great value in downloading these reports as PDF, PNG or full HTML file to integrate elsewhere. |
| Reviews | The thing that caught my attention right from the start is the clean and well-organized interface of this web-based application. Everything is build in HTML with some clever use of Javascript enhancements. The user account is also nicely organized and provides acces to everything within 3 clicks maximum. The introduction videos provide a good overview and make it really easy to get started right away. Within a few minutes I was able to upload my spreadsheet, choose the right data to chart, customized the output and shared it with the community. I had a bit of a struggle to understand what it was that I registered for – If you need a quick way to communicate with your team members or embed As a last word the application is really well executed visually and from a |
| For the Purists | The charts have a clean look and a decent color scheme. Decorations are nicely reduced, the only thing a bit unorganized is the mouse-over tooltip. The axes are nicely labeled and the title and the created / updated footer gives good context to the chart at hand. |
| For the Aestheticians | The charts share a common look & feel and the user does not have many options for intervention. Charts can’t really be matched to corporate design guidelines or other preliminary definitions. |
| Reviewer(s) | Benjamin Wiederkehr |
| Date reviewed | 3/17/2010 |
SUPPORTED CHARTS:
| line chart |
Yes | scatter plot | Yes | ||
| area chart | Yes | bubble graph | No | ||
| bar chart | Yes | ||||
| block histogram | No | word tree | No | ||
| stacked bar chart | Yes | tag cloud | No | ||
| stacked area chart | Yes | phrase net | No | ||
| tornado chart | No | word cloud generator | No | ||
| pie chart | Yes | ||||
| donut chart | No | network diagrams | No | ||
| polar graph | No | matrix chart | No | ||
| candlestick plots | No | ||||
| bullet graph | No | world map | No | ||
| various map projections | No | ||||
| treemap | No | map locations | No | ||
| mosaic plot | No | choropleth map | No | ||
| heat matrix | No | distorted map | No | ||
| dashboard widgets | No | other | No |
Next week we will review IBM Many Eyes. Stay tuned and please let us know your interests and ideas in the comments below!
Benjamin Wiederkehr is founding partner of Interactive Things where he’s responsible for everything User Experience Design and Data Visualization. He shares his passion for data visualization with the readers of Datavisualization.ch by documenting and discussing findings in this field.
Kim Rees is a partner at Periscopic, a socially-conscious Information Visualization firm specializing in helping nonprofit organizations and like-minded companies convey important messages and elevate public awareness.