FlowingData Forums » Tag: graphs

FlowingData Forums » Tag: graphs - Recent Topics http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Strength in Numbers en Sat, 11 Feb 2012 21:18:27 +0000 Nonprofit Looking to Improve Data Charts http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/nonprofit-looking-to-improve-data-charts#post-2168 Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:10:07 +0000 kmbolduc 2168@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ At the heart of our work at the <a>Center for Effective Philanthropy</a> (CEP) is the provision of comparative data that allows one funder to understand how aspects of its own performance compare to the other funders. In much of our work, the manifestation of that activity is charts in our reports that display the comparative data. I’d like to ask your advice in making CEP’s data display stronger. The Center for Effective Philanthropy’s mission is to provide data and create insight so philanthropic funders can better define, assess, and improve their effectiveness – and, as a result, their intended impact. We’re a nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, working many of the largest philanthropic funders in the country. Here are two examples of the way our charts look now. <a href="http://www.effectivephilanthropy.org/assets/blog/chart1.2.png" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.effectivephilanthropy.org/assets/blog/chart1blog.png" alt="" width="480" height="290" /></a> <a href="http://www.effectivephilanthropy.org/assets/blog/chart2.2.jpg" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://www.effectivephilanthropy.org/assets/blog/chart2blog.png" alt="" width="480" height="290" /></a> We’ve tweaked these charts here and there over the past few years, but we still hear from some funders, and in our 3rd party feedback, that these charts can be tough to understand. On the other hand, some of the funders we work with love these for the amount of information they pack into a small space. We think we can improve these charts. Although any change may not be immediate, we want to brainstorm now some other possibilities. Fundamentally, any data display we use has to meet just a few basic parameters. It must: • display comparative context so that one funder can consider its relative results compared to our database of others’ results • simultaneously display both an absolute scale and relative results (because both are necessary pieces of information in interpreting results) • be flexible enough to display a potential segmentation of the overall data, display trend data, and (probably) also a sub-group comparison – a cohort from among the full dataset This blog is one that we follow and often discuss as a staff at CEP. We’re huge fans of interesting data visualization, and we admire the ideas and examples posted in this blog. It hit us recently that you all might have some incredible ideas about our work. We’d welcome the advice. Or if the community has advice about a great data visualization expert have worked with, that would be fantastic too. (This is too small a project for the couple we’ve reached out to.) What’s in it for you? The knowledge that you aided CEP in its efforts to help foundations become more effective. And, if we choose an idea you suggested, a very public and grateful acknowledgement for your efforts and ideas. Thanks in advance for your help. Quick reference for graph and dashboard design- print, Android and iPhone http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/quick-reference-for-graph-and-dashboard-design-print-android-and-iphone#post-2153 Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:47:17 +0000 stephen.mcdaniel 2153@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Freakalytics has published to Amazon, Android and iPhone a new quick reference for building better graphs and dashboards. This app is complimentary on the Android and iPhone thanks to our sponsor, Tableau Software. Note that the Android is now released and the iPhone is several days away from release. The Amazon version, “Rapid Dashboards Reference Card”, has all 64 tips readily available on four full-color, laminated pages. The card serves as a handy reference for yourself, your team and even your business audience during design meetings. Read more at <a href="http://www.freakalytics.com/books/" rel="nofollow">http://www.freakalytics.com/books/</a> Best regards, Stephen McDaniel Co-founder, Freakalytics Faculty, American Marketing Association Tick Marks... http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/tick-marks#post-1863 Wed, 25 Aug 2010 07:39:09 +0000 ryanhbowman 1863@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ This is pretty specific and may be so pedantic as to be pointless but I am wondering about the perfect placement of tick marks on a simple line or bar chart. Should they push into the graph (a) or push out into the axis label (b)? <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/71494118@N00/4925883981/" title="Tick Marks on Charts by ryanhbowman, on Flickr" rel="nofollow"><img src="http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4096/4925883981_bb6e13f68d.jpg" width="500" height="229" alt="Tick Marks on Charts" /></a> List of graphing packages for websites? http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/list-of-graphing-packages-for-websites#post-793 Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:05:44 +0000 enotal 793@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ I've played with a few different graph packages for use in web applications, but I'm sure there must be tons out there. I was hoping to get a thread started that collected them all in one place for everyone's reference. So far I've used: Google Chart API (<a href="http://code.google.com/apis/chart/" rel="nofollow">http://code.google.com/apis/chart/</a>) FusionCharts (<a href="http://www.fusioncharts.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.fusioncharts.com/</a>) amCharts (<a href="http://www.amcharts.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.amcharts.com/</a>) GDChart (<a href="http://www.fred.net/brv/chart/" rel="nofollow">http://www.fred.net/brv/chart/</a>) -PHP- Image_Graph (<a href="http://pear.php.net/package/Image_Graph/" rel="nofollow">http://pear.php.net/package/Image_Graph/</a>) PHP/SWF (<a href="http://www.maani.us/charts/index.php" rel="nofollow">http://www.maani.us/charts/index.php</a>) What else do people use? large network layout and visualization http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/large-network-layout-and-visualization#post-643 Tue, 21 Apr 2009 10:28:38 +0000 tunamaccheese 643@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ Can anyone recommend a software for large-network visualization? I'm looking for something that meets the following requirements: - runs on Windows XP - accessible via an API (preferably Python), or at least accepts text-based input files (which I could create using Python) - can handle large networks (order of thousands of nodes) and provide some kind of visualization (a large graphic file or some kind of zoomable interface). - it would be nice if you could do some basic customization of the nodes and edges with labels, colors, or shapes. I've heard of IGraph and NetworkX but I cannot get them to run on windows for the life of me. (in the case of IGraph, I can't get cairo installed, and in the case of NetworkX I cannot get pygraphviz installed). Please let me know if you have any suggestions. Thanks, --Jordan Last.fm release best of 2008 http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/lastfm-release-best-of-2008#post-190 Fri, 26 Dec 2008 18:37:32 +0000 nathany 190@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ What the title says... <a href="http://www.last.fm/charts/hypetrack" rel="nofollow">http://www.last.fm/charts/hypetrack</a> Visualizing comic book sales http://forums.flowingdata.com/topic/visualizing-comic-book-sales#post-50 Mon, 04 Aug 2008 14:51:20 +0000 hijinx 50@http://forums.flowingdata.com/ I'm a comic book retailer and I write software for managing comic shops. One of the key procedures is called "cycle sheeting" or just "cycling" your comic book inventory. The idea is to capture the comics sales within a certain window (usually after one week) and then to capture the current inventory state. I put this information together into a graph like the following: <a href="http://www.hijinxcomics.com/images/ffgraph.png" rel="nofollow">http://www.hijinxcomics.com/images/ffgraph.png</a> In it, the red line represents the number of that issue received, the yellow line represents the number of subscribers to that comics, the blue line is what sold in the first week and the green line is the current number sold. I'm looking for ways to improve this graph. It was generated in Perl using the GD library, but I'm planning on transitioning to Google Charts in the near future. Any help representing it (and improving it) as a Google Chart would be very much appreciated. In fact, I'll give a free graphic novel (up to $20) from ComicBookShelf.com to whoever posts the very best one! thanks! dan shahin Hijinx Comics ComicBookShelf.com