Web Based Visualizations

Web-based data visualization is becoming more popular across all industries. While you can always embed data visualizations or even entire dashboards using Power BI or Tableau, it looks cleaner to have visualizations that are part of the web page. It’s also typically easier to make the page mobile-friendly, and to make the visuals more interactive.

Business illustrations by Storyset

Example in-browser visualizations

Common Use Cases For Data Visualizations

Articles

When writing articles that use data to support a central argument, it is often helpful to embed a data visualization within the text to better illustrate that argument.

Here is a great example of within-article embedded data visualization. The author uses simple line graphs to demonstrate why greenhouse gasses are to blame for global climate change.

These visualizations allow the author to express his point much more concisely than if he had tried to convey the same argument using text only.

Dashboards

The list of apps that have data analytics sections built into them is growing quickly.

These analytics can greatly enhance the amount of insight users have into how they and others are using the app. For example, Google Analytics allows users to visualize their usage of Youtube, Gmail, and other Google products.

Popular CRM products contain an analytics section that analyzes data stored on the platform without having to configure any of the graphs and charts.

Impact Reporting

Organizations are beginning to use data visualizations to communicate their impact statements and/or mission statements. These data visualizations serve to augment conventional text-based impact statements.

Many of these organizations leverage data visualizations within annual reports to show who they serve, where they serve, what they do, and why they do it.

Here is an example of a non-profit whose impact statement has been enhanced by data visualization work completed in collaboration with Boxplot.

Tools For Web-Based Visualizations

There are countless web-based visualization tools, although certain tools are better for certain types of users and circumstances. Here are a few of our favorites, going from least technical to most technical:

HighCharts is the library that Boxplot typically recommends. It is considered by many to be the “top of the line” in terms of web-based visualizations, and has many options when it comes to charts. Its visuals are highly customizable, and has both a free version and a paid version.

Typically, both Python and JavaScript knowledge are required to implement HighCharts. Here is a great example of work we’ve done using HighCharts – this is an HR dashboard that is sliceable using the buttons.

The advantage of Datawrapper is that users at all levels of technical competency can use it. Coding isn’t required, even though the available features—such as automatic updating, Excel connectivity, and Google Sheet connectivity—are suited to developers. Options include an open-source base package, an advanced package, and an enterprise package priced on a bespoke basis.

If you favor customizability, Plotly is a great option. Specifically, Plotly offers a Chart Studio product that enables users to create web-embedded interactive visualizations. Plotly is also great for more technically-savvy users, as their Dash Enterprise product allows for full integration with Python machine learning stacks; additionally, all Plotly visualizations can be connected to SQL databases.

The base version of Plotly is free. More sophisticated organizations may opt for the Dash Enterprise or the Chart Studio platform.

Tableau can handle nearly any data visualization task. It connects directly to most data sources, including Excel, SQL, Hadoop, and cloud systems such as Salesforce and AWS.

Tableau also provides Tableau Online, a web-based publishing platform for sharing dashboards. For example, we embedded a Tableau Online dashboard directly into the Forbes Funds website. Tableau Online includes an NLP feature called Ask Data, which lets users explore visualizations using natural language. You can also embed Tableau visualizations in almost any online environment.

That said, Tableau comes with tradeoffs. It is a powerful but complex platform that requires significant practice to master. Tableau also lacks an open-source option, and pricing ranges from $160 to $840 per user per year for Tableau Online alone. These costs can add up quickly for teams with many users.