Manufacturing visualization software provides solutions to the challenges of extending a human machine interface (HMI) to a distributed enterprise. Manufacturing visualization software enables facilities to use rich, high-quality video and graphics, while reducing management and support costs. zenon’s software tools give organizations the ability to work proactively, based on real-time information, to prevent problems and deliver more value from their production equipment.
Manufacturing visualization software that help you seamlessly combine, view and interact with CAD data and design information to bring your products to life.
What Are Data Visualization Tools?
Data visualization tools provide data visualization designers with an easier way to create visual representations of large data sets. When dealing with data sets that include hundreds of thousands or millions of data points, automating the process of creating a visualization, at least in part, makes a designer’s job significantly easier.
These data visualizations can then be used for a variety of purposes: dashboards, annual reports, sales and marketing materials, investor slide decks, and virtually anywhere else information needs to be interpreted immediately.
What Do the Best Data Visualization Tools Have in Common?
The best data visualization tools on the market have a few things in common. First is their ease of use. There are some incredibly complicated apps available for visualizing data. Some have excellent documentation and tutorials and are designed in ways that feel intuitive to the user. Others are lacking in those areas, eliminating them from any list of “best” tools, regardless of their other capabilities.
The best tools can also handle huge sets of data. In fact, the very best can even handle multiple sets of data in a single visualization.
The best tools also can output an array of different chart, graph, and map types. Most of the tools below can output both images and interactive graphs. There are exceptions to the variety of output criteria, though. Some data visualization tools focus on a specific type of chart or map and do it very well. Those tools also have a place among the “best” tools out there.
Finally, there are cost considerations. While a higher price tag doesn’t necessarily disqualify a tool, the higher price tag has to be justified in terms of better support, better features, and better overall value.
Data Visualization Tools Comparison
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of applications, tools, and scripts available to create visualizations of large data sets. Many are very basic and have a lot of overlapping features.
But there are standouts that either have more capability for the types of visualizations they can create or are significantly easier to use than the other options out there.
Tableau (and Tableau Public)
Tableau has a variety of options available, including a desktop app, server and hosted online versions, and a free public option. There are hundreds of data import options available, from CSV files to Google Ads and Analytics data to Salesforce data.
Output options include multiple chart formats as well as mapping capability. That means designers can create color-coded maps that showcase geographically important data in a format that’s much easier to digest than a table or chart could ever be.
The public version of Tableau is free to use for anyone looking for a powerful way to create data visualizations that can be used in a variety of settings. From journalists to political junkies to those who just want to quantify the data of their own lives, there are tons of potential uses for Tableau Public. They have an extensive gallery of infographics and visualizations that have been created with the public version to serve as inspiration for those who are interested in creating their own.
Pros
- Hundreds of data import options
- Mapping capability
- Free public version available
- Lots of video tutorials to walk you through how to use Tableau
Cons
- Non-free versions are expensive ($70/month/user for the Tableau Creator software)
- Public version doesn’t allow you to keep data analyses private
Data Visualization Examples
Bottom Line
Tableau is a great option for those who need to create maps in addition to other types of charts. Tableau Public is also a great option for anyone who wants to create public-facing visualizations.
Infogram
Infogram is a fully-featured drag-and-drop visualization tool that allows even non-designers to create effective visualizations of data for marketing reports, infographics, social media posts, maps, dashboards, and more.
Finished visualizations can be exported into a number of formats: .PNG, .JPG, .GIF, .PDF, and .HTML. Interactive visualizations are also possible, perfect for embedding into websites or apps. Infogram also offers a WordPress plugin that makes embedding visualizations even easier for WordPress users.
Pros
- Tiered pricing, including a free plan with basic features
- Includes 35+ chart types and 550+ map types
- Drag and drop editor
- API for importing additional data sources
Cons
- Significantly fewer built-in data sources than some other apps
Examples
Bottom Line
Infogram is a great option for non-designers as well as designers. The drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create professional-looking designs without a lot of visual design skill.
ChartBlocks
ChartBlocks claims that data can be imported from “anywhere” using their API, including from live feeds. While they say that importing data from any source can be done in “just a few clicks,” it’s bound to be more complex than other apps that have automated modules or extensions for specific data sources.
The app allows for extensive customization of the final visualization created, and the chart building wizard helps users pick exactly the right data for their charts before importing the data.
Designers can create virtually any kind of chart, and the output is responsive—a big advantage for data visualization designers who want to embed charts into websites that are likely to be viewed on a variety of devices.
Pros
- Free and reasonably priced paid plans are available
- Easy to use wizard for importing the necessary data
Cons
- Unclear how robust their API is
- Doesn’t appear to have any mapping capability
Examples
Bottom Line
ChartBlocks has an excellent free plan, which is a big plus. The ease of use for creating basic charts and graphs is also outstanding.
Datawrapper
Datawrapper was created specifically for adding charts and maps to news stories. The charts and maps created are interactive and made for embedding on news websites. Their data sources are limited, though, with the primary method being copying and pasting data into the tool.
Once data is imported, charts can be created with a single click. Their visualization types include column, line, and bar charts, election donuts, area charts, scatter plots, choropleth and symbol maps, and locator maps, among others. The finished visualizations are reminiscent of those seen on sites like the New York Times or Boston Globe. In fact, their charts are used by publications like Mother Jones, Fortune, and The Times.
The free plan is perfect for embedding graphics on smaller sites with limited traffic, but paid plans are on the expensive side, starting at $39/month.
Pros
- Specifically designed for newsroom data visualization
- Free plan is a good fit for smaller sites
- Tool includes a built-in color blindness checker
Cons
- Limited data sources
- Paid plans are on the expensive side
Example
Bottom Line
Datawrapper is an excellent choice for data visualizations for news sites. Despite the price tag, the features Datawrapper includes for news-specific visualization make it worth it.
The advantages and benefits of good data visualization
Our eyes are drawn to colors and patterns. We can quickly identify red from blue, square from circle. Our culture is visual, including everything from art and advertisements to TV and movies. Data visualization is another form of visual art that grabs our interest and keeps our eyes on the message. When we see a chart, we quickly see trends and outliers. If we can see something, we internalize it quickly. It’s storytelling with a purpose. If you’ve ever stared at a massive spreadsheet of data and couldn’t see a trend, you know how much more effective a visualization can be.
Big Data is here and we need to know what it says
As the “age of Big Data” kicks into high-gear, visualization is an increasingly key tool to make sense of the trillions of rows of data generated every day. Data visualization helps to tell stories by curating data into a form easier to understand, highlighting the trends and outliers. A good visualization tells a story, removing the noise from data and highlighting the useful information. However, it’s not simply as easy as just dressing up a graph to make it look better or slapping on the “info” part of an infographic. Effective data visualization is a delicate balancing act between form and function. The plainest graph could be too boring to catch any notice or it make tell a powerful point; the most stunning visualization could utterly fail at conveying the right message or it could speak volumes. The data and the visuals need to work together, and there’s an art to combining great analysis with great storytelling.
Why data visualization is important for any career
It’s hard to think of a professional industry that doesn’t benefit from making data more understandable. Every STEM field benefits from understanding data—and so do fields in government, finance, marketing, history, consumer goods, service industries, education, sports, and so on. While we’ll always wax poetically about data visualization (you’re on the Tableau website, after all) there are practical, real-life applications that are undeniable. And, since visualization is so prolific, it’s also one of the most useful professional skills to develop. The better you can convey your points visually, whether in a dashboard or a slide deck, the better you can leverage that information. The concept of the citizen data scientist is on the rise. Skill sets are changing to accommodate a data-driven world. It is increasingly valuable for professionals to be able to use data to make decisions and use visuals to tell stories of when data informs the who, what, when, where, and how. While traditional education typically draws a distinct line between creative storytelling and technical analysis, the modern professional world also values those who can cross between the two: data visualization sits right in the middle of analysis and visual storytelling.
Dundas BI
Dundas BI offers highly-customizable data visualizations with interactive scorecards, maps, gauges, and charts, optimizing the creation of ad-hoc, multi-page reports. By providing users full control over visual elements, Dundas BI simplifies the complex operation of cleansing, inspecting, transforming, and modeling big datasets.
The Pros of Dundas BI:
- Exceptional flexibility
- A large variety of data sources and charts
- Wide range of in-built features for extracting, displaying, and modifying data
The Cons of Dundas BI:
- No option for predictive analytics
- 3D charts not supported
Conclusion
There are hundreds and hundreds of SCADA operating systems, but there is only one zenon. This system is manufactured in Japan and has a reputation for being easy to use and very powerful. Zenon is considered one of the key manufacturing software products you can buy to operate almost all types of machinery.