A Consumer's Guide To Low-Cost Data Visualization Tools from Idealware

View MacBookPro Travelogue in a larger map

This map show the route that a new MacBook Pro made from a factory in China to Arizona.  Colleague Alan Levine customized a google map.   Each push pin (that looks like a MacBook Pro) is a page from a travel diary written by his new laptop.   It's worth a few minutes to get a good laugh. 

I can just imagine Alan tracking his new computer's journey using the UPS Tracker feature.   Think about how having a visual representation of the trip, rather than a stream of time/date stamps and zip codes makes it easier to understand.  What's even better is that the software, google maps is free.

It got me thinking again about low-cost data visualization tools.   What's out that?  What can the tools do?  And, in a nutshell, what are some visual information tips?

I didn't have to look any further than the Idealware site and a recent report, "A Consumer's Guide To Low-Cost Data Visualization Tools" to get the answers.  The report includes a summary of design principles, some common visual formats, as well as a review and comparison of free/low cost tools.   This report is one of many free reports on nonprofit software that Idealware has published over the years.

Idealware has recently launched a fundraising campaign for its Research Fund to cover part of the costs of producing similar reports.  I donated with the hope that down the road the next version of data visualization tools report will include low cost or free social networking analysis tools.

Comments

[Laura Quinn]

Thanks, Beth! Yeah, we're really happy with how the Data Visualization tools came out (and it's always fun to work on a report where you get to work with lots of pictures)!

And thanks for mentioning the Idealware Research Fund - we're really excited about it. It'll give us the flexibility to provide the core information that nonprofits really need, to help tens of thousands of nonprofits nationwide.