Earlier this week, we reported that the Census Bureau joined the visual data revolution when they added a new feature on their website that features new visual data weekly.  The aim of this effort is to entice people into learning more about the things happened around them, like a cool history lesson.

But data visualization is now being replaced by “advanced” data visualization.  So what’s the difference between the two, you ask?  First off, data visualization is when you use images or graphics to tell people about the data you gathered instead of presenting them with a 100-page report or a report full tables.  It can be as simple as a pie chart, or as fun as an infographic.  But these types of visualization is dubbed as static visualization or something that rarely changes when it’s already made.

Advanced data visualization, according to Forrester,  have six capabilities namely Dynamic data content which are linked to databases and gets updated as the data changes; Visual querying which allows you to query and re-query data by manipulating graphs or charts or by using visual instrumentation like drop-down lists, Multiple-dimension or linked visualization which allows you to connect multiple charts or graphs when a single graph cannot hold all the information needed, Animated visualization is like the Census Bureau’s Increasing Urbanization, Personalization allows users to make visualizations unique to them, and Business-actionable alerts allows you to notify concerned people when changes in data gathered occur so appropriate actions may be take.

ADV and Big Data

As we rely more and more on our computers, the internet and the cloud, we continue to produce gazillions of data.  In every company, they have a team that deals with the massive data we produce that are related to their products and services in order to keep up with trends and what’s really relevant.  ADV can help companies analyze these data without going insane since data accumulated is connected to the visual data produced.  So when huge amounts of data are added to their database, they can simply look at their ADV and see what changed and if that change is significant for their business.

Like for example Match.com, the online dating site, they’ve been using Tableau Software, a business intelligence software that allows users to quickly analyze big data.  Match.com wanted their users to analyze their data.  So now, there are a lot of Match.com Tableau users ranging from product managers, finance managers, public relations people, to a group in charge of new business at Match.com.

Atin Kulkarni, Match.com’s senior director of strategy and analytics, described how ADV is quite a great fit for their business.  Since they cater to people looking for the perfect partner, geospatial visualization will be great for their plans of holding offline dating events.  By using geospatial visualization, they can see in what places Match.com users will be interested in offline dating or see the concentration of Match.com users.

ADV and Developers

So how can ADV help developers?  Much like how Match.com is able to analyze big data quickly via ADV and use it to improve their service, app or even software developers can use their users’ requests to find out what upgrades are quickly needed or what features they can do without.  They can also monitor how well their apps or software is being received.  Also, ADV can help them setup a database for user complaints and categorize them as an app glitch or a customer dissatisfactory rating so they can quickly address their users’ qualms.