You might be surprised at the great number of interesting, creative, and cool ways to show data and present information.
In today business world, data visualization and presentation have a critical role in making people understand the importance of data results and analysis.
The different methods of showing data in a pictorial form, graphical, and visual context enable decision-makers to grasp difficult concepts or define trends.
No matter if you want to visualize a data flow, data comparison or you need to show data over time as a trend, there are many variants of visual communication.
Here we collected 15 examples of creative and cool ways to show data in statistics, business, marketing, finance and etc.
1. Venn Diagram
If you need to make a comparison between 2 relatively simple data sets, Venn diagram can be your creative and cool solution. Venn diagram is an illustration that uses circles to shows logical relationships between two or more sets (grouping items).
Typically, Venn diagrams show how given items are similar and different. Venn diagram with 2 or 3 circles is the most common type. But there are also many diagrams with a larger number of circles (5,6,7,8,10…).
2. Bubble Chart
Bubble Chart is one of the most attractive types of graphs and charts available in statistics and business.
Bubble charts are super useful charts for making a comparison of the relationships between data in 3 numeric data dimensions: the Y-axis data, the X-axis data, and data depicting the bubble size.
If you want to display three or four dimensions of data or you want to compare and display the relationships between categorized circles, bubble charts can be your answer.
3. Decision Trees
As graphical representations of complex or simple problems, decision trees have an important place in business. A decision tree is a diagram representation of possible solutions to a decision. It shows different outcomes from a set of decisions.
Decision trees are helpful for a variety of reasons. Not only they are easy-to-understand diagrams that support you ‘see’ your thoughts, but also because they provide a framework for estimating all possible alternatives.
4. Radar Chart
A radar chart is one of the most modern types of charts and cool ways to show data – ideal for multiple comparisons. Radar charts use a circular display with several different quantitative axes looking like spokes on a wheel.
Each axis shows a quantity for a different categorical value. Radar Chart has many applications nowadays in statistics, maths, business, sports analysis, data intelligence, and etc.
5. Cycle Diagram
Cycle diagram is a rarely used method for data visualization and representation. However, it has some interesting benefits and an attractive look. Cycle Diagram shows how one event flows to another.
It presents the steps of a cyclical process or a data flow. Cycle diagrams can be utilized for many different types of processes. For example, you can use Circle diagram to visualize a flow of money in a company or the path of assets that run through a production process.
6. Concept Maps
Concept maps (also known as mind maps) are among the most interesting and cool ways to show data. They are widely used for organizing thoughts, ideas, brainstorming and solving complex business problems.
With the help of a mind map, you can represent and link ideas so you can choose the most critical points and solutions. There are many free mind mapping tools you can use for different purposes.
7. Flowchart
For those who want to communicate a process at a glance, flowcharts are wonderful ways to represent data. A flowchart allows you to show the sequence of steps involved in a process using symbols, shapes, arrows, text or other geometric elements.
A flowchart is a powerful visualization tool and one of the most popular, creative, and cool ways to show data in the business. With proper design, it allows understanding the steps in a process very effectively and efficiently.
8. Fishbone Diagram
When it comes to creative ways to visualize data, fishbone diagram is definitely one of the best data representing tools. Fishbone diagram is known as one of the key graphical methods to solve business problems because it takes into account all the possible causes.
A fishbone diagram (also known as a cause and effect diagram or Ishikawa diagram) is a visualization tool for categorizing the possible causes of a particular problem or situation. The main goal is to find the root cause. Therefore, it is one of the key root cause analysis tools.
Although it looks difficult for drawing, there are many free fishbone diagram software tools that make creating Ishikawa diagram a piece of cake.
9. Scatter Plot
Scatter Plot can be very interesting and attractive method for representing a relationship between 2 variables.
Scatter Plot is an X-Y diagram that shows a correlation between two variables. It is utilized to plot data points on a vertical and a horizontal axis. The goal is to represent how much one variable affects another.
10. Box and Whisker Plot
Not only their name but also the way they look make you think box and whisker plots are cool ways to show data in statistic or in business.
A box and whisker plot (or just a box plot) is a graph that represents visually data from a five-number summary. These numbers are median, upper and lower quartile, minimum, and maximum data value (extremes).
Don’t panic, these numbers are easy to understand. For more details take a look at our post box and whisker plot examples.
11. Pie Charts
Pie Charts are a classic way to present data but still, it is one of the coolest and most attractive methods. Pie charts display data and statistics in an easy-to-understand ‘pie-slice’ format and illustrate numerical proportion.
The pie chart brakes down a group into smaller pieces. It shows part-whole relationships. To make a pie chart, you need a list of categorical data and numerical variables. The total sum of the proportions (pieces) is 100%.
12. Pictographs
The pictograph is one of the most eye-catching ways of showing data in a pictorial form. It displays numerical information with the use of icons or picture symbols to represent data sets.
They are very easy to read statistical way of data visualization. A pictogram shows the frequency of data as images or symbols. Each image/symbol may represent one or more units of a given dataset.
13. Gantt Chart
As a powerful tool at the hands of project managers, Gantt chart is a graphical illustration that represents a project schedule or a timeline. Actually, this is very useful and interesting way of showing tasks displayed against time.
Gantt chart is irreplaceable when it comes to using tools for planning, coordinating, and tracking specific activities in a project.
14. Funnel Chart
Funnel charts are great ways to illustrate stages in a specific process, most common – a sales process. Actually, they could be utilized to show anything that’s decreasing in size.
Funnel charts are very similar to pie charts because the total sum of the bars is 100%. Each funnel stage illustrates a percentage of the whole. Typically, the first stage is the largest, and each next stage is smaller than its predecessor.
15. Pyramid Graph
Definitely, pyramid graphs are very cool ways to show data. Moreover, they are absolutely easy to understand charts.
A pyramid graph is a chart in a pyramid shape or triangle shape. These types of charts are best for data that is organized in some kind of hierarchy. The levels show a progressive order.
The short answer – with the right software tools.
In our high-tech era, there is a wide variety of premium or free graphing software tools that allow you to create amazing graphs and charts in minutes. They are interesting, visually-appealing, and easy to understand.
Here is a list of the most popular of them:
Silvia Valcheva is a digital marketer with over a decade of experience creating content for the tech industry. She has a strong passion for writing about emerging software and technologies such as big data, AI (Artificial Intelligence), IoT (Internet of Things), process automation, etc.
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