Data visualization tools require structured data13 juin

I attended my very first UX (user experience for non-initiates) event in Paris ten days ago, during which I listened to information architect Paul Kahn talk about unstructured, semi-structured and structured data.

There was something about the title that appealed to me, and besides, what else was I going to do on a Wednesday evening?

Early in his presentation, he confirmed what I already knew:  people HATE filling in metadata, especially if it’s structured (that is, pre-defined, agreed-to, controlled).

And yet, some of coolest applications of data visualization today rely on structured or at least semi-structured data.

He gave a number of examples during his talk, all of them compelling, but the one I found particularly exciting was an application developed by Microsoft called Pivot (www.getpivot.com).

Pivot makes it possible to analyze large volumes of data and to get meaning from them in ways that would not have been possible before.  By creating collections that you can then assemble, filter, drill down, move up, refilter, segment and otherwise manipulate, Pivot enables us to gain insight from data that would otherwise have remained hidden.  Its ability to drill down and pull back gives us an exciting ability to see both the forest and the trees.

If you’re at all interested in how to visually exploit large volumes of data, I really encourage you to check this out. Imagine building a business case with this type of tool? But then of course, you’ll need to tag your raw data :-)

Paul Kahn’s presentation is available on SlideShare.

7 Responses to “Data visualization tools require structured data”

  1. Kathy Hanbury (juin 14th, 2010 at 18 h 00 min)

    Thanks for sharing this, Lise! I can totally relate to both sides of this… I’m so excited about the possibilities of structured data, but I HATE filling in meta-data. Even though I know how important it is!

    Very cool to see what’s up and coming.

    - Kathy

  2. Lise Janody (juin 15th, 2010 at 9 h 06 min)

    Cool indeed. You know how they say a picture is worth a thousand words? Well, data visualization makes for very effective pictures!

    Another thing that will be interesting to watch is which industries band together to create common taxonomies that will permit truly vertical applications. In his talk, Paul Kahn highlighted the airline industry as one that’s clearly seen the interest in doing this, but surely there are tons more.

  3. cna training (juin 29th, 2010 at 11 h 30 min)

    Great information! I’ve been looking for something like this for a while now. Thanks!

  4. Meta Data (février 25th, 2011 at 23 h 10 min)

    Hello,
    Do you know if MS has a new project name for getpivot ? It currently redirects to… Bing.com !

  5. Lise Janody (février 28th, 2011 at 14 h 36 min)

    Thanks for pointing this out. No, I don’t know, and every link I’ve tried goes to Bing. Hmm….

  6. Chain Link Systems (janvier 6th, 2012 at 11 h 27 min)

    Article is really very interesting. Pointers are perfectly hitting the subject guideline because of that article is gaining many visitors.

  7. seagate hard drive data recovery (avril 13th, 2012 at 9 h 38 min)

    This is really a great site .It always share informative and useful article.i really like its fabulous article. its a great learning keep sharing such kind of nice info.
    I will keep visiting this site.

Leave a Reply

Background

Dot·Connection is a web and content strategy consultancy that I started mid-2010.

My name is Lise Janody, and prior to creating this company, I spent the last 10 years managing and spearheading content for large, multi-language internet, intranet and extranet sites at Alcatel-Lucent. Prior to that, I spent 10 years as a freelance copywriter and business writer, mostly in the multinational, B2B space.