Data is the new oil? No, data is the new soil.” – David McCandless

Humans are visual creatures. A visual is processed 60,000 times faster than any text, and studies show that 65% of the population comprises visual learners. Moreover, 90% of the information transferred to the brain is visual.

Marrying digestible text with striking visuals provides the greatest results regarding the effective presentation of data, making it easy for audiences to understand and retain data. This very notion is the core of visualization.

Recently, data visualization specialists have married information to high aesthetics, taking advantage of humans’ natural affinity for beauty. When choosing the right data visualization type, the most important element to consider is if you’re offering people the opportunity to see insights they haven’t seen or experienced before and wouldn’t otherwise be able to decipher in written text alone.

Creators of effective visuals understand our human predisposition for the visual, taking it a step further by adding interactive functionalities that capture the imagination while presenting critical insights in a way that is as inspiring as it is understandable. By scrolling, clicking, and moving the cursor over interesting data points, designers engage users on a deeper level and enable them to be a participant rather than a viewer alone, adding more meaning to the data discovery learning process as a result.

Studies suggest that those who follow directions with illustrations perform 323% more efficiently than those who follow text-only directions. To demonstrate, here we spotlight 27 of the best data visualization examples from around the globe. Whether static or interactive dashboards, these creative data visualization examples will serve as an inspiration for any data enthusiast. Once we’ve showcased them, we’ll go back with a retrospective glance at the genesis of graphics and explore why it matters today more than ever.

The Benefits Of Data Visualization

Before we delve any deeper into our inspiring interactive data visualization examples, we’re going to look at the primary benefits of using visuals in a business context:

• Quicker action: As mentioned, the human brain processes visual information faster than text-based one, which means that your stakeholders – internally – or your prospects – externally – will be able to digest fresh insights and take swift, positive action on them.
• Finding connections: By displaying data in an inspiring visual format, it will be far easier to spot correlations and find connections between your operations and your overall commercial performance. As a result, you can develop a management report that will enable you to gain the insights you need to make changes that have a positive impact on the business.
• Emerging trends: By curating your data dashboards and presenting them visually, you stand a greater chance of spotting the kind of market trends that you can use to evolve your efforts while boosting profitability and gaining an edge over your competitors.
• Fresh discussions: Among the most beneficial elements of using visuals is the fact that it allows you to tell a story with your insights and, as a result, drill down deeper into specific segments of data. By utilizing your own dashboard storytelling efforts, you will be able to spot fresh insights and spark new discussions based on the growth, development, and direction of your business. Moreover, with the use of inspirational, informational graphics, you’ll engage your target audience on a deeper level, encouraging the kind of online discussions that will boost brand awareness, expand your reach, and help you position yourself as a thought leader in your field.

Our Top 27 Best Data Visualizations

Now that we’ve outlined the clear-cut benefits, let’s explore our 27 best data visualization examples from experts worldwide.

1) Transparency International

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The first of our animated data visualization examples will be this clean, simple interactive diagram that displays the results of Transparency International’s Corruption Survey data. Bold red makes the results pop out immediately. This visual uses icons instead of words to communicate the different sectors included in the survey, making the presentation very visually appealing. Transparency International shows the viewer the relationships between the geographic location of the country and the type of corruption, leaving the audience to draw their conclusions.

2) Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop

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Rounding out our list was not an easy task. Instead of going for the super useful, we picked the most interesting: Matt Daniel’s Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop. Matt explains, “Literary elites love to rep Shakespeare’s vocabulary: across his entire corpus, he uses 28,829 words, suggesting he knew over 100,000 words and arguably had the largest vocabulary ever. I decided to compare this data point against the most famous artists in hip-hop. I used each artist’s first 35,000 lyrics. That way, prolific artists, such as Jay-Z, could be compared to newer artists, such as Drake.” While the result may surprise you, it is a reminder that good online data visualization tools do more than present information – they tell a story.

3) Selfiecity – The Science of Selfies

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This project is studying how people take self-portraits in different parts of the planet – over 120,000 selfies from Berlin, New York, Bangkok, Sao Paolo, and Moscow have been analyzed. Are women more likely to take selfies than men? In which proportion? Do people smile, tilt their heads, or crop their pictures? All these questions have been answered, and the results are displayed in very well-made interactive visualization examples. The complexity of the study and the insights found made it a real challenge to expose the results, which they addressed very well, creating cool data visualizations like this one.

4) Pinellas County’s Public School Inequalities For Black Pupils

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Another example pictures the link between the increasing segregation of schools in Pinellas County in Florida and the poor performance of students. The visualization displays the results of an investigation carried out by the Tampa Bay Times based on data gathered by the Florida Department of Education and Pinellas County School District. The results are strikingly accurate and clear. They reveal five out of 150 elementary schools in Pinellas County where students perform exceptionally poorly. The underperforming schools are located in black community areas with the highest levels of social segregation. These insights can move local decision-makers and social activists to take better care of troubled institutions and introduce improvements.

Users scroll, not click, to see charts change and follow the investigation step by step. The scroll action is the new users’ favorite, which is particularly fit for the mobile user. On Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, we scroll through streams and streams of content. Scrolling engages users for longer and makes it difficult to look away. The view transitions easily from chart to chart, making the story easy to follow and making the data itself central to the view on the screen. The data and results collected are complex and prolific, which made this data viz a real challenge, but they managed it so well and easy to understand that we deem it to be amongst the best interactive data visualizations that we came across.

5) The First Data Visualization to Solve a Deadly Threat

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Cholera is a bacterial infection of the small intestine that causes its victims to suffer from such severe diarrhea and vomiting that they can die in two hours. It’s fatal in half of the untreated cases. When the disease arrived in London in 1832, it was thought to be spread by a “miasma” or bad smell in the atmosphere. There were four major cholera outbreaks in London over the next twenty-two years.

It was during the 4th epidemic that Doctor John Snow began to think that the air contamination argument seemed flimsy. Londoners were drinking water from the disgustingly polluted Thames, which also served as the city’s sewage line. Dr. Snow hypothesized that cholera was spread through the ingestion of polluted water. On August 31st, 1854, “what Dr. Snow later called ‘the most terrible outbreak of cholera which ever occurred in the kingdom’ broke out. It was as violent as it was sudden. During the next three days, 127 people living in or around Broad Street died.”

Dr. Snow set out to track where people died and the nearby water sources. His map not only solved the source of cholera but is amongst the first (and most well-known) visualizations. Dr. Snow simply put a dot on a map to indicate where people died of cholera. He found that almost all deaths had taken place a short distance from the Broad Street water pump. It was discovered that in “houses much nearer another pump, there had only been ten deaths — and of those, five victims had always drunk the water from the Broad Street pump, and three were schoolchildren who had probably drunk from the pump on their way to school.”

Several other anomalies helped prove his theory.  There was a pump nearby where only five out of 530 residents came down with cholera – it turned out they had their own well. The seventy employees at a nearby brewery made it through the epidemic unscathed; they were provided free beer and didn’t bother drinking water. The final piece of the puzzle arrived when Dr. Snow was alerted to the death of a woman who had not been in the SoHo area. When the deceased woman’s son informed him that his mother liked the taste of the Broad Street well water so much that she had a servant fetch it daily, he knew his hypothesis was proven. It would take years for the rest of London to believe him.

6) Where the Population of Europe is Growing And Declining

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Among the various interactive data visualization examples that we picked, this is interesting when it comes to the huge amount of data it deals with. The Berliner Morgenpost’s EuropaKarte is a detailed map that provides viewers with detailed insights into the population growth and decline in Europe. Countries are divided into fields corresponding to geographical locations like cities or villages with less than 5.000 inhabitants. The fields vary in colors and intensity, with vibrant orange symbolizing the biggest growth and dark blue the biggest decline. White means no change. When you move the cursor over a selected geographical field, you will see a pop-up with data, including the unit’s name, the number of inhabitants, and the growth/decline rate.

You can also type the location’s name that interests you into the search box and find it easily. Moreover, you can use filters to see which municipalities are growing/declining at the fastest pace in Europe or Germany or view the list of countries with the fastest growing/declining populations in total.  The last filter will display the birth rates of every country listed in descending order. This interactive infographic fits squarely into the current trend of geographical map visualizations offered by datapine and other visual analytics software providers.

7) Newsmap

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Are you a news junkie? This application organizes Google News’s top stories into color-coded category blocks. The size of each story depends on the number of related articles that exist inside each news cluster, so users can quickly identify the stories that receive the most coverage. Users can also filter their news by country and category, making it easy to find the stories that are important to them.

8) Interactive Real-Time Map of Berlin Traffic

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Another of the good real-time data visualization examples out there shows the location and movement of trains, trams, buses, and even ferries in real time. If you want to look at the whole city from a longer distance, the graphic won’t be useful. You will just see dozens of signs swarming around like angry ants. To fully appreciate this map’s usefulness, you should use one of the filters – you can drill down to a street address, means of communication, lines, stops, or stations to get a clearer picture.

Moreover, if you zoom in, you can also see taxis, car sharing, bike sharing, and parking lots. If you are still not impressed, click on the icons. If you click P on the parking lot, the pop-up will appear with more detailed insights like the number of vacant places or the price. On the other hand, if you click, say, a taxi, you will see the car make, and accordingly, a bus – the whole timetable, same for a bus stop – the timetable of every single bus line that stops there.

According to VBB (Verkehrsverbund Berlin-Brandenburg), the public transport authority covering the federal states of Berlin and Brandenburg, the graphic doesn’t reflect the bus location with 100% precision because the data doesn’t come from GPS but is calculated according to the timetables. So it can happen that a user will wait, freezing at a train station, expecting the train to arrive, but it won’t appear. However, if the train is canceled or it has a serious delay, then it will be taken out of the system. The added value of this kind of timetable is that it can show multiple pieces of information at a glance so that you can decide which transportation will suit you most. The only drawback is that the mobile application is available only for Android systems.

9) The Dawn Wall

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The Dawn Wall is The New York Times’ best interactive data visualization on the astonishing 19-day free climb in Yosemite National Park in California. Tommy Caldwell and Kevin Jorgeson were the first daredevils ever who completed a breathtaking climb up the mostly smooth granite face of El Capitan, widely considered the most difficult free-climb on the planet. A free-climb means that ropes are used only to catch a climber’s fall — not to aid the ascent. Visuals complement the story, weaving organically into the narrative and helping the user to picture the scale of this venture.

10) General Electric

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While at first glance, this health infoscape seems overwhelming, a second look will show that it is worth the bounty of information it presents, making it one of the most effective data visualization examples we’ve seen to date. By gathering data from over 7.2 million electronic medical records, General Electric created an entertaining presentation about the prevalence of health symptoms and the symptoms commonly associated with each other. With pleasing colors and multiple ways to view the relationships, this makes looking at unpleasant symptoms quite enjoyable.

11) The Big Mac Index

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Big Mac Index, popularized by The Economist, compares the prices of a Big Mac burger in McDonald’s restaurants in different countries. Why this particular product? Big Mac burger represents a standardized product that includes input costs from various areas, such as agricultural commodities (beef, bread, lettuce, cheese), labor (blue and white collar workers), advertising, rent, and real estate costs, transportation, etc., and therefore is representative of the general state of the local economy.

The Big Mac Index is a real-time data visualization example that shows whether currencies are at their “correct” level. It is based on the theory of purchasing-power parity (PPP), the notion that in the long run, exchange rates should move towards the rate that would equalize the prices of an identical basket of goods and services (in this case, a burger) in any two countries. For example, the average price of a Big Mac in the Euro area in July 2015 was $4.05 at the market exchange rate, while in the United States it was $4.79. It means that Big Mac in Europe was undervalued by 4.4%.

The Scatter chart at the bottom displays the local price of a Big Mac (expressed in the current base currency) against the GDP per person in that country. When you move the cursor over individual data points for details, you will see insights like GDP per person and Big Mac price in a chosen currency. When you click on the particular country, the scatter chart will be replaced by a line chart displaying the selected country’s under- or over-valuation against the current base currency over time.

12) Daily Rituals Showcases the Daily Routines of Iconic Famous People

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It turns out that all great minds don’t quite think alike, and this is masterfully showcased in this example that uses key insights from the book “Daily Rituals” by Mason Currey. Offering audiences a detailed reflection of the daily habits, rituals, pursuits, and priorities of some of history’s most prolific creative minds, including the likes of Benjamin Franklin, Maya Angelou, and Franz Kafka, Daily Routines is one of the most entertaining data visualization examples on our list.

By using a simple color-coded bar chart format, Daily Routines’ creator makes it easy for viewers to compare the daily lives, habits, and rituals of these iconic creative geniuses and drill down into the very pursuits that help these individuals thrive during their lifetimes while comparing one to another.

Simple, striking, effective, and informational, this is certainly among the prime data visual examples in existence, and its message is as engaging as it is informational, offering key insights into optimizing our daily routines for enhanced success.

13) A Visualization of Thanksgiving Flights on Google Trends

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Thanksgiving is, without a doubt, one of the most widely observed annual holidays in the US, with 54.3 million people traveling across the country to spend time with their loved ones last year alone.

Back in 2015, when around 46.3 million people traveled far and wide for Thanksgiving, tech colossus Google used its internal talent to create one of the best interactive data visualization examples we’ve seen to date. Powered by Google Trends, this aesthetically stunning piece of interactive content offers a glimpse into the flights moving to, from, and across the USA the day before Thanksgiving Day. Not only is each flight color-coded by the airline, but this short movie-style visualization has transformed flight-based metrics into a piece of art that shows the path of each flight in action.

Without displaying any numbers or flight metrics other than the time, viewers can see which segments of the day are the most popular for different types of flights – a testament to the value of effective data visualization.

14) An Insight into ‘Why Buses Bunch’

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When considering the best interactive data visualization, it would be impossible to exclude this creation from Setosa. In a bid to show travelers why buses ‘bunch,’ or in other words – why services experience delays or disruptions that cause several buses to arrive at a bus stop simultaneously, the company developed this almost game-like piece of interactive data visualization comprised of complex data sets.

Upon the realization that telling the story by numbers would be messy and far from engaging, Setosa put the wheels in motion to produce a visual that used the data to give users a chance to cause delays and watch scenarios unfold while gaining an insight into how many passengers are affected by disruptions.

A glorious example of numerical metrics transformed into something accessible, engaging, and informational for everyone.

15) The Internet In Real-Time

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Have you ever taken a second to think about how many people are using the internet simultaneously as you are? The answer is 5.03 billion, spread across 1.14 billion websites globally. These huge numbers are very hard to grasp by just reading them. With that in mind, Betfy created an interactive visualization that gives you a graphical idea of everything that is going on on the internet by the second. Covering different social media platforms and popular websites. 

While the visual aims to show an idea of how the internet works in real-time, the data presented in it is not actually happening live. In reality, what you see is a compilation of massive amounts of sources of data that have been broken down by the second to get a grasp of what is going on on the internet daily. Getting a sense of the magnitude of online activity worldwide is easy and accessible with this tool, which can also be adapted to hours, days, or months, depending on what the user wants to see.

16) Interactive Visualization Of The Exponential Spread Of COVID-19

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The COVID-19 pandemic paralyzed the entire world with fear and uncertainty, probably more than any other event we’ve experienced in the past few decades. As a result of the unknown nature of this disease, various organizations created data systems to keep the public informed regarding infections around the world. However, many of these systems were images that were harder to understand and explore. With that premise in mind, Computer Science professor Wade Fagen-Ulmschneider created DIVOC-91, a project that shows the global spread of COVID-19 in a way that is interactive and easy to explore. 

Using data from the Johns Hopkins Center for Systems Science and Engineering, this interactive data visualization provides all the information regarding COVID-19 spread. The chart can be filtered by multiple factors, which include country, time, and scale, as well as new cases, vaccinations, total deaths, and more. Among its many interactive features, this visual allows users to hover over any data point to see what is behind it, animate the whole chart to see the information unfold automatically, and generate a report with the selected information. Definitely a great example of how massive amounts of data can be presented in a way that is fun, smart, and attractive. 

17) How The US Generates Electricity

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With climate change at the center of public debate, more and more people are becoming curious about how basic resources are produced. One of them being electricity. In that regard, the USA’s electricity system is often called the “world’s largest machine,” and our next example explains why in a very interactive map. 

The climate change website Carbon Brief published a graphic that shows the different electricity sources in the USA and how each of them is used and produced depending on the state. Paired with this, the map can also be broken down into high-carbon sources such as coal, oil, and gas and low-carbon sources such as wind or solar. 

This is one of our interactive data visualization examples that helps to inform the public about the true state of electricity production and the advancements made in terms of more conscious choices. If you want to take a look at the live version of the map as well as an article with insightful findings, click on the image above. 

18) A Map Of Lighthouses Around The World

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As you’ve seen throughout this list, there are a bunch of interactive data examples that provide us with all kinds of useful and interesting information. Our next visual is a very cool map showing lighthouses around the globe. Now, you might think, what is so interesting about lighthouses? In fact, the 23,000 lighthouses positioned around the world safeguard maritime traffic with their strong lights, different color combinations, and frequencies. 

Geodienst, the spatial expertise center of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands, created this particularly interesting visual. By taking nautical data from an open-source database called OpenSeaMap, these experts created a map replicating the colors and frequencies of the thousands of lighthouses that guide ships daily on their journeys through the open sea.  If you go to the live version of the map by clicking on the image above, you can see the different colors and lights changing across territories.

19) An Interactive Map Tracking Ocean Cleanup

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Cleaning the oceans is a task that many individuals, as well as big corporations, have taken very seriously in the past years. One of these initiatives includes the Ocean Cleanup, a project that aims to remove 90% of floating plastic from the oceans by 2040 and become the “largest clean-up in history.” 

With thousands of people watching this initiative and bringing more awareness to the topic, the Ocean Cleanup team resorted to interactive data visualization tools to generate a dashboard in the shape of a map that tracks the mission’s progress. When accessing the dashboard, users just need to click on the highlighter spots to see the work done on that specific area, pictures of the process, information about the technologies used, as well as the economic impact of it. This is a great way to be informed and participate in this global issue.  

20) Where You Fit on the Political Spectrum

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A noteworthy data visualization example from the Pew Research Center, this brilliantly presented static graphic showcases the current political spectrum and helps the reader to decide where their personal ideologies fit in comparison to the thoughts, opinions, and preferences of different media outlets, programs, and publications.

Not only is the table-style visual neat, professional, and easy to digest, but it also takes a specific set of metrics and offers a great deal of personal value by allowing the user to determine where their beliefs lie compared to others.

21) Data Breaches By Data Sensitivity 

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According to a report by IBM, the global average cost of a data breach in 2023 was 4.45 million USD, a shocking 15% increase over three years. These rising numbers have led businesses and consumers to be more aware and cautious about how and where they share their data as well as how they protect it. From a business perspective, it can bring fatal financial and reputational consequences, and from a consumer perspective, it can lead to sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, addresses, phone numbers, and more, ending up in the hands of cybercriminals and be the victim of an attack. Being aware of the true reality of this issue is of utmost importance to ensure people and companies take the correct steps to protect themselves, which is why we included our next example. 

British data journalist, writer, and information designer David McCandless and his team from Information Is Beautiful gathered records about the world’s biggest data breaches, including technology and social media companies like Facebook, Yahoo, and Twitter, hotel businesses such as the Marriot Hotel, and even one from the Shanghai police. The results are displayed in a bubble chart where the size of each bubble represents the magnitude of the breach. Users can hover over each bubble to see a small extract of what the breach entailed, such as if it was a hack or just uncautious behavior by the company or institution. It is an excellent and scary resource to inform people of the dangers of sharing sensitive information online. 

22) A Journey Through Every Billboard Top 5 Hit 

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Our next dynamic data visualization example is more fun and less scary than the previous one. The debate about the greatest musical era in history is a hot topic at many family meals and friend gatherings. Now, we know the answer to this debate is subject to the personal taste of each person. However, data doesn’t lie, and the digital publication The Pudding aims to help people determine the answer to this popular debate.

The Pudding is a digital publication that explains the most debated ideas in culture through powerful visual essays that show users “stories they didn’t know they need it”. In this case, they generated the visual “A Journey Through Every Billboard Top 5 Hit To Find Music’s Greatest Era” that allows users to go through the top 5 Billboard Hit songs from the 1960s to the 2010s. What makes this graphic so cool is the fact that users can hear a small extract of each song playing as the years go by. It is an amazing and interactive way to honor music’s greatest hits.  

23) A Closer Look Into The Stars 

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Have you ever wondered how many stars exist out there? How far is each star from the other? How do constellations look? Well, look no further. The ESA Star Mapper is an animated map that shows 59.921 stars with data gathered from the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hipparcos catalog. The ESA’s Hipparcos was the first space astrometry mission, which operated from 1898 to 1993. It measured the positions, motions, and distances of over 100.000 stars, and it had a major impact on much of the astronomy research that has been carried out to this date. 

The map was generated using two images, one from the northern hemisphere of the Canary Islands and the other from the southern hemisphere in Chile. Users can scroll through the stars with five different filters that are explained during the experience, as well as see constellations and star names. A great way to learn more about the exciting topic of astronomy! 

24) Tualatin River Watershed Navigator 

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Understanding the value of water and what it does for our world is of utmost importance, especially for communities that live near rivers or watersheds that significantly enhance their ecosystems. With this premise in mind, the organizations Tualatin Soil, Clean Water Services, and Water Conservation District developed the “Tualatin River Watershed Navigator”. An interactive map that helps residents of Washington County learn everything about the Tualatin River Watershed and the big effect it has on the community’s natural resources.

When navigating the visual, users can learn about water safety and soil conservation, plants and local wildlife, and answer some common questions, such as where the water they drink comes from or if they can fish in the lake. Paired with that, users can also find other valuable resources, such as homeless relief, local garbage, recycling, and closest farmers markets and parks, among other things. A great animated data visualization example to keep the community informed.

25) Density Designs’ World Languages Graphic

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The next of our best data visualizations, this sensational graphic from Density Design offers a quick, easy, and engaging way to understand the number of languages that exist on the planet, where they’re spoken, and who speaks them in different pockets of the world.

Produced for non-linguists, this data visualization example is easy to navigate and simple to break down. It serves up a level of insight that inspires, educates, and acts as an incredibly useful resource for those researching languages in a number of fields and industries. It is an impressive and creative feat of visualization.

26) Charles Joseph Minard, Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia

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Next, in our rundown of the best data visualizations, we’re going back a few hundred years to glance at Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia. Drafted by civil engineer Charles Joseph Minard in 1892, this is perhaps the earliest recorded data visualization example and still one of the greatest visualizations to date.

Not only does this infographic-style visualization offer vital insights in a digestible format, but this age-old and effective data visualization example proves that we, as humans, are genuinely visual creatures. The pioneering visual is regarded by many as the “greatest statistical graphic ever drawn,” and while such a statement is subjective, it’s nothing short of inspirational.

Combining six data sets – geography, strategic movement, direction, the number of remaining soldiers, temperature, and time – this iconic visualization offers a tangible insight into Napoleon’s push into Russia, immortalizing an important historical moment for future generations to explore.

27) Climate Impact Map

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Last but not least, in our list of examples of interactive data visualizations, we have another map that tracks the climate change impact globally. As you saw with some of the other related visuals on this list, climate change is a topic of global concern that is sparking conversations across many industries. Given that information is key when it comes to making a change, a map like this proves to be one of the most valuable interactive data visualization solutions out there.  

The visual was created by the Climate Impact Lab on a mission to show the damage that climate change has caused and is expected to keep making in the coming years. The graphic can be filtered by the average temperatures during the year, as well as a historical and future scenario for the world and the US. 

Data Visualization Today: Why It Matters

As you’ve learned from this insightful list of use cases, good visualizations are valuable in several areas and industries. That said, they are particularly important in business, where large volumes of data must be analyzed swiftly or presented in a clear and actionable format. The rows of numbers alone won’t create a compelling story to catch the audience’s attention. The goal is always to make the data behind your arguments look attractive enough to persuade decision-makers or enlighten your team members. With easy-to-use interactive online data visualization software, more and more companies can create eye-catching animated data visualizations on their own. Interactive interfaces make it possible even for non-technical users to create actionable charts.

The type of visualization you select is guided by the kind of information you are seeking to convey. A fixed image is ideal when alternate views are neither needed nor desired and when publishing to a static medium, such as print. Dynamic or interactive visualizations are better for empowering people to explore the data for themselves. Both have their advantages. When creating one, the purpose should always be to generate a certain level of excitement and engagement with the audience for it to be the best visualization. 

Static vs. Animated Data Visualizations

Due to the multitude of use cases we see in our daily lives, it is fairly clear that powerful visuals can change the game when it comes to explaining or introducing a specific topic to an audience. The way you decide to use visuals will solely depend on your audience and goals. Some prefer a more traditional static view of information, while others prefer the power of interactivity. But how can you know which kind is best for you? To help you put the value of these two types of data visualizations into perspective, below we will discuss their main differences, pitfalls, and attributes. 

From a user perspective, interactive data visualizations have changed the game. They enhance engagement and data discovery thanks to multiple features that bring information to life and help convey relevant stories. That said, from a technical perspective, interactive visuals are also complex, time-consuming, and more expensive to design and develop. Plus, they can be less portable or reproducible than static ones as they require specific software to be reproduced and an internet connection, in most cases. 

On the other hand, static visuals display the data in a fixed format. They help highlight certain trends or conclusions clearly and, most importantly, reliably. They often show a specific conclusion, argument, or trend through a presentation or report. However, compared to more innovative approaches, static visualizations are more restrictive and give users less control over the data. They are also less engaging and, at times, not enough to keep up with the fast-paced world we live in today. 

As mentioned, choosing between the two can be hard. You need to consider the size of your data, its complexity, the audience, and overall analysis goals. If you are working with large datasets, then interactivity is probably the best choice. If you are dealing with small or simple datasets, then a static chart might be enough. That being said, we believe that animated data visualizations are changing the world of analytics for the better, and with the help of professional BI software, you should be able to bring your data to life in ways you never thought possible. Some of the biggest benefits include: 

Combine Time and Motion to Aid the Audience Understanding

A layer of interactivity enables your audience to connect directly with your data and offers a second axis to track information changing over time. Hans Rosling, a famous data scientist and visualization Ted Talker, is a huge proponent of showing the time as a graphic movement. Check out this video – The Joy of Stats – a perfect example of how combining time with your visualization lets the viewer see trends.

Drilling Down to Extract Meaning From Numbers

A trend we are seeing in all content marketing, not just visualization, is personal attention. Content is no longer a one-size-fits-all solution, from customized white papers to interactive ebooks. Interactive visualization enables you to reach your audience on different levels by allowing you to drill down into the data. Newcomers to the topic can still spot trends and learn the basics, while experts in the field can drill down deeper into the data for more insight.

Engage, Engage, Engage

Content marketing is competitive. There is a lot of noise to push through before you can be heard. The best interactive data visualization is a ticket into the spotlight. Let’s take, for example, USA Today’s interactive story “Behind The Bloodshed.” Mass killings dominate the American media. How can you compete with major prime channels as a newspaper? The USA upped the ante with this piece, particularly the interactive data visualization that enables the viewer to drill down on the mass killing timeline for details. The piece is informative, powerful, and emotional.

Interactive Data Visualizations: Key Takeaways 

Our selection of the best dynamic visualization examples above demonstrates creative, innovative leaps that illustrate the changing way we see and interpret data.

Everything is becoming personalized. People want to see how they fit into the big picture and where they stand on the shifting terrain. A real-time visualization example or some of the best interactive visualizations answer that need in two ways: giving the viewers control over what they see and letting them narrow the data down to their personal situation, whether it is age, location, income, or other factors.

This is the beginning of a new phase of data personalization. Instead of abstract headlines and generic pronouncements, readers can project themselves into the dataset. With the right tools, you can prepare the best interactive data visualizations for your business on your own, within a few clicks, and with no advanced IT skills needed.

“Visualization gives you answers to questions you didn’t know you had.” – Ben Shneiderman

To summarize, here are the best data visualization examples:

1. Transparency International
2. Largest Vocabulary in Hip Hop
3. Selfiecity – The Science of Selfies
4. Pinellas County’s Public School Inequalities For Black Pupils
5. The First Visualization to Solve a Deadly Threat
6. Where the Population of Europe is Growing And Declining
7. Newsmap
8. Interactive Real-Time Map of Berlin Traffic
9. The Dawn Wall
10. General Electric
11. The Big Mac Index
12. Daily Rituals Showcases the Daily Routines of Iconic Famous People
13. A Visualization of Thanksgiving Flights on Google Trends
14. An Insight into ‘Why Buses Bunch’
15. The Internet In Real-Time
16. Interactive Visualization Of The Exponential Spread Of COVID-19
17. How The US Generates Electricity
18. A Map Of Lighthouses Around The World
19. An Interactive Map Tracking Ocean Cleanup
20. Where You Fit on the Political Spectrum
21. Data Breaches By Data Sensitivity
22. A Journey Through Every Billboard Top 5 Hit
23. A Closer Look Into The Stars
24. Tualatin River Watershed Navigator
25. Density Designs’ World Languages Graphic
26. Charles Joseph Minard, Napoleon’s Invasion of Russia
27. Climate Impact Map

You can start visualizing your own data by exploring our software for a 14-day trial – completely free! 

The post Take Advantage Of The Best Interactive & Effective Data Visualization Examples appeared first on BI Blog | Data Visualization & Analytics Blog | datapine.

Does data excite, inspire, or even amaze you?

Does the idea of discovering patterns in large volumes of information make you want to roll up your sleeves and get to work? Do you find computer science and its applications within the business world more than interesting? If you answered yes to any of these questions, you may want to consider a career in business intelligence (BI).In the age of information, business information and intelligence, if utilized strategically, has the power to propel a business far above its competitors as well as exponentially boost brand awareness, internal engagement, organizational efficiency, and profitability. The BI industry is expected to soar to a value of $42.95 billion by 2028. Moreover, companies that use BI analytics are five times more likely to make swifter, more informed decisions.

Despite these findings, the undeniable value of intelligence for business, and the incredible demand for BI skills, 74% of IT decision-makers from Canada and the USA believe there is a shortage of BI-based data professionals according to a survey.

That’s where you come in.

To tap into one of the exciting careers available in today’s business environment, you will first need to develop a mix of specific business analytics skills, which are numerous and apply to many industries, making the shift easier.

So, what skills are needed for a business intelligence career? How do you get into this field? Do you need a good business intelligence resume? What does a profession in this field look like? And what other things you should consider to succeed in a BI-based role? In this business intelligence career guide, we will answer all of these questions and more, starting with the reasons to migrate toward one of the exciting jobs that companies are currently offering in the digital world.

Why Shift To A Business Intelligence Career?

This all-encompassing branch of online data analysis is a particularly interesting field because its roots are firmly planted in two separate areas: business strategy and computer science.

1. It’s Flexible

BI is a varied and expansive field, with many different areas to focus on or specialize in. This variety affords a great deal of flexibility without the need to completely shift your areas of expertise or skill set.

For example, if you enjoy computer science, programming, and data but are too extroverted to program all day long, you could work in a more human-oriented area of intelligence for business, perhaps involving more face-to-face interactions than most programmers would encounter on the job.

As BI professional Martin at the BI Cortex explains:

“Some people are made to spend long hours writing code… However, I quickly got really fidgety, longing for some human interaction. There is so much flexibility and variety when doing BI that other IT-related paths seem too bland or streamlined for my liking.”

On the flip side, if you enjoy diving deep into the technical side of things, with the right mix of skills for business intelligence you can work a host of incredibly interesting problems that will keep you in flow for hours on end.

2. There’s A Wealth Of Choice

With analytical and business intelligence competencies, you can also choose to work with specific types of firms or companies operating within a particular niche or industry. For example, if you’re passionate about healthcare reform, you can work as a BI professional who specializes in using data and online BI tools to make hospitals run more smoothly and effectively thanks to healthcare analytics.

Alternatively, if you enjoy other aspects of IT, including system administration, you could work with smaller companies and wear multiple hats. For instance, you could be the “self-service BI” person in addition to being the system admin.

3. A Wealth Of Job Openings And Compensation

Now, let’s get down to the “meat and potatoes” for a second. One great reason for a career in business intelligence is the rosy demand outlook. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for qualified business intelligence analysts and managers is expected to grow 11% from 2021 to 2031 with over 101,900 openings for management analyst jobs each year. This beats projections for almost all other occupations.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also states that in 2015, the annual median salary for BI analysts was $81,320. Let’s look at where a career in business intelligence currently sits in terms of salary and compensation.

In the US, BI developer salaries in the field stand at around $93,230 per annum according to Indeed, with management analysts earning an average of $93,000 per annum according to the BLS. 

Careers in business intelligence compensate very well in Europe, too. In Germany, a BI analyst can make up to EUR 83.888 per annum, and in Switzerland, you can make as much as EUR 108,400 per annum.

Not bad, huh? It seems that a business intelligence career path is very well paid, indeed. 

However, you should always keep in mind that salary figures and demand for BI professionals are highly dependent on geographical location and industry. This is because according to Recruiter.com, the vast majority of BI positions are in California, New York, or Texas. Your salary and the demand for BI analyst skills will be higher if you live in one of those states.

Source: Recruiter.com

4. A Progressive Professional Path 

As we’ve just seen in the point above, BI is a profession that is on-demand and growing every year. This means there are many chances to grow and escalate fast. After acquiring 3 to 5 years of experience, you can specialize in a specific technology or industry and work as an analyst, IT expert, or even go to the management side by working as a BI project manager. We will cover BI job positions in more detail later in the post, but the important takeaway here is that this is a profession that is full of possibilities. With an immense amount of job prospects, you can start as a junior employee and escalate to senior positions where you can manage your own teams and projects. 

5. Development Of A Range Of Skills 

Apart from gaining knowledge in a specific industry, following a profession in BI can lead you to gain a range of skills that will make you a more complete professional. For instance, you will learn valuable communication and problem-solving skills, as well as business and data management. Added to this, if you work as a data analyst you can learn about finances, marketing, IT, human resources, and any other department that you work with. This will increase your knowledge base and leave you ready to face any type of job in the BI industry.

What Are The Necessary BI Skills?

We’ve established that a career in the field is potentially rewarding and well-compensated, but what skills are needed for a job in this most rewarding field of work? Let’s take a look.

The specific skills needed for business intelligence will vary according to whether you want to be more of a back-end or a front-end BI professional. To simplify things, you can think of back-end BI skills as more technical in nature and related to building BI platforms, like online data visualization tools.

Front-end analytical and business intelligence skills are geared more toward presenting and communicating data to others. Regardless of the choice you make, you can always switch directions as your career progresses. You might also end up taking on all of these roles if you work at a smaller company. But no matter what path you choose, the following top business intelligence skills are necessary – without them, you will be building a profession based on very flaky foundations, limiting your prospects and increasing your potential for failure.

First of all, SQL Programming. SQL (or Structured Query Language) is a programming language that is commonly used in BI. Even if you are more of a front-end BI professional, you’ll need to know SQL and how to use it.

To assist you with your studies, you can start here with a list of the best SQL books that will help you take your skills to the next level.

1. Data analysis

Most business analytics skills are about using data to make better decisions. You need to be good at examining many different sources of data and then making accurate conclusions about them. To do so, you have to be aware of the different types of data analysis methods and techniques out there as well as the correct steps and processes that have to be performed to carry out a successful analytical process. 

2. Data management

Paired with the previous skill, it is also necessary to have knowledge about the entire data management process. This involves knowing how to collect, clean, store, and manipulate data from multiple sources in a way that is accurate and secure. While many different tools assist you in this matter, it is important to have the know-how to make sure everything is running smoothly. This is especially important in a business environment where every piece of information is important for the decision-making process and having wrong data can be detrimental.

3. Problem-solving & creativity

BI isn’t just about analyzing data; it’s also about creating business strategies and solving real-world business problems with that data. For that reason, being able to come up with creative solutions to particular business scenarios with the help of your data is arguably one of the most important skills on this list. You should be able to go further from what the numbers are telling you and put those insights into perspective to generate successful strategies. For example, you could be the one to extract actionable insights from specific retail KPIs that need to be visualized and presented during a meeting.

4. Specific industry knowledge

While some of this can and will be learned on the job, you have to have a solid grasp of the industry’s dynamics, particularly the areas of the field that you’re looking to work in. Over time, you’ll want to become an expert in your industry as this will increase your ability to connect data with business problem-solving.

5. Communication skills

In addition to acquiring intelligence analyst-related skills, you’ll need to be able to communicate your findings effectively to the other professionals you’ll be working with. To some extent, if you work in back-end BI, you won’t need to communicate quite as much. However, if you work in the front end, you’ll be responsible for communicating technical concepts to non-technical people. This kind of role requires excellent communication skills.

6. Data visualization

Expanding on the point above, in order to ensure good communication you will also need to have data visualization skills. Visualizations are the best tools to make trends and general insights understandable. Being able to clearly see how the data changes over time is what makes it possible to extract relevant conclusions from it. For this purpose, you should be able to differentiate between various charts and report types as well as understand when and how to use them to benefit the BI process. 

7. Advanced vision and attention to detail

By its very nature, business intelligence is incredibly detail-oriented. As a BI analyst or developer, you’ll often work with the smallest fragment of information with the objective of turning it into actionable insight. You will need a great deal of forward-thinking vision and the ability to pay very close attention to detail to succeed in the fast-paced world of BI.

8. Statistical analysis

Statistical knowledge is another important skill especially if you want to become a BI analyst. Understanding various statistical components such as mean, median, range, variance, and others, can enable you to go deeper into the data and extract relevant conclusions from it. 

9. Programming knowledge

On a more technical side of things, having programming language knowledge can also be a very valuable skill when it comes to pursuing a career in BI. Many solutions require the use of different programming languages to perform advanced analysis such as R, Python, and Javascript, just to name a few, and knowing them can significantly enhance your skillset. 

10. Technical notion

Our next business intelligence skill set is not fundamental, but it can certainly make you a more complete and prepared professional. Business intelligence is an industry that highly relies on technology and having a technical notion of how to manage these technologies can be a plus. With this, we do not mean that you need to know how to use every tool in the market, but understanding how these technologies can work to your advantage. Some of these include machine learning, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics, among others. 

11. Organization & time management

As you probably already know, the business world is running at a fast pace and any company that is not catching up will lose to its competitors. In that sense, it is an important skill to be organized and have good time management. This is more of a softer skill than the other ones in this list but it is equally as important. Being organized and smart with your time will allow you to make important decisions in due time and with the right process in place. 

12. Business acumen

Last but not least on our list of essential BI skills is a little something called business acumen. To thrive in a business intelligence career, you will need to possess a swift ability to understand your company’s business model and how to tailor your efforts to not only gain maximum value from your key performance indicators (and the KPI management process) but also make strategic decisions that will help your organization succeed on a continual basis.

What Are the First Steps To Getting Started?

Let’s delve into those all-important first steps to embarking on a business intelligence analyst career path in addition to other related BI-based job roles, starting with aiming for success at a student level.

a) If You’re A Student

If you’re a student, you have one of the most important advantages on your side – time. This is especially true if you’re early enough into your undergraduate years to choose your major. Some of the best degrees for those interested in a business intelligence career include:

• Management Information Systems
• Any branch of Computer Science
• Business-related degrees

However, if you are about to graduate with a history degree, for example – have no fear. The professional world is filled to the brim with people working in areas that have absolutely no relevance to their college major. The internet is full of online courses and even universities offer shorter training opportunities for people that want to dive into a specific industry. That said, the most important thing you can do is gain experience in the real world. In the end, no amount of courses or training instances will provide you with the skills and knowledge you will gain from working directly in the field, experiencing real-time BI issues, and with the help of experienced professionals.

This brings us to our next subject…

Gaining work experience 

One way you could start is by getting accepted for an internship working at a company with a dedicated analysis department that can teach you about DSS software. Some of the big-name companies of this kind include Facebook, Google, and Linkedin, but there are many others you can find, with even more on the horizon as digital technologies continue to evolve. Getting an entry-level position at a consulting firm is also a great idea – the big ones include IBM, Accenture, Deloitte, KPMG, and Ernst and Young.

Another excellent approach is to gain experience directly in the office of a BI provider, working as a data scientist or a data visualization intern, for instance. This way, you will be immersed in the core business and acquire primary hands-on experience.

During the application process, make it clear that you’re interested in the field of BI and willing to carve out a niche in that area as you work on your projects.

b) If You’re Already In The Workforce

If you’re already in the workforce, you have one advantage that students don’t – experience. And hopefully, some transferable skills.

For example, if you’re already an excellent communicator, project manager, or business strategist, you already possess skills that are crucial to success in intelligence for business. Alternatively, if you come from a more IT-related background, you are armed with a wealth of tech-based skills that are invaluable in the BI field.

Your first and biggest step will come in the form of finding job positions, examining the skills and qualifications these BI jobs demand, and then analyzing the holes in your skillset that you need to fill.

This could involve anything from learning SQL to buying some textbooks on data warehouses. If you’d like some resources in this area, we have posts on related business intelligence books and business intelligence podcasts you can use to start your research.

It is important to note, that the BI field is becoming more and more competitive as new professionals emerge. For that reason, carefully assessing the business intelligence skills required and identifying the ones you are missing so you can work on developing them is a great practice. Likewise, tweaking your CV to make sure all relevant information is there will help recruiters understand if you are the right candidate for the job. In that regard, adding a cover letter is also a great idea.

Roles & Responsibilities Of A BI Professional

As we’ve mentioned a couple of times already, the role of a business intelligence specialist is to help generate strategies to develop the company and make it grow through the correct implementation and usage of data. So far, we’ve looked into skills that these professionals should have and also steps you should take if you want to become one. But, what does it actually look like in a work environment? Below we go through some of the roles and responsibilities a BI analyst performs on a daily basis. 

1. Data management

The most important role a BI professional plays is building and maintaining an efficient data management system across the entire organization. Data analysis is one of the biggest competitive advantages for businesses today, but just collecting data is not enough to be successful with the process. To do so, organizations need to have efficient systems in place to ensure information is collected, organized, and accessed in the correct way and that is the job of a BI analyst.

The key elements involved in a successful data management system include: 

• Collect, clean, process, and securely store data 
• Ensure the data meets quality standards 
• Integrate data from multiple sources 
• Implement a governance plan that defines the roles and responsibilities of who can access and manipulate the data 
• Ensuring a secure and private environment for sensitive information   

As you can see, this is a responsibility that involves many tasks. Most of them are carried out by the data analysis team or the IT team with the lead of the business intelligence officer or analyst. 

2. Decision-making

After data is collected, a BI professional is expected to analyze it and extract valuable conclusions that will later inform the business’s most important strategic and operational decisions. This means being able to use not only the data in hand but also the right technologies to boost the decision-making process. For instance, a predictive analytics model can assist a BI manager to predict product demand to plan inventory and production accordingly. 

But not just that, BI professionals are also expected to go one step further from just looking at performance indicators to identifying improvement opportunities as well as potential roadblocks and coming up with creative solutions to tackle them. This is a responsibility that requires a mix of critical thinking and creativity that will help the organization reach its goals. 

3. Ensuring data security

Cyber attacks and data breaches are increasing at a scary pace. In fact, according to studies, there’s a cyberattack every 39 seconds, costing organizations $2 trillion in damages thus far. With that in mind, it is no surprise that data security is one of the most important responsibilities for a business intelligence professional today.  

This means ensuring that sensitive data is secured across different stages starting from storage up to the way it is accessed by employees. For example, a BI manager might need to implement training sessions for employees to help them follow security best practices and identify potential attacks in emails and other formats. Likewise, he or she will be responsible for choosing the right tools to protect the information at several levels within the organization. 

4. Reporting

Reporting has been a part of the organizational landscape for many years now, with many variations and innovations that make it a very straightforward process at the time. That said, there is still a structure and steps that should be followed to generate successful reports and that is also the responsibility of a BI professional. 

This task will most likely be performed by a junior BI analyst as a BI manager has other organizational tasks that require his or her time. That said, different self-service and report automation tools cut the time it takes to generate a report to a minimum, also leaving junior employees with more time to perform other tasks.  

5. Implement a data-driven culture

This is a responsibility that will most likely be carried out at the beginning of a company’s BI journey. It refers to the processes and tools that will be implemented to make sure every employee and relevant stakeholder in the organization is working with data in their daily workflow. To do so, it is necessary to start assessing the level of data literacy among employees and provide the necessary training to the ones that don’t feel comfortable working with data. 

Once that is out of the way, the BI manager needs to make sure every department and employee is connected with each other and can collaborate through the use of reports. Thus, a data-driven culture will be implemented across the organization, which will serve as a solid foundation for later BI initiatives.

Business Intelligence Job Roles

To help shape your career-boosting efforts, we will now explore 6 sought-after branches of analytics and business intelligence, business intelligence analyst skills, and developer and engineer-based skills as well as their role in a professional working environment.

1. Business intelligence analyst

A BI analyst is responsible for drilling down into large sets of relevant data, including KPIs, that a business or organization uses in relation to the development of various processes, initiatives, and departments. A BI analyst assists in strategic thinking, data-driven decision-making, and the discovery of new, valuable conclusions. They work closely with product managers as they can shape the direction the company will take with the design of its products or services based on these findings. It is a role that focuses mostly on the business side of things, which makes it very versatile. Since BI analysts have both technical and business knowledge, there are plenty of options to grow and choose different career paths. What makes a good BI analyst? Let’s take a look at relevant business intelligence analyst skills required:

• Relevant and demonstrable experience in the BI analyst field.
• Excellent leadership and interpersonal skills.
• A firm grasp of business strategy and KPIs.
• A fundamental understanding of SQL and the technical aspects of BI.
• A well-crafted business intelligence resume.
• A working understanding of cloud computing and data visualization

2. BI developer

We’ve examined business intelligence analyst technical skills as well as what makes a good BI analyst. Now, let’s move on to development. In a slightly more technically-driven role, a BI developer is responsible for building, creating, or improving BI-driven solutions that help analysts transform data into knowledge, including data dashboards. BI developer skills encompass crafting and executing data-driven queries upon request as well as the ongoing technical development of a company’s BI platforms or solutions. Here is a more specific rundown of business intelligence developer skills:

• Demonstrable experience in the areas of BI development or data science.
• A background in (or a firm grasp of) data warehousing and mining.
• Up-to-date knowledge of the BI industry and its various languages or systems.
• A strong analytical mind with proven problem-solving abilities.
• A well-crafted business intelligence resume.
• The ability to innovate with computer science-centric competencies.

3. BI consultant

A BI consultant needs to provide expertise in the design, development, and implementation of BI and analytics tools and systems. S/He is responsible for providing cost-effective solutions to achieve business objectives, comparing operational progress against project development while assisting in planning budgets, forecasts, timelines, and developing reports on performance metrics. They often are senior professionals with a lot of knowledge and experience in BI and all the roles just mentioned. This is a holistic role that needs a background in mathematics or science with fully utilizing these (tech) skills:

• Understand, and manipulate data and statistics
• Fully capable of using analysis tools and software
• Expert knowledge of data visualization tools
• Project management mastery

4. BI engineer

Working in close collaboration with BI analysts and developers as well as clients, customers, and various internal departments, an engineer is responsible for not only helping to fine-tune BI-based platforms, processes, and tools within an organization but also for the ongoing strategic implementation of such tools, including dashboard tools. The role of a business intelligence engineer is incredibly rich, varied, and demanding.

To succeed as a business intelligence engineer, you will also need to acquire top skills for business intelligence analyst as well as BI developer skills, building on these competencies by gaining a deeper knowledge of each area of BI. You’ll also need to possess excellent project management abilities to succeed in this role. Moreover, as this is becoming an increasingly competitive role (equal to a business intelligence analyst career path), you will also need to ensure that your ‘resume BI engineer’ is flawless, eye-catching, and innovative, especially if you want to set yourself apart from the pack.

To help you improve your business intelligence engineer resume, or as it’s sometimes referred to, ‘resume BI engineer’, you should explore this BI resume example for guidance that will help your application get noticed by potential employers.

5. BI Project Manager

As you can imagine by its name, the BI project manager is a role that takes care of aligning all elements to ensure the efficient delivery of a project. It is a job that requires high communication skills as it needs to relate with several stakeholders such as operations engineers, business owners, developers, and others. He/she ensures that all teams are aligned with the general aim of the project, collaborates with them to complete tasks efficiently, and ensures the distribution of meetings and project status with reports, among other tasks related to management. Some business intelligence manager skills include:  

• Relevant knowledge of business intelligence and data management
• Experience/studies in project management (PMP certification or equivalent)
• Communication and organizational skills 
• Ability to generate reports knowing the interests of all stakeholders
• Risk management skills to quickly adapt to any issues that may arise

6. BI Data Scientist 

A data scientist has a similar role as the BI analyst, however, they do different things. While analysts focus on historical data to understand current business performance, scientists focus more on data modeling and prescriptive analysis. They use advanced technologies such as machine learning models to generate predictions about future business performance. They can help a company forecast demand, or anticipate fraud. The career path of a data scientist is similar to the one of an analyst, and the skills they should possess include: 

• Strong mathematical and statistical skills to work with complex models
• Programming language skills such as R or Python 
• SQL and data visualization skills

Main Challenges Of A Business Intelligence Career

We’ve already covered a lot of ground about BI as a profession, and while it looks promising both professionally and financially, it doesn’t come without challenges. The business intelligence industry is constantly evolving and becoming more competitive, which means professionals need to keep up with the latest changes and technologies to stay ahead of the rest. Here we will list a few of the challenges that you can face while pursuing a BI path. 

1. Being numbers and data-driven: There are many expectations when it comes to working with BI and data analytics. However, it is important to consider that this is a very technical profession that requires you to be passionate about working with numbers and advanced technologies. This will also require you to do some tedious work at times such as fixing formatting issues, labeling mistakes, and tracking missing data, among others. That said, if you are not a numbers person then this might not be the right road for you.
2. Understanding the business side of things: Added to the point above, another challenging point in BI is that you will also need to understand the business side. In order to help a company extract the needed potential from its performance, you need to understand how data can drive the organization forward. Another important note here is that applying data analysis to a business context means you will need to work with people without experience in the field. There will be many times in which you will find yourself explaining the data to others. This requires great communication skills as well as patience, as non-technical users might have high expectations about what is coming from the process.  
3. You never stop learning: As mentioned, the BI industry is growing every year and more and more young professionals are interested in pursuing this profession. This makes the work field much more competitive by the day. For this reason, before diving into it you need to know that you will never stop learning and studying. There are new technologies emerging every day, and in order to stay on top of others, you will need to keep up with the latest developments. 

Main Players In The BI Industry

As we reach the end of our BI journey, there is one last point we need to cover. If you are just diving into the industry, you need to have some type of awareness about its main players. Since the beginning of BI, many tools have emerged with different features and pricing options. Here we will name 3 of the top ones. If you want to take a deeper look into a more researched approach to the top software companies in the market, then take a look at our BI tools article including a rundown of the top 14 tools based on pricing, features, and user reviews! 

1. datapine:  

datapine is an online BI software built with a user-friendly interface that makes it accessible to anyone without the need for prior technical knowledge. This complete tool allows you to connect data from several sources and visualize it with interactive dashboards that can be easily shared with relevant stakeholders. It allows its users to extract actionable insights from their data in real time with the help of predictive analytics and artificial intelligence technologies. datapine also offers features for more advanced users such as an SQL mode so that analysts can build their own queries. 

Main features: 

• Intuitive drag-and-drop interface
• User-friendly predictive analytics and AI technologies
• Interactive dashboard features and templates 
• Multiple reporting and sharing options 

2. SAS BI: 

SAS can be considered the “mother” of all BI tools. Founded in the ’70s, this software offers a range of products and applications that allow for statistical analysis, predictive analytics, data mining, text mining, and forecasting. Through this, data scientists, engineers, managers, and other users, can access data from multiple sources and perform advanced analysis to extract relevant insights from it. The software focuses on 5 main pillars: visual data exploration, user-friendly analysis, interactive reporting, collaborative analytics, and mobile analytics. 

Main features: 

• Integration with other applications
• Visual data exploration supported by machine learning
• Interactive dashboards and self-service reporting 
• On-the-go analysis with mobile app 

3. SAP: 

Wildly used in the European market, SAP is an enterprise resource planning (ERP) software that offers a range of solutions to manage business operations and client relationships through effective data processing. It allows companies to get a centralized view of their data and simplifies complex business processes by giving employees easy access to real-time insights. Through this, users can perform efficient reporting, generate forecasts, visualize their data, and share it from any location.   

Main features:

• Enterprise-level reporting system
• Self-service data visualizations 
• Sharing options across departments 
• Forecasting and real-time analytics 
• Industry-specific capabilities 

Key Takeaways: You’ll Need To Learn!

Whether you’re a student or a working professional, you need to have as much knowledge as possible of intelligence for business in addition to the specific industry that you want to migrate towards.

There is a lot to learn. The best way to shortcut this process is to go on LinkedIn, pay for an InMail service, and reach out to BI professionals that you feel could offer you valuable information or insights, asking if they would like to have coffee or lunch with you.

During your search, you’ll notice that such professionals can have a few different job titles. According to Key2Consulting, some common titles include:

• Big Data Developer
• BI Consultant
• Database Applications Developer
• Data Warehouse Developer
• Data Warehousing Consultant
• ETL Developer

Once you’ve sparked up a dialogue, you can ask your chosen professionals a raft of in-depth questions about their day-to-day tasks and responsibilities and how you can get involved. You could also reach out to your existing network or ask your college or university professors for advice or referrals if you’re a student.

You should also consider going to meetups about data science. Yes, they exist.

These are going to be your people. As any truly great recruiter will tell you, raw skills can only take you so far. It’s just as much about who you know as what you know.

You need to gravitate towards these communities to get connected. Whether a friend or connection introduces you to a new job right away isn’t the point. The point is to start building a group of friends, mentors, and professional connections with which you can talk about data science and intelligence for business.

Over time, you will undoubtedly find that your newfound network is your greatest professional asset. And alongside a great business intelligence resume, success will be yours sooner than you think.

BI offers a unique opportunity to blend technical skills, business problem-solving skills, and communication skills into one rewarding, exciting, and ever-evolving career.

Working in BI gives you a lot of flexibility regarding the specific industries you want to work in and the problems that you want to solve. We have seen that restaurants can also benefit from analytics and there are many big data examples that also show how analytics can help measure employee satisfaction as well as improve it.

Combined with an optimistic outlook for job growth and solid compensation, these factors all mix to make a business intelligence career path worth exploring.

If you want to get started in BI, focus on developing relationships with industry professionals first. They’ll give you the “on the ground” guidance you need to figure out your exact next steps. Take their advice, work on your BI skills, and continue to learn. Don’t be afraid to ask “dumb” questions. Working on your BI resume won’t hurt, either.

But above all, don’t be afraid to make a career switch if you’re unhappy where you are at now.

To summarize, here are the top 12 skills you will need in a business intelligence career:

1. Data Analysis
2. Problem-solving
3. Critical thinking and creativity 
4. Specific industry knowledge
5. Communication skills
6. Data visualization and interpretation 
7. Advanced vision and attention to detail
8. Statistical analysis 
9. Technical notion 
10. Programming knowledge
11. Organization and time management 
12. Business acumen

And if you want to start practicing your skills, and don’t have much experience, you can check out our software with interactive tutorials to explore a proper BI tool for a 14-day trial! And it’s completely free!

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What a quarter! With only fourteen of the twenty-nine startups that announced funding reporting exact numbers, Berlin saw close to $493M in investments in Q3, of which more than two-thirds came from Delivery Hero’s biggest round ever. Let’s dive in.

Once again, our data was sourced first through CBInsights, then cross-referenced with press releases, Berlin blogs, and Crunchbase. Obviously, it is not perfect. If you spot an error or something we’ve missed, shoot an email to kalie@datapine.com and we promise to check it out.

All data was analyzed and visualized with our data visualization and dashboard software.

Total Startups Funded and Total Acquisitions

Twenty-nine startups announced funding in Q3, which is slightly higher than both Q1 (27) and Q2 (26). There were four acquisitions of Berlin startups in Q3.

Toroleo, a Project A company, was acquired by Delticom AG for an undisclosed price. The amount is thought to be small since it was recently reported that Toroleo had hit hard times and laid off twenty employees.

Yukka, a big data startup, was acquired by Neunorm Verwaltungs GmbH, a private equity company, in an undisclosed deal.

FontShop International GmbH was acquired by Monotype Imaging Holdings. The deal is structured as three transactions with an aggregate cash purchase price of approximately $13 million.

SightIO, which builds computer vision technology for ranking photos, was acquired by another Berlin startup, EyeEm, for an undisclosed amount.

Disclosure of Funding

Of the twenty-nine startups that received funding, only fourteen reported actual numbers. The number of startups that received funding was higher than in the previous quarters, but the number that disclosed funding amounts was considerably lower. In Q1 eighteen out of twenty-seven startups disclosed funding, and in Q2 eighteen out of twenty-six did.

Breakdown of Industry Types

As is standard in Berlin, and consistent with Q1/Q2, most of the funded companies are ecommerce (8) and software (8) related. Those industries were followed by mobile (4), Hardware (2), Travel (2), and Education (2). The list is rounded out with one investment each in the Fintech, Energy, and Gaming industries.

Breakdown of Funding Method

The funding method breakdown follows the previous pattern. Fifteen companies received seed funding. Berlin saw six Series A rounds, three Series B, three Series C, one Series D, and one Series G.

Top 10 Funding Rounds in Berlin Q3

Delivery Hero was Berlin’s wunderkinder for Q1 and Q2 and again in Q3! They raised $88M in Q1, followed by $85M in Q2. In Q3 Delivery Hero announced their highest round ever, a $350M Series G round, bringing the total raised to $635M. Delivery Hero also made news in Q3 for acquiring competitor Pizza.de, bringing their total valuation over $1 billion.

The online food delivery market keeps getting hotter. The second highest amount raised in Q3 goes to Rocket Internet’s FoodPanda with a $60M Series D round raised from existing investors.

GoEuro raised $27 million in Series A funding led by New Enterprise Associates.

Quandoo, an OpenTable competitor, announced a round of $25 million in Series C financing led by Piton Capital. Other investors in the round include Holtzbrinck Ventures, DN Capital, the Sixt family and Texas Atlantic Capital.

Scarosso, a startup for high-end, handmade Italian shoes, raised a round of $11M. The investors are NEO Investment Partners, DN Capital, and IBB’s VC fond Kreativwirtschaft Berlin.

Adjust (formerly Adeven), an app analytics startup, raised an additional $7.6M of funding from ACTIVE Venture Partners, and existing investors Target Partners, Iris Capital and Capnamic Ventures.

SofaTutor raised a $4.6M round led by the school book publishing company Cornelsen and includes existing investors Acton Capital Partners, J.C.M.B. and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft.

relayr, maker of the WunderBar, an Internet of Things (IoT) hardware dev kit which resembles a chunky chocolate bar, closed a $2.3M seed round from unnamed U.S. and Switzerland-based investors to increase their US expansion.

Brandnew, a startup that helps brands create native ad campaigns for Instagram and Pinterest, raised a total of $1.9M in seed funding with $1.1M coming from a city grant.

Memorado, a brain training games website created by two former Wimdu employees, received a $1.3M seed round from angels that include founders from Zalando and Hitfox.

Q1, Q2, Q3 Numbers Compared by Round

When it comes to the distribution of rounds the quarters are very similar. Please note, the chart is slightly biased.  In Q1 there were five startups that raised funds where a round was not identified (or was crowdfunded), and in Q2 there was one unknown round.

A Look Deeper: Who Raised What?

For Q1/Q2, we included a chart for the Average Funding Amount per Venture. Given the scarcity of reported amounts, we did not have enough data to replicate the chart for Q3. Of those companies that disclosed a Seed Round, only seven out of fifteen revealed numbers, and only one for both Series A and B respectively. All three companies that raised Series C reported their numbers, which ranged from $4.6M to $25M.

Instead, this quarter, we’ve decided to take a deeper look at the companies, what they raised, and from whom (not including the top ten companies listed above).

Seed

Juniqe, an online gallery the delivers curated art at affordable prices, secured a seven-figure funding round from investors just five months after launch.

Clue, an app that enables women to track their menstrual cycles, raised a second seed round this year. Clue brought in an additional $658,900 this quarter from angel investors including Björn Jeffery, CEO of Toca Boca, and previous Spotify executives Andreas Ehn and Sriram Krishnan.

360dialog, a startup that offers in-app messaging, retargeting, emailing, and push notification, received a six digit investment from angel investors.

Retail analytics startup 42reports raised a seven digit Euro investment from Tengelmann Ventures and IBB Beteiligungsgeschaft’s VC fund Technologie Berlin.

Thermondo, a startup that helps residential customers get an efficient and environmentally friendly supply of heat, parted with 20% equity for a seven digit investment from E.ON, Germany’s largest energy company.

Book A Tiger (BAT), a cleaning service that is a competitor to Rocket Internet’s Helpling and various American companies, announced a seven-figure seed round from a number of investors led by DN Capital.

Sablono, a construction software startup, raised a seed round from High-Tech Gruenderfonds (HTGF), Hasso Plattner Ventures and the construction software manufacturer Nemetschek.

Vamos, a location based event guide app, closed a six digit round from angels including Soundcloud’s CTO and co-founder Erik Wahlforss.

BitBond, a bitcoin lending startup, raised $267,300 in a seed round from Point Nine Capital’s, which happened to be their first investment in a bitcoin startup.

Stilnest, the “publishing house for jewelry”, received a higher six digit investment from IBB via VC Fonds Technologie Berlin, K-Invest from Pforzheim and other business angels.

Blogfoster raised a $670,000 seed round from the VC Fonds Technologie of IBB investment company, the Axel-Springer-Accelerator Plug and Play collected and a private business angel.

ParkTag, a parking spot swapping app, raised $680,000 from High-Tech Gründerfonds and six industrial groups: BASF, Deutsche Telekom, Siemens, Robert Bosch, Daimler and Carl Zeiss.

Series A

Quobyte, a SaaS cloud startup that is headquartered in Boston but has its R&D in Berlin raised a seven figure Series A round from Target Partners and High-Tech Gründerfonds.

Bloomy Days, a flower subscription delivery service raised an undisclosed Series A round Christophe Maire and Otto Capital and new investor Intan Group.

Deltamethod, which produces online marketing software has closed a seven figure Series A round led by eVentures.

Trip.me a travel booking startup announced undisclosed Series A funding led by Recruit Holdings of Japan.

Patience.io, an edtech startup that enables educators to create their own online learning applications and sell their courses through their own websites, closed a Series A round led by Holtzbrinck Digital and RI Digital Ventures.

Series B

Twago, a freelance marketplace, closed a Series B round of an undisclosed amount. Backers included the Randstad Innovation Fund, and existing investor Michael Oschmann.

Wine in Black, an ecommerce shop for premium wines, raised a seven digit Series B round involving new investor b-to-v and previous investors Project A Ventures, Bright Capital, e.ventures and Passion Capital.

What about Rocket?

You can’t write about Q3 and not mention Rocket Internet. In August, Rocket sold 10% of its company to Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company (PLDT) for $445M. They then went public the first week of Q4, but results were underwhelming. More on that in our upcoming Q4 report.

Looking Towards Q4

Q4 appears to be off to a strong start. Only a week in and already Rocket has IPO’d, ZenMate (a personal favorite) raised $3.2M, and Adtech startup Remerge secured $1M in seed from Point Nine Capital. Be sure to subscribe to our newsletter in the right hand column to get access to our upcoming 2014 Funding Analysis.

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The post 2014 Q3 Funding Analysis of the Berlin Startup Scene appeared first on BI Blog | Data Visualization & Analytics Blog | datapine.

The recent common assumption that Berlin’s startup scene was more hype than substance has been proven wrong. VC money continues to flood into Berlin. In fact, the amount of capital quadrupled from 2009 (34.2M euro) to in 2013 (133.3M euro). In the second quarter of last year, Berlin out-raised London in total VC investment for the first time. Last year’s rounds and exits were widely reported. Now, let’s look at the action thus far in 2014. Here is our Q1/Q2 funding analysis of the Berlin startup scene.

Our data was sourced first through Crunchbase, then cross-referenced with press releases. Obviously, it is not perfect. If you spot an error or something we’ve missed, shoot an email to kalie@datapine.com and we promise to check it out.

All data was analyzed and visualized with our data visualization and dashboard software.

Berlin Startups Announcing Funding in Q1 vs Q2

The number of companies funded in Berlin was almost evenly distributed across both quarters. Twenty-seven Berlin startups announced funding in Q1, and twenty-six in Q2.

Disclosure of Funding

Per usual in Germany, many companies chose not to disclose the exact number of their round. Thirty-six startups disclosed funding; seventeen did not. Of companies that did not provide a specific number, Lesara, Coffee Circle, Ezeep, Amorelie and GoEuro reported funding in the seven digits. Startups Niiu, Flowkey and akvolution raised six digit rounds.

Breakdown of Industry Types

As is standard in Berlin, most of the funded companies (13) are e-commerce related. The industry was closely followed by both software (11) and mobile (10). In line with global startup trends, finance accounted for 6 companies, hardware and transportation for three each. The list was rounded out by by social (3), education (2), and healthcare (2).

Breakdown of Funding Method

Berlin has seen strong early-stage funding and deal activity – a good first step toward a healthy ecosystem. While we realize seed funding is part of venture capital, we separated out Series A and above for a more thorough analysis. Seed funding accounted for the 40% of Q1 and Q2 activities, followed closely by venture capital (32%). Nine companies did not disclose their funding method; three companies raised from angel investors, two companies crowdfunded, and one company received debt financing via convertible note.

Average Funding Amount by Funding Method

The real cash, as you might expect, comes from VC’s. Seventeen Berlin companies announced securing venture capital, and of those, fourteen disclosed numbers. Those fourteen raised an average of $22.7M from venture capital in Q1 and Q2. This number, of course, is an average, which is considerably higher than the median amount, thanks to Delivery Hero’s Q1 $88M round, and Q2 $85M dollar round. The median was under $10M, and when we remove the outliers, the average is $12.1M.

Only two companies crowdfunded;  Panono, a hardware startup that created a throwable ball camera armed with 36 tiny lenses, raised $1.25M surpassing their $900,000 goal on Indiegogo. Pockethernet, the swiss army knife for network administrators raised $185,433 via Indiegogo.

Out of the twenty-one companies that raised a seed round, only thirteen disclosed actual numbers. The average seed round of those thirteen startups was $640,255.

Average Funding Amount by Round for Venture

Seventeen companies raised venture capital funding, but three did not identify a specific round. Of the fourteen companies that did, eight raised Series A for an average of $3.5M. Two raised series B for an average of $23.3M.Foodpanda raised series C for an at $20M. Hello Fresh closed a Series D round at $50M and Delivery Hero raised a series D for $88M, and then a Series F for $85M. Obviously, there is only a solid sample size for Series A averages, but we hope that as the year goes on, there will be more Series B-F data for analysis.

Top 10 Funding Rounds in Berlin Q1 and Q2

• Delivery Hero was Berlin’s wunderkinder for Q1 and Q2. They have raised around $285M since 2011, and raised both series E for $88M in Q1, and then Series F for $85M in Q2. The Series E funding was led by new investor Insight Venture Partners, while the Series F lead was not disclosed. TechCrunch speculates that the lead investor was Luxor Capital Group. Other investors include Insight Venture Partners, Kite Ventures, Phenomen Ventures, Ru-net, Kreos Capital, Team Europe, WestTech Ventures, Point Nine and Tengelmann Ventures.
• Hoccer, a WhatsApp competitor, raised $64.3M led by Dirk Stroer, founder and CEO of Media Ventures GmbH in Cologne.
• HelloFresh, a grocery-delivery service, secured $50M in Series D funding led by Insight Venture Partners.
• Azubu, a global broadcast network delivering premium live and on-demand eSports programming, secured $34.5M in funding from the Sapinda Group.
• Foodpanda, Rocket Internet’s competitor to Delivery Hero, raised $20M in a Series C round from investors including Phenomen Ventures.
• Oufittery closed a $16,725,800 series B round led by US-based VC Highland Capital Partners. Existing investors Holtzbrinck Ventures, Mangrove Capital Partners, High-Tech Gründerfonds, RI Digital Ventures and IBB Beteiligungsgesellschaft’s VC fund, Kreativwirtschaft Berlin, also contributed.
• CitteeCar, a car sharing platform, raised $10M in Series A in a round led by Mangrove Capital Partners.
• TVSmiles, with an app-based loyalty program that provides incentives for watching ads, secured $7M in Series A funding from prior investors Ventech.
• Rounding out the top ten is Campanisto, a crowdfunding platform, which raised $5.9M in Q1.

The Future

While Q1 and Q2 were significant, Q3 is heating up nicely with some familiar faces from the first half of the year. FoodPanda secured another $60M in funding earlier this month. Delivery Hero announced the acquisition of Pizza.de, another German based competitor, causing speculation that the total valuation of Delivery Hero is now over $1 billion.

The future is bright and getting brighter. Our projection, from available data, is that 2014 investment will beat last year’s funding by a significant margin.

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Stay tuned for our Berlin Q3 Funding Roundup. Again, if we missed something, please let us know at Kalie@datapine.com. 

The post 2014 Q1 and Q2 Funding Analysis of the Berlin Startup Scene appeared first on BI Blog | Data Visualization & Analytics Blog | datapine.