How to Create a Custom Data Visualization Software?

What is Data Visualization Software?

Let's take a closer look at what data visualization software is and consider its main advantages.

Data visualization software is a dashboard that turns metrics into a graphical representation, thereby tracking changes in key indicators, analyzing information, and displaying critical data points. Simply put, such an application processes data and displays it in the form of graphs, charts, tables, and so on, which allows even non-technical specialists to see the real picture of all business indicators. The data visualization panel is an indispensable tool for any analytics, whether it be the direction of marketing or production at a factory. This allows you to immediately see if the company is achieving its goals and make forecasts regarding future efficiency.

“By visualizing information, we turn it into a landscape that you can explore with your eyes. A sort of information map. And when you’re lost in information, an information map is kind of useful.”

 – David McCandless, British data-journalist, writer, and information designer.

How Is Data Visualization Used?

By and large, data visualization is not just graphs or tables. It is a broad-spectrum tool that helps you see the real picture of a wide range of cases. It is used in social media, music, production, marketing, sales, risk assessment, and much more. Here are some of the most common uses of data visualization:

• Changes over time. This is perhaps the most common way to use data visualization. It is based on the fact that changes in indicators are reflected on a timeline, which allows you to see when the enterprise was successful and when there were growth delays or negative cases.

• Determination of correlation. Revealing relationships is another important feature of data visualization. It helps to see the dependencies between indicators, as well as the relationship of data.

• Determination of frequency. The frequency is also based on the use of time scales. Logically, it’s good to see the frequency with which events occur.

• Study of the environment. Data visualization also helps a lot in market research. This is where marketers come on the scene, who can analyze the portrait of a potential user, the advantages and disadvantages of competitors, influential figures in the sector, etc.

• Planning. The Gantt chart is used as a basis for planning in almost every industry. It is the must-have tool for planning and managing any project. And the data visualization dashboard builds it perfectly.

• Risk analysis. Another application of data visualization is in the allocation of cost and risk. These are the indicators for which many nuances should be taken into account. Therefore their calculation can be very difficult. By constructing charts and tables, predicting risk can be made easier.

Common Types of Dashboards

Now that we know the software’s main goals, let's consider the various types of data visualization panels.

• Marketing. These dashboards are designed to examine the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns, including SEO, email marketing, social media engagement, web traffic, and more. They allow you to track leads and measure how effective your sales funnel is.

• Sales. These tools aim to accurately assess the results of both online and offline sales. You can analyze the performance of the whole team or each employee individually, including tracking lost deals, conversion rates, closing a deal, and so on. In general, sales dashboards allow you to see which sales areas are best to direct the team's efforts to achieve strategic goals.

• Engineering. This type of dashboard assists engineers in creating and monitoring technical projects, software, and so on. Using data visualization tools, experts assess software productivity and security gaps and identify problems before they reach a large scale.

• Executive. Another purpose of data visualization is to help make important decisions about business strategy and development. That is why senior managers also use these tools in their work.

• Real-time. It is also worth noting that there are data visualization types that track metrics in real-time. Such applications are used on exchanges or where instant decision making is required.

How to Build Data Visualization Software

Since the benefits of developing a custom web-based data visualization system are significant, let's consider the main steps of project implementation.

Main Features of Data Visualization Dashboards

Before you start developing, you need to make sure that you have a technical description of what you want to get. Here is an example of the essential features a software should have:

1. Collection and storage of data.

One of the most important features of an application for graphical information transformation is collecting correct data and its subsequent storage. For some companies, this can be a real challenge. If the information needed for the analysis is on the Internet, then the application should be able to collect it correctly, excluding garbage and unnecessary data. Reliable open source tools are used To implement such projects, such as Python, Ruby, PHP. Another nuance of such software is the presence of a parser, which recognizes information in accordance with pre-created templates, collects it, and stores it in the database.

Companies don't always need data only from the Internet. They can also have internal databases based on which it's necessary to carry out the analysis. Sometimes the data volumes can be too large, so it is worth taking care of big data visualization software development in advance.

The next important nuance is the ability to delete it, especially when it comes to data from the Internet. The system must correctly sort the data, determining essential information from the noise that should not be stored in the database.

2. Select and Process Information

Working with large amounts of data, you need to realize that not all is needed for visualization. In this way, the system should be able to separate those indicators that need to be combined into diagrams from all other information. It should also be noted that large volumes will only slow down the graphing and analysis process. The correct sorting and selection of data is a vital functionality that will further affect the productivity of the software.

3. Correct Display Method

How your data will be displayed on the screen is essential for analysis. Good software should be able to cost line, area, bar, bubble, pie charts, tables, graphs, histograms, scatter plot, gauge, map, and so on. Additional visualization tools to make the report more understandable and colorful are also welcome. React and Angular are excellent frontend programming languages for developing such elements.

4. Visualization Itself

Here we are specifically talking about how graphs and diagrams will look, their color schemes, construction effects, and so on. It is up to the designers to think carefully about the layouts for displaying data so that the end-user understands and recognizes what is displayed on the screen, and it is pleasant to work with.

Development Process

Now we will go directly to the steps that need to be taken to create software for data visualization.

1. Market Assessment

If you want to create software for the company’s internal purposes, then at this stage, you need to determine what tasks the application should solve. In accordance with this, you need to prepare a project specification. If you want to create an application for commercial purposes like SaaS, then you need to conduct a market analysis, including a detailed study of competitors and their possibilities, analysis of your potential customers, as well as technologies that are best used in this case, for example, cloud-based solutions.

2. Drawing Up a Project Plan

The next step is to create a project plan that will display how long it takes to complete each task. The plan will also show the total time predicted to build the product. Usually, this is what a development team must do. They describe in detail how much time is needed to deliver each functionality from the specification.

3. Development

The next most time-consuming part of the process is building the project architecture and writing the code. This usually takes at least a few months, but the time depends on the project’s complexity and characteristics.

4. Testing

The next step is equally important, as it consists of verifying the product’s functionality before it becomes available for use. This process assumes that the quality assurance professional will compare the product’s actual functionality with the expected result. This step helps identify any system problems and bugs that can be corrected before the product is available to the end-user.

5. Launch

Next is the exciting stage of the product launch onto the market. Once the software has been rigorously tested and verified that it works as expected, it's time to launch your marketing campaign and let users try your great product.

Cost to Develop Data Visualization Software

The price of custom software building depends on what kind of cooperation you prefer and who will work on the project.

In-house Development Department

If you wish, you can create your own department of developers who will work in your office and direct their efforts to create a product. Its obvious advantage is that the team will always be somewhere nearby; however, this is the most expensive way. In-house software developers in the US charge an average of $75-$100 per hour. Another disadvantage is that you will have to select the personnel yourself, which will take time. In general, you will need at least one month to form a development team. 

Outsourcing Agency

These are companies located in another country or even on another continent that provide full product development, including design, code writing, testing, and even preparing a marketing campaign. In general, this is the most profitable type of cooperation, since such companies offer a wide range of services and you do not have to worry about staff recruitment. After you sign the development contract, the team is ready to start working on your project immediately. Depending on the company’s experience, capabilities, and location, you can expect to pay $25-$75 per hour.

Freelancers

This is a way to save a little. But here again, you will have to interview and hire each developer separately and be responsible for setting up and maintaining the communication on the project. Freelancers in the US charge $50-$75 per hour,  while those in Asia expect about $15 per hour.

Wrapping Up

Data visualization is an effective way to improve your business and formulate strategic goals. Data analysis is a cumbersome and time-consuming process, and data visualization is aimed at making it easier. That is why many ready-made solutions on the Internet offer various options for building graphs, charts, and tables. But unfortunately, all of them work according to a given template and do not always provide an opportunity to customize data visualization for business needs. In such cases, the most productive solution is custom data visualization software development. 

You can discuss all your wishes with the development team and create a unique product that will make your analytics even more powerful.