Google’s Visualization API via Hans Rosling at TED
(Summary for the short attention span types: a dry intro, then a video that you have to see.)
In 2006, Hans Rosling gave a presentation at TED, the context of which was income distribution, health, and tech adoption in the third world. But mostly, the presentation became known for the method of presenting the data more than the data itself.
He had wanted a way to visualize data that went beyond the X and Y axis, a way that could show many dimensions, including time, in a visually compelling, animated fashion.
In short, a way to clearly communicate the nuance that is often buried deep in complex data, underneath the convenient summarizations that can cause us to miss more granular opportunities.
From this, he worked to create gapminder.org which in turn created the software he needed. And it’s this software, called Trendalyzer, that is demo’d in his presentation at TED.
About a year later, Trendalyzer was bought by Google, and is now part of the Google Visualization API.
Here is the awesome presentation at TED. If you’re a data geek like me, this is well worth the 20 minutes. Perhaps the most entertaining presentation of 3rd world life expectancy data ever.
I’m eager to dive into this API and use the tool to create motion charts that will help me understand complex PPC campaign performance and site conversion data.
If you’ve used this tool, I would love to hear about your experiences with it.
(And here is Hans Rosling’s Bio on the TED website.)
* Update: As I saw demo’d recently at a Google Analytics product manager presentation at a recent Web Analytics Demystified’s Web Analytics Wednesday, Google has added this to Google Analytics. Looks like a very nice integration. For a nice synopsis, Micah Fisher-Kirshner, Search Strategist and analytics guru at Red Bricks Media writes about motion charts in Google Analytics.
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[...] written about Hans Rosling’s awesome 2006 TED conference presentation on income distribution and birth rates in the non-industrialized world. He used a tool for data [...]