ATE community members appreciate the value of outreach, its role in sharing out project and center results, and its ability to support efforts to broaden the impacts of their ATE funded work. By creating attractive and informative visual representations of data related to your project or center's achievements you can create more powerful and effective content to use in any number of ways, including your outreach efforts. Visualizations are also useful for your team, helping to identify trends and show opportunities for growth in all areas of your work. With the following tools, your project or center can use data visualization to its best advantage.
Tableau
This free data visualization suite can import and process data from a wide variety of sources, including online sources like Google Sheets or sites that provide Web Data Connectors. Users are able to share their visualizations via email, over social media, or embedded in a website. When embedded in a website, these visualizations can be both interactive and dynamic. Users can configure visualizations to update in real time as new data is published and allow audiences to filter and explore the data that is displayed. Get started with Tableau's short beginner's guide, which offers links to resources for numerous examples of data visualization in action, a list of visualization types to indicate the wide variety of available possibilities, and links to Tableau's recommended learning resources, including their favorite data visualization blogs, books on theory and practice, and free training videos offered by Tableau. Tableau Public is available for Windows and macOS.
SankeyMATIC
Users can leverage SankeyMATIC tools to enhance visual representation and comprehension of complex relationships within their lectures or presentations. These tools allow educators or others to create dynamic Sankey diagrams that illustrate the flow of information, processes, or data between different components. For instance, in a biology class, a teacher could use SankeyMATIC to depict the energy flow within an ecosystem, showcasing the transfer of energy from producers to consumers. In an economics course, the tool could be employed to illustrate the allocation of resources in various economic systems. By utilizing SankeyMATIC, users can engage students, or any other stakeholder group, with visually appealing and informative diagrams, facilitating a better understanding of intricate concepts and fostering a more interactive and effective learning or work environment.
Raw Graphs
Users can integrate RawGraphs.io into their workflow to create compelling visualizations that enhance the understanding of complex data sets. RawGraphs.io provides an intuitive platform for generating various types of charts, such as scatter plots, bar charts, and network diagrams, among others. By incorporating RawGraphs.io, users can present information in a visually appealing manner, catering to diverse learning styles and promoting a more engaging and interactive learning experience for a variety of audiences.
It's a good idea to involve your evaluator as you consider how to use data you (or they) have collected – check out EvaluATE's Basic Principles of Data Visualization. For additional outreach and dissemination resources, check out ATE Central's Outreach Kit.