A handy Xclesius addin

As a fan of Edward Tufte’s sparklines, I was pleased to see the sparkline functionality built into an addin for Xcelsius 2008.

This sparkline tool is one of a number of new graphical tools built into a package called XComponents. Based on Flex/Flash technology, the addin is easily installed into your Xcelsius 2008 application.

I can’t find any information regarding the licencing of this addin or support, although an email address is provided if you want further information. I have installed it on my own machine purely to have a play.

These tools appear to have been around for a few months now, and the feedback is positive. If you are looking to add a bit more visual impact to your Xcelsius demos, it might be worth giving it a look.

11/03/09 Update: Details regarding licencing of this addin can be found in the comments section of this post. Thanks Donald.

Bullet Graphs in Google

If you’ve been following Stephen Few’s articles regarding data visualisation, you will be familiar with the terms Sparklines and Bullet Graphs. I’m a big fan of these types of graphs – they make so much sense and present a great deal of information simply, cleanly, concisely and in a very small footprint.

Several people have been implementing their versions of sparklines and bullet graphs with great success. I came across an article recently describing how to create bullet graphs using the Google Chart API in seven steps. This is quite a powerful tool, as you can now pass a series of parameters into a URL and get Google to display a bullet graph on your web page. An example of a bullet graph using the Google Chart API is shown below:

If you’d like to read more about Sparklines, Bullet Graphs and data visualisation, I’d highly recommend that you borrow, or even better, buy Stephen Few’s Information Dashboard Design. Stephen highlights many of the failings of the current data visualisation tools available from all the BI vendors. He goes on to describe why they fail to get the message across and goes on to produce his version of how information can be displayed in a more meaningful and uncluttered way. Essential reading in my view, if you are responsible for, or invlving in developing graphical reports, dashboards and analytics.

Sparklines

Following on from a recent post about dashboard design, you must take a look at Bissantz’s Sparklines.

I am amazed at how much meaningful information can be displayed in such a small footprint.

Bonavista Systems have also implemented their own version of Sparklines and have integrated Stephen Few’s bullet graphs. They have called their product Micro Charts.

Sparklines are based on works by Edward Tufte. Edward has written a highly regarded book in the area around visual presentation of data called Beautiful Evidence.

One for the wish list.