Datawrapper is a pretty cool data visualization tool used by New York Times, Harvard, Vox, Kaiser Family Foundation, and many other prominent companies, universities, and nonprofit organizations. Below is a demo of the free version. Keep scrolling down to see Georgic Media’s evaluation of pros and cons with Infogram.
Pros: The charts are totally customizable -- you can highlight specific rows or columns with different colors!
Cons: While it allows you to create buttons and drop-down menus to compare different maps, it won't automatically visualize spreadsheets with multiple tabs like Infogram does. In other words, if you link a Google spreadsheet that has multiple tabs, it will only visualize the data in the first tab. You must create a separate map or chart to visualize the second, third, fourth, and fifth tabs in the spreadsheet. This kinda stinks for teams working with the spreadsheets on the backend, however...
Datawrapper has an entire blog post to explain its journalistic philosophy behind this limitation.
"...a large part of the audience might never find the hidden content. Instead, everything important should be visible right away, at the first glance at the chart."
- Datawrapper: Why we don't offer drop-down menus and tabs, and what we offer instead.
Infogram is another cool data visualization tool used by TechCrunch, Warner Music Group, Startup Institute, USA Today, and Sotheby's. Below is a demo of the Enterprise version, which allows customized designs and styles:
Pros: Maps and charts can be linked to Google spreadsheets with multiple tabs that automatically visualize and interact with each other. If you use the drop-down menu to select a different map, the chart below changes with the map.
Cons: Charts are NOT customizable -- you cannot highlight specific rows or columns with different colors!
The solution?
Use both Datawrapper and Infogram! Since the free version of Datawrapper allows you to customize charts, go nuts with colors and adding searchable data. If you've got a budget, you can try the pro version of Infogram at $19/mo to get the most basic features. You can see other versions here.
