Whenever we’re wrapping up a poll on CyberNet, we always include a graph that provides more visual results of how the poll turned out. It’s easy to do because PollDaddy, the service that we use to manage our polls, provides the graphs for us. For one of our recent polls, someone asked in the comments how we made the chart. We responded and explained how, that we use PollDaddy. At that point we weren’t aware of any graphing services that made it easy to create graphs that looks similar, until recently. Thanks to a service called Widgenie, you’ll have the chance to make graphs that look exactly the same, for free.
Widgenie call themselves “the all-powerful data visualizer.” They give you the opportunity to make various charts and tables to embed and share on blogs, websites (Facebook), and even iGoogle pages. The three main parts that make up Widgenie include:
- Plugin – plug in data from sources like Microsoft Excel or CSV files
- Create – drag and drop the information you want to see and choose the type of chart or graph you want
- Share – embed your creation on a site, then track how many people are viewing it
You must create an account if you want to use the service, but it’s a quick and painless process. Once you sign-up, you’ll be able to create a new widget. For now you have to import your data and it has to be either Microsoft Excel format or a CSV file. Widget types include:
On the left you’ll see the Widget created using Widgenie and on the right you’ll see the graph we used from PollDaddy in a recent poll wrap-up. Notice that in terms of looks, they are nearly the same?
If you are in need of some help creating graphs and charts to visualize data, definitely checkout Widgenie.
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The problem with many services is that they rarely provide high Quality new (in my opinion). Which creates a certain market inertia (btw a good topic for research).
For instance, ‘Xcelsius’ was revolutionary when they came with their What-If charts (see f.i. ‘Ryan Goodman’). Same thing with ‘Trendalyzer’ (now Google motion charts).
New could be :
i) automatic pattern recognition (trend matching logic = the computer automaticly suggests the simplest possible pattern. Example: a)linear, b) cubic c) … + distribution pattern.
ii) direct edit graphs.
iii) basic research chart – like the ‘Visualization Taxonomies’ – which tries to find the true essence of the charts – to deliver “value”. Don’t get me wrong, I truly enjoy the “pleasure charts” (very pleasing for the eye, like ‘Information Aesthetics’. My blog is full of those) but perhaps not so much easier from a decision point of view.
iiii) a really good (free) 3d plot (xyz) chart (or more – I think you can imagine how) + motion.
Also, it might be interesting to read what ‘Juice Analytics’ think of ‘embedding charts in a web page’ (incl. Widgenie)…and don’t miss ‘Juice analytics Chart chooser’, or ‘Many Eyes’.
It’s possible to Google the ‘keywords’.