Geography is important in data — elbow patches on your sleeves are optional…

Maps are great aren’t they? They engender a sense of discovery and scale. The visible wonder of our planet, captured in fine cartographic mapping is epic. But combine that scale and wonder with hard data and that discovery is fuelled further. The insight gleaned from this extra dimension of ‘place’ opens doors to new learnings and potential patterns that might otherwise be missed.

With new powers bestowed to business intelligence (BI) tools, allowing the full might of maps to be realised in data reporting, there’s now a whole load of reasons why geography is vital to data analytics and business intelligence.

Simplify complex patterns

Data is beautiful, and geographic data is even more visual and pattern oriented than most. These characteristics are lost when the data is contained in spreadsheets, charts and graphs that are designed for words and numbers. Geography doesn’t downplay the importance of numerical or textual information, it just uses maps as the basis to explore this information further.

Gaining better insight

80% of data now has a location component. By integrating static and geo-spatial data in a dynamic map you create a heightened viewpoint for analysis. And when integrated with Business Intelligence (BI), complex information from multiple sources can be incorporated into an easy-to-understand view that drives better insight, allowing users to make better decisions. In short, seeing information plotted on a map can be a catalyst for great insight.

A journey of discovery

Creating an inspiring outlook fuels a journey of discovery. Through grouping locations, or by being able to drill down further into a specific location, maps encourage further discovery and interaction. When the success of a BI project relies, to some extent, on the engagement of its users, allowing this sense of adventure incites a greater curiosity.

(Take a closer look at the maps featured above)

Adding vital context

We all know that statistics are good at showing you ‘this versus that.’ However, that often overlooks a more important question… ‘Is the difference really worth worrying about?’. There are times when businesses can become obsessed by something that’s statistically insignificant, or for data teams to overlook key variables because they don’t understand the context of the problem they are trying to solve. Geography is great at putting this context in place.

Creating conversation

“Hey, look at this!” It’s amazing what a new insight can spark. Sharing new findings and perspective encourages collaboration. Collaboration leads to conversation. And before you know it, you are asking all the right questions of your data!

Tell better tales

Any story teller knows that to engage an audience they have to set the scene and help the reader to relate to the key characters. And often the most important part of a story isn’t what happened, but where it happened. The important stories that numbers tell often involve location, so making user the user identifies with this story is important. Using maps and geo-data allows the tale to unfold further.

Change your perspective

Arguments become a lot more persuasive when you add ‘where’ to the ‘what’ and the ‘why’. Visuals can be compelling — the story that maps envisage helps your data tell the stories that can help you change peoples minds.

Before you leap…

Combining your maps with up-to-the minute data allows you to get an even clearer picture of your business and the factors that affect it, allowing you to slice, dice, and group information to spot problems, opportunities and gain new insight. But, there are a number of considerations to weigh-up before using maps to display your data…

• The world is pretty huge but maps are rather small, so it’s important that you define quickly what’s important to focus on and what’s not.

• When representing quantitative data visually we must come up with objects and palettes that represent abstract concepts in a clear and understandable manner. There are many ways to to this — heat maps, bubbles, chloropleth maps, scroll-overs, clickable icons, zoomability, drillability… But there are many ways to get this wrong too. Using the right tools and palates to map your data is just as important as identifying the data you need to display.

• Cartography might be beautiful, but geography is only useful when location is an important part of the meaning you are trying to discover, or the a key component in the story that you’re trying to tell.

At Barrachd, we’ve implemented sophisticated geographic reporting for our clients to whom location is vital, to spot trends across geographic territories and to meet strict regulatory requirements. Using RAVE (Rapidly Adaptive Visualization Engine), we’ve allowed clients to combine their geographic and numerical data, drill right down into different territories, and enabling users to group countries together to generate specific, vital insights.

Maps might not be the answer to everything, but they can be a powerful piece of the big data puzzle.

**Want to take a closer look at the maps we’ve featured in this blog post (and even more amazing maps too)? Have a look at our new post “11 amazing maps that use big data to inspire“.**