Humans instinctively process information by visualizing. Sight is our strongest sense. The human eye and its brain interface can comfortably process 10 to 12 separate images per second. In the most succinct way visualization creates a universal language to understand complex notions. Through visualizing data people get sense of ownership over it, and this empowers them to act on it. The combination of these two formidable forces, science and art, can be explosive, revolutionary and a mega game changer for the big data analytics architecture.
From a technical standpoint, visualization offers the ability to rapidly incorporate new data sets, remove restrictive metadata layers and increase performance. Clearly its value is unquestionable. But there are challenges.
There is a need, for people to understand what led to the visualisation, each stage of the process that led to its design. But, as we increasingly adopt more and more data this is becoming increasingly difficult.
When big data is summarized and aggregated in an illustrative way, it begs the question of what gets lost in the detail? What this means is that underpinning big data visualization must be a robust approach to data governance.
Data never sleeps; but when mixed with design it provides clarity, that ‘Ah ha’ moment that you get when you find your keys, phone or wallet. In this complex world only by making sense of what we have at our disposal, will we uncover our potential.
