Database-Driven Visualizations

I may be late to the fight, but I’m becoming a really big advocate of database-driven charts and graphics. Both amCharts and the Google Charts API allow content producers to generate large amounts of visual content by re-purposing their databases.

I’m by no means trying to displace graphics designers, or undermine their work. Instead, I think the rise of database projects can allow a new workflow between designers and developers. Designers are still needed to create templates and provide aesthetic direction for the project, and developers are able to use code to rapidly disseminate that direction. In a way, using tools like amCharts and the Google Charts API requires organizations to take a hard look at their visualizations and to revisit their in-house style guide before publishing these graphics.

I’m currently working on a way to force this web API to work within the confines of Microsoft Office. Imagine: if designers developed a strong template, developers could lace a HTML into an Excel sheet’s function, and seamlessly produce an API-driven output based on a researcher’s formula. I clincher is, I’d really like the whole experience to be hidden from the research in the Excel file. For them, I want producing an API-driven chart to be as easy as it would be to produce a vanilla Excel chart.