To many, data can seem dull at first glance, just a series of ones and zeros that don’t seem to be worth paying much attention to. However, when you use the right tools and take on the right perspective, data reveals itself to be a fascinating and rich way of examining and changing aspects of the world around us. Here are the top five benefits that we receive from using data to color and enhance our worldview:
There are countless different ways to present data: Data can be communicated through pie charts, bar graphs, scatter plots, tables, maps, infographics. Whatever your aesthetic or communicative preferences, there is a way to present data that will work for you and will be well-received by your intended audience. Data can be presented in creative and artistic ways, too.
It helps us make unbiased decisions: It’s well-established that data derived from advanced analytics services is key for most businesses’ decision-making processes, strategies, and budgeting . Data also plays a role in helping individual people make choices: for example, students torn between two universities can use data about things like the employment rates of each school’s graduates, average student debt, and overall student satisfaction in order to decide which school will be the best fit for them. Data is great to base decisions off of because it is neutral. It doesn’t have an agenda, and it just presents the facts.
It tells us about the past and the future: Data allows us to examine historical patterns and events, and compare the past to our lives in the present. It also gives us powerful fortune-telling skills, letting us see into the years ahead—well, sort of. While big data obviously won’t give us magical powers, we can use it to make predictions about the future based on past and current trends.
