subject: Visualize Big Data Sets With Intensity Maps [print this page] Accurate, in-depth data is the lifeblood of your business. Without information about your customers or clients, shipping and logistics, industry trends, purchasing history and more, you're flying blind. While that might work fine for a business with a single location that only serves customers in the immediate area, it won't work at all for a company that wants to grow, expand and prosper in the future. However, the problem here is that big data sets can be impossible to manage. In order to use that information, it might be best to utilize intensity maps.
What Are Intensity Maps?
Intensity maps are innovative tools for business owners and managers that provide the means to aggregate complex data sets into a single, coherent whole. They combine any type of data you might have (geographic, buying history, traffic patterns, voting numbers, etc.) into a visual representation that can be utilized immediately without the need to use multiple flow charts, graphs, maps and spreadsheets. In essence, intensity maps allow you to aggregate your business information into a single medium that can be used immediately.
An Example
To better illustrate the value and utility of intensity maps, let's look at an example. During election years, national news media always use maps to show the voter turnout and results. They have to take the information, which they have available, to do this - voter turnout, votes cast per state and much more - and put it into a visual format that viewers can actually relate to. Imagine if a news station attempted to show this information using a spreadsheet - viewers would immediately lose interest and change the channel. However, by combining that information into an intensity map, the news outlet can provide viewers with all the essential information about voting across the entire nation. The most famous example of this would be during national elections with the delineation of votes in the form of blue and red states.
Of course, this is a rather simplistic explanation of these powerful tools, but it's highly relevant. Your business can do the same thing using any data. In addition, intensity maps are ideal for visualizing big data sets because they combine multiple data sources into a single visual representation. You can easily create an intensity map that shows traffic density within specific corridors, as well as the number of sales in and out of those corridors, on a national scale. Basically, intensity maps are the means for you to understand exactly what those massive data sets are telling you in an immediate time, with less chance of miscommunication and greater accuracy.
