This paper describes a product developed by Lucent Technologies that gives a visual presentation of data analysis in beautiful living color that even those who don't know statistics can use and understand. There are line charts, pie charts and scatter plots that can be turned on their side, turned inside out, drilled down into or summarized. They have some unique plots such as a "Parabox" which "is a combination of a boxplot and a parallel coordinates plot." [1] The pictures in the photocopy are not clear, so I tried to access the web site listed in the paper.
I found that http://www.visual.insights.com is no longer a valid site; however, when I tried http://www.bell-labs.com/user/eick, I was able to find my way to a demonstration of their product and I read more up-to-date information about the product. I registered for the free demo download, but it was going to take an hour or more so I cancelled the download. However, I did receive an e-mail almost instantly upon submitting the registration form giving me my access code so that I could use the downloaded demo for free for 30 days.
Although I haven't tried that demo, I did view their on-line demonstration. It was an example of a national coffee company's profit and sales information. The user supposedly doesn't need to know statistics. The product, called ADVIZOR2000 will put a beautiful face on all the data in their spreadsheets, in three dimensions! The graphics are in "living color" and the demonstration showed how the client could drill down into these charts to answer questions like, "Why are sales down in California," and so on.
I've seen "cover" products like this before to be used on databases that allow the uninitiated to make color graphics for presentations, and answer specific questions without having to know the database language. The product discussed in the above mentioned paper provides a visual presentation of statistical data that an employee could work with or use for presentations for the boss.
I was disappointed that I couldn't just try a small module to see how it works; but the download time was too long. This does look like something I may want to use in my job. It's worth a closer look anyway.
Roxanne Drachenberg
(435) 752-8375
roxanned@pcu.net