In some news reports and business magazines, it is often seen that some maps are used to analyze and display commercial phenomena. Such a form that uses maps to reflect and analyze data is called a data map. Data maps are very intuitive and visual expressions in the process of business data analysis. You can use maps to show sales and profits in various regions, or to display the distribution of warehouses all over the country to optimize transportation networks. As another example, if we need to count the flow of people and distribution of shopping malls, heatmaps can help us achieve targeted advertising.

In a scene similar to the above, the display of the map will undoubtedly be much more intuitive than the simple table. As a professional application, the data map has a wide range of analytical uses in the following areas.

1. Uses of Data Map

1.1 Population Distribution

According to demographic data such as age, gender, income, education level, etc., analyze and classify customers in different regions or communities on the map. Data can help us figure out their lifestyle, interests and shopping habits.

1.2 Market Capacity Forecast

Analyze the resource investments, sales revenue, and product sales of each outlet on the map, and predict the capacity of the entire market, so that the resources can be scientifically allocated to the region with the greatest market potential.

1.3 Logistics Path Planning & Supply Chain Management

For example, through the following data map, you can understand the distribution of orders, whether the storage settings are reasonable, and how to optimize the logistics route.

1.4 Chain Store Location

The location of chain stores and restaurants usually has to consider a lot of space factors. Using maps can visually display indicators such as passenger flow and store capacity, which is a good way to conduct market planning.

2. Types of Data Map

In practice, data maps have many forms of expression. Here I introduce five common types.

2.1 Distribution Type

To make this type of map, we add different colors to the corresponding area depending on the size of numerical value. The color depth reflects the numerical value, as shown below.

The map above shows single dimension data. If we want to analyze the sales of a province or city based on the distribution of sales nationwide, we can get the data through drilling.

2.2 Mark Type

The mark type of data map is used as a location reminder. You can use dots or graphics to let the readers associate the content they read and its geographic location. Such a map itself does not reflect quantitative information. It may reflect a location, a flow, and a dense distribution, and it reduces the abstraction of data analysis.

2.3 Chart Type

A chart-type map displays a simple chart on all or part of a region, such as a column chart, a pie chart, a bubble chart, which is equivalent to adding a basic dimension to make the data results clear at a glance. Charts are used to directly display data trends in the region, to compare or form relationships. The figure below is a combination of the regional map and bubble chart, and the bubble shading represents the size of data. Such map should not be complicated. Pay attention to the scale and use data drilling for complex charts.

2.4 Heatmap

The heatmap is based on the size of the region’s data to fill in varying shades of color, thus reflecting the distribution of data. It is a very common geographic visualization. It can describe population distribution, density and variation trends in real time. For example, the following is a traffic density map produced for a car-hailing app.

2.5 Custom Map

Data maps have other complex styles, such as adding dynamic maps or dynamic charts, or combining with other tables to form a dashboard.

Shopping Mall Floor Plan

Dashboard 

GIS Map 

Tips

All the data maps in the article are made with FineReport. FineReport is an enterprise-class business analysis tool with powerful data visualization capabilities. It is often used for data analysis in a variety of businesses. With a simple drag and drop, you can create all kinds of cool and useful data maps. It’s very friendly to beginners.

If you want to make a data map yourself, you can go to the official website to download FineReport for free, which provides a lot of data map components. Finally, I want to say that when you start taking the first step, you will find that data analysis is actually very simple!

Follow FineReport Reporting Software on Facebook to learn more about data maps!