Visualizing Spatial Relationships - Data Points: Visualization That Means Something - page 325

FIGurE 8-47 Fully interactive growth map showing Wal-Mart openings
The story with Walmart store openings is the organic growth. The com-
pany started in a single location and slowly spread outward. Obviously,
this isn't always the case. For example, Target's growth doesn't look so
calculated. Costco's growth is less dramatic because there are fewer
locations, but its strategy seems to be growth on the coasts and then a
move inward.
In any case, it's a fun and interesting way to view your data. The growth
maps seem to spur people's imaginations, and they can wonder about the
spread of McDonald's or Starbucks. Now that you have the code, it's a lot
easier to implement. The hard part is finding the data.
Wrapping up
Maps are a tricky visualization type because in addition to your own data,
you have to handle the dimension of geography. However, because of how
intuitive they are, maps can also be rewarding, both in how you can pre-
sent data to others and how you can explore your data deeper than you
could with a statistical plot.
As seen from the examples in this chapter, there are a lot of possibilities
for what you can do with spatial data. With just a few basic skills, you can
visualize a lot of datasets and tell all sorts of interesting stories. This is