Software Review: Tibco Spotfire

Data visualization seems to be getting some traction in the tech industry, or it could just seem that way due to my sudden exposure. Data visualization software takes care of some of the tedious data wrangling tasks that come with the job of analysis, without the user having to write swathes of code for the visualization itself.

Enter Spotfire by Tibco. It is a data visualization tool that connects to the cloud for user authentication and provides a suite of features for the arrangement and cleanup of data before generating charts and analysis.

The Premise

Spotfire takes care of your data the moment it is imported - from diverse sources such as CSV files, databases and spreadsheets. From there, you can slice or join different tables to form a coherent dataset, perhaps creating new columns from existing data.

Once done, the data may be used in several different visualization types.

The Aesthetics

Basic color scheme is white, with various shades of blue. The round corners and abundance of white space can make this software seem overly simplistic.

The Experience

Using Spotfire was a bit of a pain in the beginning. Some of the icons were a complete mystery as to their usage and it took a fair bit of clicking around and seeing what worked (or didn't work). Sometimes controls were a bit slow to respond, but this could depend on your internet connection.

The Interface

The interface feels clean and simple for the most part. The visualization flow can be as basic as - select a data field, bring up recommended visualizations, and adjust. It can be very straightforward.

The number of different visualizations available is adequate. There does not appear to be much that is super-advanced.

There are more analytics tools available if required. I did not explore that portion of the software.

What I liked

For visualization, controls are relatively straightforward. If nothing else is needed, it can be a very simple process.

The color scheme grew on me the longer I used it. It's not at all pretty, but at the same time, it's not jarring and that earns huge points from me.

What I didn't

No support for MacOS. All these features only apply if you're using a Windows machine. You could use the cloud version, but that seems to be a watered-down version of Spotfire.

Spotfire is kind of slow. There is a certain amount of lag that occurs when working with data outside of visualization, and sometimes even with visualization. This could be a result of my beat-up Windows machine, however.

Sometimes, the interface is not very intuitive and feels a bit clumsy for working with data.

Conclusion

Spotfire isn't unique in its abilities. There are other software packages that do the job just as well as Spotfire, if not better. If all you want is a fuss-free visualization tool, Spotfire is more than adequate. Anything more is perhaps pushing your luck.

My Rating

6 / 10

Try it if you like the (g)raph stuff!
T___T