Think of a set of data visualizations like the dashboard in your car. When you look at them, it should be easy-to-absorb information at a glance—your speed, fuel amount, and so on. Likewise, data visualization techniques help your teammates and managers grasp the significance of the metrics in seconds. Speed isn’t the only advantage of data visualizations. A report found that people were, on average, 89% better at problem-solving when they looked at data represented visually.

Want to learn more about data? There are over 200,000 results when you search for “data books” on Amazon. We’ve separated the wheat from the chaff, and reviewed some of our favorite books that will help improve your data skills.

Today we’re delighted to introduce a new Free plan for anyone who wants to use Geckoboard to make a shareable dashboard using our most popular data source: spreadsheets. It’s easy to understand why spreadsheets are so popular. They’re everywhere, and the most commonly used tool for data analysis, storage and visualization. Unfortunately, they do a poor job of communicating data. Sometimes they can be difficult for others to interpret.