How will VR change the way we view data?

How are the latest trends increasing demand for Data Scientists?

February 9th, 2023

Virtual Reality (VR) is starting to take many industries by storm. As a massive gamer I love how VR is starting to be incorporated into the games I love and how I can truly immerse myself in a virtual world. But VR isn’t just being used by avid gamers, it is being used to help companies visualise their data.

As more and more data is being collected, more is being analysed. While 2D charts and graphs can be great at showing snippets of data, to show the full story and be able to fully analyse big data VR can be really beneficial for both the data user and the business.

Step into your data

By using data visualisation through VR the user is able to virtually step into their data and view it in a completely new and different way. By getting a 3D, 360 degree view on the dashboards the user may be able to pinpoint trends and patterns they wouldn’t have before and they can do it in a quicker, more efficient way.

It can also be argued that there will be less distraction when viewing the data in this way, as the user can fully immerse themselves in the world of their data they can truly focus and analyse it as they need.

Tell a story

Virtual data visualisation will also benefit the non-techie, business user. Presenting the analysed data as a story to decision makers can be the difference between them understanding it or not. VR will allow the business user to ‘walk’ through the data and physically interact with it, giving them another perspective and allowing them to view it as they need.

With the data being visualised in this way a keyboard and mouse will be a thing of the past as the user can use their hands to explore and ‘touch’ the data. This brings another interactive element which will help to express the story the data is telling.

While Virtual Reality and data visualisation is still in the beginning stages it is clear there are multiple benefits to its application. While doing the research for this blog I can across a video by Looker who show what VR data visualisation might look like. I personally can’t wait to see what the future holds for VR, and whether this will become a reality in business.