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Rowboat
A lightning fast tool for understanding large datasets.
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Rowboat is a tool for making sense of tabular data— the kind found in Excel spreadsheets and CSV files.
Rowboat is built around three ideas: understanding, interaction, and immediacy.
Understanding
Why do we work with data?
The point is not collecting, managing, cleaning, or even editing data—it’s about understanding what it means.
And the fastest way to understand data is to visualize it, answering questions before you have a chance to ask, and inspiring new questions and insights.
Interaction
What’s the best way to learn about a dataset? To interact with it.
The faster you can filter, search, explore, and navigate, the more quickly you’ll be able to make your information usable.
High speed, low-latency interactions mean you can ask more questions in less time, making it possible to quickly ask “what about…” rather than spending time constructing complex queries and waiting for responses from the cloud.
Immediacy
Why is it usually so difficult to work with data tools?
Rowboat eliminates the need to install complex software or set up a “workspace” before you’re able to look at a single data point.
Just drop a file into the browser window and instantly see what the data has to say. Everything stays private in your web browser, until you decide it’s time to upload and share.
Not quite sure what we mean? Let us show you!
Maritime Voyages
Follow the shipping routes of 500+ commercial vessels over a two-month period. Start with a bird’s-eye view of the most heavily trafficked coordinates, then filter down to see the path of each individual ship. Automatically map latitude and longitude coordinates, then use time data in another column to play back the ship’s precise movements.
Massachusetts Highway Traffic
One million rows in one second. Filter and slice the data by car, truck, and SUV versus mileage, make, and model. Place of registration is mapped instantly. Complex questions answered with no code, and no clunky interface. Easily locate outliers, discover trends over time, and see how quickly you can start to understand over 100 megabytes of data.
UFO Sightings
What can we learn from 88,000 reports of UFO sightings from around the globe? Quickly get a sense of which countries have reported the most flying saucer sightings, how long the average “alien encounter” lasts, and consider why so many Americans have seen suspicious fireballs in the sky on the Fourth of July.
Survivor Contestants
Regardless of how you might feel about reality TV, Survivor has lived up to its name and remains an institution after two decades. Sift through 40 seasons of contestant demographics and note the lack of obvious similarities between the winners. That being said: having an occupation other than “lawyer” will consistently increase your chances.
Feature highlights
Get an instant visual breakdown of your file without having to navigate away from the data itself.
Does your data set involve U.S. counties? See it mapped across the U.S. in two clicks.
Do you have a passion for dark mode? Light mode? Submarine mode? Pick the palette most soothing to your retinas.
No installation needed. And your data stays private in your browser (at least until you choose to share it).
Who are we?
Rowboat was developed by the team at Fathom Information Design. We’ve distilled what we’ve learned from years of experience building custom software and tools for understanding complex datasets. Since 2010, we’ve partnered with everyone from Fortune 500s to non-profit organizations across a broad range of sectors, including health care, education, financial services, media, technology, and consumer products.
With Rowboat, we’ve created a tool that encapsulates a core part of our process—that initial moment of understanding a dataset—in a way that can be used by anyone, and without having to learn complex tools or write custom code.
