Table

From Business Intelligence

This Tufte-style table is very simple, using the least visual cues necessary to convey its message. Instead of heavy grid lines or zebra lines, every third line is marked by a light gray border to help the reader's eye follow along the rows.

Table with sorting. Long, complex tables should allow the user to sort the table by clicking on its headers whenever possible. This table should use lighter gridlines. List of Nobel Laureates Associated with UC Berkley (sortable table section).

Alternating rows table. Although Tufte does not recommend zebra tables and they do not actually increase comprehension speed, usability testing has shown that users feel that they are easier to use. From Good University Guide

Description

A basic way to arrange data, organized in rows and columns. For simple datasets, tables often are better than visualizations. For instance, often when a simple pie chart or bar chart is used, a table would've sufficed. They present the data in as straightforward a way as possible.

Data requirements

Organized data.
Depending on the data, large datasets may be better presented as a visualization.

Considerations

Tables can often be hard to parse. There are several ways to optimize organization and presentation to make this easier, and to allow the user to manipulate and explore the data.

A table could be optimized by using whitespace and typography to separate elements.
Sortable tables allow the user to sort the table according to their preferences, usually using a clickable column headers. In a table with headers for name, size, type, and modified, the user could choose to sort it via type. This gives users control to manipulate table data and allows data exploration. Not as useful for very small datasets. More information on this is available at Welie.
Alternating rows color every other row (usually a light gray or blue) to help the user visually separate elements. This is less visually cluttered than a grid table; rows guide the eye along the correct line of data. Especially useful if the table has many columns with similar-looking values. This should be used with tabular presentations of large datasets. More information on this is available at UI-Patterns.

Related techniques

Small multiples