Below there are 2 images, illustrating the solution for one particular task — ratings visualization and their change in time.
First one is already 100 y.o. — it is a high resolution scan of «Statistical Atlas of the United States 1900», published by United States Census Office (Russian Giverment Office of Statistics was not existing that time, I think), and was edited by Henry Gannett.
Its a history of 12 Population Censuses in US (the latest observed is for 1900 and the earliest was done in 1790 year). This work is very pleasant, because its clean and all details were done with the maximal care. You can see how states were changing their position by population size on the common scale.
I think, great attention was dedicated to the colour coding of each territory — 51 items were developed.
And another one is more modern and more easy to read, represents results of Spanish Formula 1 Race. Very good presentation of dynamic and competition in between pilots for each round.
We can see that Alonso jumped into the 1st place and never allowed someone to outrun him. But fot the second place, it was the real fight — Raikkonen twice was before Heidfeld, but finally finished behind him and had the 3d place.
Sato was able to move from the 10-th to 5-th already on the second round. In general, main job was done during first minutes and after the 31st round everyone was defending his place without fluctuations — winners were already visible.
I recommend to use this tool in your everyday work and also recommend to look at the first imge in a high quality here, on Flickr.