Chart Selections
Which chart should I use?
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It’s more about the questions you want to answer
• Order and Ranking: What are we comparing
and why?
• Composition: What are contributions made?
• Distribution: What is the spread? (e.g. Ages)
• Trend: What has changed over time?
• Relationships: Is there an interaction?
• Profiling: What are some characteristics?
• Exceptions: What is unusual?
Ref: Data at Work, Jorge Camoes (pp. 168-169)
Do you really need a Chart?
Sales
Do you really need a Chart?
Sales Sales A Sales B
Icon Array
Good for “humanizing” the data
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zation/
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Scatter Plots
Best when comparing the relationship between two sets of data
(e.g. dependent and independent variables.)
Line Graphs
Line graphs are like scatter plots in that they record individual
data values as marks on the graph. The difference is that line
charts are to show a trend over time
Treemap Map
Display a large amount of hierarchical data using nested
rectangles of varying size and color. The total area of a treemap
reflects the sum of its parts
The Right Chart – Pie or Bar?
Bar charts are better for comparison because order is easier to
detect.
Bar Charts - Ordering by Label
Ordering by Value
Grid
lines are
helpful
Histograms
Provides a count of groupings often based on either ranges or
classification
Histograms vs Bar Charts
Bar Chart Histogram
• Numerical data • Categorical data
• Diagrammatic comparison of discrete • Represents the frequency distribution of
variables continuous variables
Note spacing in bar chart
Pareto
• Ordered
frequency counts
of categorical
variables
(nominal)
• Cumulative
Frequency Line
• 80/20 rule – “vital
few and trivial
many”
Back to Back vs. Stacked
Bubble Chart
Ugly, Bad, Wrong
Wilke, Fundamentals of Data Visualization,
Chart Selections
Which chart should I use?
DATA 103
By Jim Momeyer, MA
Adapted from Monica
Groenenboom
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY-NC
