Lec 2 .. Types of Charts
Lec 2 .. Types of Charts
Lecture 2
• Data Viz, like any other tool, can be very useful when used right.
To get the most out of your data, you need to match your data
with the right type of visual chart. How do we do that? By asking
yourself the following questions:
1. What type of data?
2. How do you want to communicate
3. Who is my audience?
4. What insights do I want my readers to gain?
5. What should be the range of my axis?
6. Should I display values over time or among groups?
7. What information many categories do I need? (Bar, column or
cluster)
8. How many data points do I need for each category? (daily or
quarterly)
Comparing charts
Types of charts
• Tables
• To compare individual or precise values
• The value involves various units of
measure
• Displaying quantitative information is
more important than trends
Year Product A Revenue ($) Product B Revenue ($) Product A Profit (%) Product B Profit (%)
Year 2022 Product A Revenue ($) Product B Revenue ($) Product A Profit (%) Product B Profit (%)
Year 2023 Product A Revenue ($) Product B Revenue ($) Product A Profit (%) Product B Profit (%)
• Column Chart and Cluster column bar
• To display and compare the rank of values and focus on the extremes
• Short data category labels
• Items on the chart have less than seven categories
• Example: Revenue per landing page, Sales by year, etc.
• Bar chart:
• To show if the data values have
attained a particular goal
• Items on the chart have over
seven but less than 15
categories
• Display negative numbers
• Long data category labels
• Example: Website visitors per
country, Customers won per
role, etc.
• Radar chart:
• To compare multiple items or
groups on various attributes
• To visualize comparisons of
quality data
• The number of attributes
should be at least three but
less than 10
• Example: Comparing the
features of two or three cars,
Rainfall by month, etc.
Composition charts
• Pie Charts
• To display parts of a
whole in percentages
• Show relative proportion
• All categories add up to
100
• Example: Customer
survey, Spending in a
month, etc.
• Stacked Bar chart:
• To compare many different items
and show the composition of
each item being compared
• To display visual aggregate all of
the categories in a group when
the size of individual categories
is not important
• Example: Sales by region, Sales
by product, etc
• Pie Charts
• To visualize
foundation-based
relationships
• Data is hierarchical
• Example: Employee
salary by management
level, etc.