In nowadays business mastering the art of being a great data storyteller is a highly valued skill or, better said, it is becoming a mandatory skill for modern presenters. This is because the accurate communication of data may very well lead to business success.

The above words may very well explain the why it is key for you to master the art of creating visual stories with all sorts of data information. For this reason and thinking of making your life easier, we have written basic for creating the most common charts used to illustrate data making it easily to be understood and recalled. These words will allow you to know the basics behind the most commonly used charts, when to use them and the tips for creating them.

Said no more, let’s go through them so you can use them to create great charts!

KEY POINTS FOR DESIGNING LINE CHARTS

What’s a Line Chart?

Line Charts may be the most commonly used data visualization charts. Yet, they never get old. They display information as series of points connected by line segments on an X-Y axis.

When to Use a Line Chart

Line Charts are excellent for showing time-series relationships using continuous data and tracking changes over time, using equal time intervals between each data point (days, months or years). A great example is tracking the fluctuation of stock prices as they allow you to assess the trend, acceleration, deceleration, and volatility of the data in question. They are excellent for correlating trends.

Tips for Creating Line Charts

  1. Label Lines Directly instead of referencing a legend. That will allow your audience to quickly identify lines
  2. If possible, start Y-Axis Value at 0 to avoid truncating values visualization.
  3. Use the Right Y-Axis Height so that the Line Charts category lines take up approximately two-thirds of the y-axis’ total scale.

KEY POINTS FOR DESIGNING AREA CHARTS

What’s an Area Chart?

Area Charts are graphs that illustrate data change over time. But unlike Line Charts, they also illustrate volume. The information shown on area charts has two axes and uses data points connected by line segments. The area between the axis and the line is most often emphasized with colors, being each color different for every category.

When to Use Area Charts

Area charts are great to show overall trends, as opposed to individual data values. Use a stacked area chart for multiple data series with part-to-whole relationships or for cumulative series of values. there are three kinds of area charts: Standard Area Charts, which compare quantitative progression over time; Stacked Area Charts which visualize part-to-whole relationships, helping to show how each category contributes to the sum of the total; 100% Stacked Area Charts which illustrate distribution of categories as parts of a whole, where the sum of the categories is not relevant.

Tips for Creating Area Charts

  1. Ensure data isn’t obscured in the background. Order thoughtfully and use transparency.
  2. In Standard Area Charts make sure background data is visible by giving transparency to those superficial categories area colors.
  3. In Stacked Area Charts, use highly variable data on the top of the chart and low variability on its bottom, to facilitate visualization and understanding.
  4. Start Y-Axis Value at 0 to avoid truncating values visualization.

KEY POINTS FOR DESIGNING BAR CHARTS

What’s a Bar Chart?

Bar Charts are visual graphics made of rectangular columns proportional in hight or length to the values they represent. That being said, smaller and shorter bars represent smaller numbers and taller and longer bars represent bigger numbers. On one axis bars compare categories, while on the other they represent values.

When to Use a Bar Chart

Bar Charts are used to show data that can only be certain values, for example to show change over time (monthly business sales or earnings over a year period), to compare values of different categories (products sales for different sales force lines) and to compare parts of a whole (percent distribution of Netflix rentals across genres).

Tips for Creating Bar Charts

  1. Use the same color for all bars (be consistent), as bars compare the same element over time. If needed, use an accent color to highlight a significant data point.
  2. Keep bars not so close between categories. The space between bars should be around 50% of the bar width.
  3. Use the Right Y-Axis Height so that the bars take up approximately two-thirds of the y-axis’ lenght.

KEY POINTS FOR DESIGNING PIE CHARTS

What’s a Pie Chart?

Pie Charts are popular ways for visualizing data in a simple and easy-to-understand way, that heps the audiences to quickly identify parts of a whole (numerical proportions of a section in proportion to the others). 

When to Use a Pie Chart

Pie Charts should be used for making part-to-whole comparisons (for example, the number of items sold each year compared to other company products). They create more impact when the comparisson of small data sets made among proportions rather than numbers. When needing to use addiotional data, grouped into smaller data sets you could use “other” categories on the chart.

Tips for Creating Bar Charts

  1. Try to use 5 categories per pie chart at the most. When you use too many categories Pie Charts data visualization becomes harder. If needed, group smaller data sets into “other” categories, avoiding to hide key or significant information.
  2. Using multiple Pie Charts for comparison is not good, as categories are hard to compare side-by-side. If you need to do that, stacked bar charts are the way to go.
  3. Make sure the data used in the Pie Charts cateories adds to 100%.
  4. Organize the Pie Charts categories correctly: You could place the largest section at 12 o’clock, going clockwise, the second largest section at 12 o’clock, going counterclockwise and the remaining sections can be placed below, continuing counterclockwise, or you could place the largest section at 12 o’clock, going clockwiseand theremaining sections in descending order, going clockwise.

KEY POINTS FOR SCATTER PLOT CHARTS

What’s a Scatter Plot Chart?

Scatter Plot Charts are sets of data points plotted in x and y axis to represent two sets of variables. The shape those data points create reveals the positive or negative correlation of large amounts of data.

When to Use a Scatter Plot Chart

Scatter Plot Charts reveal trends, clusters, patterns, and relationships in large amounts of data points. They can show lung capacity compared to free-diving depth, the magnitude of earthquakes compared to their duration, or profits compared to expenditures in multiple business divisions. The data correlation shown in Scatter Plot Charts can be interpreted in ways such as: positive correlation, negative correlation, null correlation, linear correlation, exponential correlation or outliers.

Tips for Creating Scatter Plot Charts

  1. Start Y-Axis Value at 0 to avoid truncating Scatter Plot Charts data values visualization.
  2. Use size and dot color to encode additional data variables.
  3. Trend lines help to show correlation between variables.
  4. Don’t compare more than two trend lines, this causes confusion.

KEY POINTS FOR BUBBLE CHARTS

What’s a Bubble Chart?

Bubble Charts are versatile charts that allow the visualization of data sets made of two to four dimensions. Their most basic form, illustrate two dimensions of data: the first, a numerical value visualized as circular bubbles, and the second being what each bubble represents, where the larger the bubbles the larger the values. When three dimensions of data need to be visualized, Bubble Charts add functionalities to Scatter Plot Charts. Three dimensions Bubble Charts combine different-sized bubbles with the x and y axis; they are also known as “bubble plots”. When four dimensions of data need to be visualized different colors can differentiate categories.

When to Use Bubble Charts

Two dimensions Bubble Charts represent data sets made for example of percentages, illustrated as the size of the bubbles, and ranges visualized in the chart axis, they are great alternatives to bar charts. Three dimensions Bubble Charts represent the two data sets mentioned and a third one that is illustrated with varying bubble sizes; they are great for showing a clear correlation between expenses and sales as time advances. Four dimensions Bubble Charts, include the three data sets dimensions mentioned, plus a label for the bubbles; for example, they can compare birth rates in specific regions with low income and total world population.

Tips for Creating Bubble Charts

  1. Make sure Bubble Charts labes are visible. This applies for every kind of chart. You won’t like your audience to miss your message.
  2. Make sure bubble sizes are proportional. If you have a bubble with size x and another with 2x, the second should be twice as bigger to the first, not less or more.
  3. Replacing bubbles with icons of other figures makes no good. This may cause confussion and your message may be misunderstood. Stick with bubbles.