Tips 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.

A CHART IS WORTH A THOUSAND NUMBERS!

This is particularly true when to large amounts of data need to be presented easily and clearly. For that, these slides facilitate including data in PowerPoint tables that automatically and quickly update and outline complex tables into memorable charts.