As data-driven presentations become increasingly popular, it is essential to create engaging visuals that help explain complex concepts and foster better understanding. Chart visualizations can be an immensely powerful and effective tool to do this.
By using the right chart type for the right purpose, you can effectively communicate and support your data. To help you get started, we’ve compiled 29 must-see charts you can start using today.
First, let’s start with some basics.
Bar charts are an easy-to-understand way to present categorical data, or data that is divided into distinct groups. They are also well-suited for comparing and contrasting data sets. Another popular chart type is the pie chart. Pie charts are often used to compare parts of a whole data set. They can be quite helpful in visualizing percentages and relative differences between items and categories.
Moving onto a few more complex chart types. Scatter plots are the ideal choice when you need to look at the relationship between two variables. They are especially useful when looking for correlations, trends, or outliers. A box-and-whisker chart is a great way to visualize the distribution of a data set. This chart type displays the median, quartiles, and range of the data. Lastly, a heat map is great for showing patterns in larger data sets. Heat maps use color to illustrate the value of each data point in relation to the entire data set.
Now that you’ve become familiar with the basics, let’s look at some advanced chart options. A bubble chart is a variation of a scatter plot where the size of each dot represents a third variable. For example, a bubble chart could display correlations between language proficiency and a country’s annual wage with the dot size representing the population of each country. Other more advanced charts include population pyramid charts, Gantt charts, and spider charts.
The key to creating successful chart visualizations is to choose the right chart type for what you’re trying to convey. Of course, no single chart type can fit every data set, but with a bit of practice you can learn to use the 29 chart types mentioned here to create powerful and effective visualizations.
So don’t be afraid to try something out of the box. Once you get familiar with the chart types outlined here, you can start creating compelling visualizations that will help bring data to life.