There are extra sort of charts and graphs than ever earlier than as a result of there’s extra knowledge. The truth is, the quantity of knowledge in 2025 can be almost double the information we create, seize, copy, and devour at this time.

This makes knowledge visualization important for companies. Several types of graphs and charts can assist you:

• Encourage your crew to take motion.
• Impress stakeholders with objective progress.
• Present your viewers what you worth as a enterprise.

Knowledge visualization builds belief and might arrange various groups round new initiatives. Let’s discuss in regards to the kinds of graphs and charts that you should utilize to develop what you are promoting.

Totally different Kinds of Graphs for Knowledge Visualization

1. Bar Graph

A bar graph needs to be used to keep away from litter when one knowledge label is lengthy or if in case you have greater than 10 objects to match.

Finest Use Circumstances for These Kinds of Graphs

Bar graphs can assist you examine knowledge between completely different teams or to trace adjustments over time. Bar graphs are most helpful when there are large adjustments or to point out how one group compares in opposition to different teams.

The instance above compares the variety of clients by enterprise function. It makes it simple to see that there’s greater than twice the variety of clients per function for particular person contributors than some other group.

A bar graph additionally makes it simple to see which group of knowledge is highest or most typical.

For instance, at the beginning of the pandemic, on-line companies noticed a giant leap in visitors. So, if you wish to take a look at month-to-month visitors for an internet enterprise, a bar graph would make it simple to see that leap.

Different use circumstances for bar graphs embrace:

• Product comparisons.
• Product utilization.
• Class comparisons.
• Advertising visitors by month or yr.
• Advertising conversions.

Design Finest Practices for Bar Graphs

• Use constant colours all through the chart, choosing accent colours to spotlight significant knowledge factors or adjustments over time.
• Use horizontal labels to enhance readability.
• Begin the y-axis at 0 to appropriately replicate the values in your graph.

2. Line Graph

A line graph reveals tendencies or progress over time, and you should utilize it to point out many alternative classes of knowledge. You must use it whenever you chart a steady knowledge set.

Finest Use Circumstances for These Kinds of Graphs

Line graphs assist customers observe adjustments over brief and lengthy intervals. Due to this, these kind of graphs are good for seeing small adjustments.

Line graphs can assist you examine adjustments for multiple group over the identical interval. They’re additionally useful for measuring how completely different teams relate to one another.

A enterprise may use this graph to match gross sales charges for various services or products over time.

These charts are additionally useful for measuring service channel efficiency. For instance, a line graph that tracks what number of chats or emails your crew responds to monthly.

Design Finest Practices for Line Graphs

• Use stable traces solely.
• Do not plot greater than 4 traces to keep away from visible distractions.
• Use the fitting peak so the traces take up roughly 2/3 of the y-axis’ peak.

3. Bullet Graph

A bullet graph reveals progress in direction of a objective, compares this to a different measure, and supplies context within the type of a score or efficiency.

Finest Use Circumstances for These Kinds of Graphs

Within the instance above, the bullet graph reveals the variety of new clients in opposition to a set buyer objective. Bullet graphs are nice for evaluating efficiency in opposition to objectives like this.

A majority of these graphs may assist groups assess potential roadblocks as a result of you possibly can analyze knowledge in a good visible show.

For instance, you might create a sequence of bullet graphs measuring efficiency in opposition to benchmarks or use a single bullet graph to visualise these KPIs in opposition to their objectives:

• Income.
• Revenue.
• Buyer satisfaction.
• Common order measurement.
• New clients.

Seeing this knowledge at a look and alongside one another can assist groups make fast selections.

Bullet graphs are among the best methods to show year-over-year knowledge evaluation. You can even use bullet graphs to visualise:

• Buyer satisfaction scores.
• Product utilization.
• Buyer procuring habits.
• Social media utilization by platform.

Design Finest Practices for Bullet Graphs

• Use contrasting colours to spotlight how the information is progressing.
• Use one colour in several shades to gauge progress.

Totally different Kinds of Charts for Knowledge Visualization

To higher perceive these chart sorts and the way you should utilize them, here is an summary of every:

1. Column Chart

Use a column chart to point out a comparability amongst completely different objects or to point out a comparability of things over time. You possibly can use this format to see the income per touchdown web page or clients by shut date.

Finest Use Circumstances for This Sort of Chart

You need to use each column charts and bar graphs to show adjustments in knowledge, however column charts are finest for unfavourable knowledge. The primary distinction, after all, is that column charts present data vertically whereas bar graphs present knowledge horizontally.

For instance, warehouses usually observe the variety of accidents on the store flooring. When the variety of incidents falls under the month-to-month common, a column chart could make that change simpler to see in a presentation.

Within the instance above, this column chart measures the variety of clients by shut date. Column charts make it simple to see knowledge adjustments over a time period. Which means that they’ve many use circumstances, together with:

• Buyer survey knowledge, like displaying what number of clients want a selected product or how a lot a buyer makes use of a product every day.
• Gross sales quantity, like displaying which companies are the highest sellers every month or the variety of gross sales per week.
• Revenue and loss, displaying the place enterprise investments are rising or falling.

Design Finest Practices for Column Charts

• Use constant colours all through the chart, choosing accent colours to spotlight significant knowledge factors or adjustments over time.
• Use horizontal labels to enhance readability.
• Begin the y-axis at 0 to appropriately replicate the values in your graph.

2. Twin-Axis Chart

A dual-axis chart permits you to plot knowledge utilizing two y-axes and a shared x-axis. It has three knowledge units. One is a steady knowledge set, and the opposite is best suited to grouping by class. Use this chart to visualise a correlation or the shortage thereof between these three knowledge units.

Finest Use Circumstances for This Sort of Chart

A dual-axis chart makes it simple to see relationships between completely different knowledge units. They’ll additionally assist with evaluating tendencies.

For instance, the chart above reveals what number of new clients this firm brings in every month. It additionally reveals how a lot income these clients are bringing the corporate.

This makes it easy to see the connection between the variety of clients and elevated income.

You need to use dual-axis charts to match:

• Worth and quantity of your merchandise.
• Income and models offered.
• Gross sales and revenue margin.
• Particular person gross sales efficiency.

Design Finest Practices for Twin-Axis Charts

• Use the y-axis on the left facet for the first variable as a result of brains naturally look left first.
• Use completely different graphing kinds for example the 2 knowledge units, as illustrated above.
• Select contrasting colours for the 2 knowledge units.

3. Space Chart

An space chart is mainly a line chart, however the house between the x-axis and the road is full of a colour or sample. It’s helpful for displaying part-to-whole relations, like displaying particular person gross sales reps’ contributions to complete gross sales for a yr. It helps you analyze each total and particular person pattern data.

Finest Use Circumstances for These Kinds of Charts

Space charts assist present adjustments over time. They work finest for large variations between knowledge units and assist visualize large tendencies.

For instance, the chart above reveals customers by creation date and life cycle stage.

A line chart may present extra subscribers than advertising certified leads. However this space chart emphasizes how a lot greater the variety of subscribers is than some other group.

These charts make the dimensions of a gaggle and the way teams relate to one another extra visually essential than knowledge adjustments over time.

Space graphs can assist what you are promoting to:

• Visualize which product classes or merchandise inside a class are hottest.
• Present key efficiency indicator (KPI) objectives vs. outcomes.
• Spot and analyze trade tendencies.

Design Finest Practices for Space Charts

• Use clear colours so data is not obscured within the background.
• Do not show greater than 4 classes to keep away from litter.
• Set up extremely variable knowledge on the prime of the chart to make it simple to learn.

4. Stacked Bar Chart

Use this chart to match many alternative objects and present the composition of every merchandise you’re evaluating.

Finest Use Circumstances for These Kinds of Graphs

These graphs are useful when a gaggle begins in a single column and strikes to a different over time.

For instance, the distinction between a marketing qualified lead (MQL) and a sales qualified lead (SQL) is typically laborious to see. The chart above helps stakeholders see these two lead sorts from a single viewpoint — when a lead adjustments from MQL to SQL.

Stacked bar charts are wonderful for advertising. They make it easy so as to add quite a lot of knowledge on a single chart or to make some extent with restricted house.

These graphs can present a number of takeaways, so that they’re additionally tremendous for quarterly conferences when you may have quite a bit to say however not quite a lot of time to say it.

Stacked bar charts are additionally a sensible choice for planning or technique conferences. It is because these charts can present quite a lot of data without delay, however additionally they make it simple to concentrate on one stack at a time or transfer knowledge as wanted.

You can even use these charts to:

• Present the frequency of survey responses.
• Determine outliers in historic knowledge.
• Evaluate part of a method to its efficiency as an entire.

Design Finest Practices for Stacked Bar Graphs

• Finest used for example part-to-whole relationships.
• Use contrasting colours for better readability.
• Make the chart scale giant sufficient to view group sizes in relation to 1 one other.

5. Mekko Chart

Also referred to as a Marimekko chart, this sort of graph can examine values, measure each’s composition, and present knowledge distribution throughout each.

It is much like a stacked bar, besides the Mekko’s x-axis can seize one other dimension of your values — as a substitute of time development, like column charts usually do. Within the graphic under, the x-axis compares the cities to 1 one other.

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Finest Use Circumstances for This Sort of Chart

You need to use a Mekko chart to point out progress, market share, or competitor evaluation.

For instance, the Mekko chart above reveals the market share of asset managers grouped by location and the worth of their property. This chart clarifies which corporations handle essentially the most property in several areas.

It is also simple to see which asset managers are the most important and the way they relate to one another.

Mekko charts can appear extra advanced than different kinds of charts and graphs, so it is best to make use of these in conditions the place you wish to emphasize scale or variations between teams of knowledge.

Different use circumstances for Mekko charts embrace:

• Detailed revenue and loss statements.
• Income by model and area.
• Product profitability.
• Share of voice by trade or area of interest.

Design Finest Practices for Mekko Charts

• Range your bar heights if the portion measurement is a vital level of comparability.
• Do not embrace too many composite values inside every bar. Take into account reevaluating your presentation if in case you have quite a lot of knowledge.
• Order your bars from left to proper in such a approach that exposes a related pattern or message.

6. Pie Chart

A pie chart reveals a static quantity and the way classes symbolize half of an entire — the composition of one thing. A pie chart represents numbers in percentages, and the whole sum of all segments must equal 100%.

Finest Use Circumstances for This Sort of Chart

The picture above reveals one other instance of shoppers by function within the firm.

The bar graph instance reveals you that there are extra particular person contributors than some other function. However this pie chart makes it clear that they make up over 50% of buyer roles.

Pie charts make it simple to see a piece in relation to the entire, so they’re good for displaying:

• Buyer personas in relation to all clients.
• Income out of your hottest merchandise or product sorts in relation to all product gross sales.
• % of complete revenue from completely different retailer areas.

Design Finest Practices for Pie Charts

• Do not illustrate too many classes to make sure differentiation between slices.
• Be sure that the slice values add as much as 100%.
• Order slices in response to their measurement.

7. Scatter Plot Chart

A scatter plot or scattergram chart will present the connection between two completely different variables or reveal distribution tendencies.

Use this chart when there are numerous completely different knowledge factors, and also you wish to spotlight similarities within the knowledge set. That is helpful when on the lookout for outliers or understanding your knowledge’s distribution.

Finest Use Circumstances for These Kinds of Charts

Scatter plots are useful in conditions the place you may have an excessive amount of knowledge to see a sample rapidly. They’re finest whenever you use them to point out relationships between two giant knowledge units.

Within the instance above, this chart reveals how buyer happiness pertains to the time it takes for them to get a response.

This kind of graph makes it simple to match two knowledge units. Use circumstances may embrace:

• Employment and manufacturing output.
• Retail gross sales and inflation.
• Customer numbers and out of doors temperature.
• Gross sales progress and tax legal guidelines.

Attempt to decide on two knowledge units that have already got a optimistic or unfavourable relationship. That mentioned, this sort of graph may make it simpler to see knowledge that falls outdoors of regular patterns.

Design Finest Practices for Scatter Plots

• Embrace extra variables, like completely different sizes, to include extra knowledge.
• Begin the y-axis at 0 to symbolize knowledge precisely.
• For those who use pattern traces, solely use a most of two to make your plot simple to grasp.

8. Bubble Chart

A bubble chart is much like a scatter plot in that it may well present distribution or relationship. There’s a third knowledge set proven by the dimensions of the bubble or circle.

Finest Use Circumstances for This Sort of Chart

Within the instance above, the variety of hours spent on-line is not simply in comparison with the person’s age, as it could be on a scatter plot chart.

As an alternative, you may as well see how the gender of the person impacts time spent on-line.

This makes bubble charts helpful for seeing the rise or fall of tendencies over time. It additionally enables you to add another choice whenever you’re attempting to grasp relationships between completely different segments or classes.

For instance, if you wish to launch a brand new product, this chart may allow you to rapidly see your new product’s value, threat, and worth. This can assist you focus your energies on a low-risk new product with a excessive potential return.

You can even use bubble charts for:

• High gross sales by month and site.
• Buyer satisfaction surveys.
• Retailer efficiency monitoring.
• Advertising marketing campaign opinions.

Design Finest Practices for Bubble Charts

• Scale bubbles in response to space, not diameter.
• Be certain labels are clear and visual.
• Use round shapes solely.

9. Waterfall Chart

Use a waterfall chart to point out how an preliminary worth adjustments with intermediate values — both optimistic or unfavourable — and ends in a last worth.

Use this chart to disclose the composition of a quantity. An instance of this is able to be to showcase how completely different departments affect total firm income and result in a selected revenue quantity.

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Finest Use Circumstances for This Sort of Chart

A majority of these charts make it simpler to grasp how inner and exterior elements influence a product or marketing campaign as an entire.

Within the instance above, the chart strikes from the beginning stability on the far left to the ending stability on the far proper. Components within the middle embrace deposits, transfers out and in, and financial institution charges.

A waterfall chart gives a fast visible, making advanced processes and outcomes simpler to see and troubleshoot. For instance, SaaS firms usually measure buyer churn. This format can assist visualize adjustments in new, present, and free trial customers or adjustments by person section.

You might also wish to attempt a waterfall chart to point out:

• Modifications in income or revenue over time.
• Stock audits.
• Worker staffing opinions.

Design Finest Practices for Waterfall Charts

• Use contrasting colours to spotlight variations in knowledge units.
• Select heat colours to point will increase and funky colours to point decreases.

10. Funnel Chart

A funnel chart reveals a sequence of steps and the completion fee for every step. Use this sort of chart to trace the gross sales course of or the conversion fee throughout a sequence of pages or steps.

Finest Use Circumstances for These Kinds of Charts

The most typical use case for a funnel chart is the advertising or gross sales funnel. However there are numerous different methods to make use of this versatile chart.

In case you have a minimum of 4 levels of sequential knowledge, this chart can assist you simply see what inputs or outputs influence the ultimate outcomes.

For instance, a funnel chart can assist you see enhance your purchaser journey or procuring cart workflow. It is because it may well assist pinpoint main drop-off factors.

Different stellar choices for these kind of charts embrace:

• Deal pipelines.
• Conversion and retention evaluation.
• Bottlenecks in manufacturing and different multi-step processes.
• Advertising marketing campaign efficiency.
• Web site conversion monitoring.

Design Finest Practices for Funnel Charts

• Scale the dimensions of every part to precisely replicate the dimensions of the information set.
• Use contrasting colours or one colour in graduated hues, from darkest to lightest, as the dimensions of the funnel decreases.

11. Warmth Map

A warmth map reveals the connection between two objects and supplies score data, equivalent to excessive to low or poor to wonderful. This chart shows the score data utilizing various colours or saturation.

Finest Use Circumstances for Warmth Maps

Within the instance above, the darker the shade of inexperienced reveals the place nearly all of individuals agree.

With sufficient knowledge, warmth maps could make a viewpoint which may appear subjective extra concrete. This makes it simpler for a enterprise to behave on buyer sentiment.

There are a lot of makes use of for these kind of charts. The truth is, many tech firms use warmth map instruments to gauge person expertise for apps, on-line instruments, and web site design.

One other frequent use for warmth map graphs is location evaluation. For those who’re looking for the fitting location to your new retailer, these maps can provide you an concept of what the realm is like in ways in which a go to cannot talk.

Warmth maps may assist with recognizing patterns, so that they’re good for analyzing tendencies that change rapidly, like advert conversions. They’ll additionally assist with:

• Competitor analysis.
• Buyer sentiment.
• Gross sales outreach.
• Marketing campaign influence.
• Buyer demographics.

Design Finest Practices for Warmth Map

• Use a fundamental and clear map define to keep away from distracting from the information.
• Use a single colour in various shades to point out adjustments in knowledge.
• Keep away from utilizing a number of patterns.

12. Gantt Chart

The Gantt chart is a horizontal chart that dates again to 1917. This chart maps the completely different duties accomplished over a time period.

Gantt charting is without doubt one of the most important instruments for challenge managers. It brings all the finished and uncompleted duties into one place and tracks the progress of every.

Whereas the left facet of the chart shows all of the duties, the fitting facet reveals the progress and schedule for every of those duties.

This chart sort permits you to:

• Break tasks into duties.
• Monitor the beginning and finish of the duties.
• Set essential occasions, conferences, and bulletins.
• Assign duties to the crew and people.

Finest Use Circumstances for This Sort of Chart

Gantt charts are excellent for analyzing, highway mapping, and monitoring progress over a time period.

The chart above divides the completely different duties concerned in product creation. Every of those duties has a timeline that may be mapped on the calendar view.

From the imaginative and prescient and technique to the seed funding spherical, the Gantt chart helps challenge administration groups construct long-term methods.

The perfect half? You’ll be able to deliver the stakeholders, challenge crew, and managers to a single place.

You need to use Gantt charts in varied duties, together with:

• Monitoring worker data as a human useful resource.
• Monitoring gross sales leads in a gross sales course of.
• Plan and observe development work.

Design Finest Practices for Gantt Charts

• Use similar colours for the same group of actions.
• Be certain to label the duty dependencies to map challenge begin and completion.
• Use gentle colours that align with the texts and grids of the chart.

13. Treemap

A treemap is a chart that represents hierarchical knowledge in a tree-like diagram. As evident from the title, treemaps have knowledge organized as branches and sub-branches.

The information within the chart is nested within the type of rectangles and sub-rectangles. Every of those rectangles and sub-rectangles has completely different dimensions and plot colours that are assigned w.r.t to the quantitative knowledge.

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Finest Use Circumstances for This Sort of Chart

The treemap chart compares the completely different merchandise in a class or sub-category. Within the diagram above, the merchandise are divided by income.

Take a look at the 4 father or mother classes: Fruits, Greens, Dairy, and Meat. That is adopted by subsequent sub-categories or sub-products. The scale of those rectangles are in proportion to their numerical amount and different rectangles in the identical class.

The colours of those rectangles are plotted as per the income generated. Treemap charts are efficient in differentiating between the merchandise that lie in the identical group however are divided into completely different sub-groups.

This type of mapping chart is finest used:

• When there are a whole bunch of classes and even deeper layers of sub-categories. For instance, Whole votes forged w.r.t. States.
• To review the information with respect to solely two quantitative values.
• To check the efficiency of merchandise and determine similarities and anomalies inside a single or a number of classes.

Design Finest Practices for Treemaps

• Use contrasting and vivid colours to spotlight variations between sub-categories.
• Set up the rectangles so as of bigger space to smaller in measurement (i.e., from prime to backside).
• Mark down every rectangle with textual content or numbers to make it simple to learn.

Easy methods to Select the Proper Chart or Graph for Your Knowledge

Channels like social media or blogs have a number of knowledge sources, and managing these advanced content material property can get overwhelming. What must you be monitoring? What issues most?

How do you visualize and analyze the data so you possibly can extract insights and actionable data?

1. Determine your objectives for presenting the information.

Do you wish to persuade or make clear some extent? Are you attempting to visualise knowledge that helped you clear up an issue? Or are you attempting to speak a change that is occurring?

A chart or graph can assist you examine completely different values, perceive how completely different elements influence the entire, or analyze tendencies. Charts and graphs will also be helpful for recognizing knowledge that veers away from what you’re used to or allow you to see relationships between teams.

Make clear your objectives, then use them to information your chart choice.

2. Work out what knowledge you must obtain your objective.

Several types of charts and graphs use completely different varieties of knowledge. Graphs normally symbolize numerical knowledge, whereas charts are visible representations of knowledge which will or might not use numbers.

So, whereas all graphs are a sort of chart, not all charts are graphs. For those who do not have already got the type of knowledge you want, you may have to spend a while placing your knowledge collectively earlier than constructing your chart.

3. Collect your knowledge.

Most companies acquire numerical knowledge frequently, however it’s possible you’ll have to put in some further time to gather the fitting knowledge to your chart. Moreover quantitative knowledge instruments that measure visitors, income, and different person knowledge, you may want some qualitative knowledge.

These are another methods you possibly can collect knowledge to your knowledge visualization:

• Interviews 
• Quizzes and surveys
• Buyer opinions
• Reviewing buyer paperwork and data
• Group boards

4. Choose the fitting sort of graph or chart.

Selecting the unsuitable visible support or defaulting to the commonest sort of knowledge visualization may confuse your viewer or result in mistaken knowledge interpretation.

However a chart is barely helpful to you and what you are promoting if it communicates your level clearly and successfully.

Ask your self the questions under to assist discover the fitting chart or graph sort.

Download the Excel templates mentioned in the video here.

5 Inquiries to Ask When Deciding Which Sort of Chart to Use

1. Do you wish to examine values?

Charts and graphs are excellent for evaluating one or many worth units, they usually can simply present the high and low values within the knowledge units. To create a comparability chart, use these kind of graphs:

• Column
• Mekko
• Bar
• Pie
• Line
• Scatter plot
• Bullet

2. Do you wish to present the composition of one thing?

Use this sort of chart to point out how particular person elements make up the entire of one thing, just like the system sort used for cell guests to your web site or complete gross sales damaged down by gross sales rep.

To point out composition, use these charts:

• Pie
• Stacked bar
• Mekko
• Space
• Waterfall

3. Do you wish to perceive the distribution of your knowledge?

Distribution charts allow you to to grasp outliers, the traditional tendency, and the vary of knowledge in your values.

Use these charts to point out distribution:

• Scatter plot
• Mekko
• Line
• Column
• Bar

4. Are you interested by analyzing tendencies in your knowledge set?

If you need extra details about how an information set carried out throughout a selected time, there are particular chart sorts that do extraordinarily properly.

You must select one of many following:

• Line
• Twin-axis line
• Column

5. Do you wish to higher perceive the connection between worth units?

Relationship charts can present how one variable pertains to one or many alternative variables. You possibly can use this to point out how one thing positively impacts, has no impact, or negatively impacts one other variable.

When attempting to determine the connection between issues, use these charts:

Featured Useful resource: The Marketer’s Guide to Data Visualization

Download this free data visualization guide to study which graphs to make use of in your advertising, displays, or challenge — and use them successfully.

Put these new kinds of charts and graphs into motion.

Now that you’ve got chosen the very best graph or chart to your challenge, attempt an information visualization useful resource that makes your level clear and visible.

Knowledge visualization is only one a part of nice communication. To point out your clients, staff, management, and traders that they are essential, preserve making time to study.

Editor’s observe: This put up was initially revealed in November 2020 and has been up to date for comprehensiveness.