MEPX
Chapter 3 of 10All chapters
  1. 1What a chart is for
  2. 2How people read charts
  3. 3Choosing a chart
  4. 4Axes and scales
  5. 5Colour
  6. 6Removing clutter
  7. 7Titles and annotation
  8. 8Showing distributions
  9. 9Time series
  10. 10Tools and workflow

Chapter 3 of 10

Choosing a chart

A short decision list.

The workhorses

Bars compare categories. Lines show change over time. Scatter plots show relationships between two numbers. Histograms show the shape of one variable.

  • Sort bars by value unless the categories have a natural order.
  • Horizontal bars handle long category labels better.

Use sparingly

Pies for a few slices where the point is roughly what share. Stacked bars only when the total matters. Dual axes almost never, because the relationship they show is chosen by you.