How to choose the right chart?

Overwhelmed by all those different charts? You shouldnt!

When it comes to quantitative charts, there are only 5 basic chart forms to choose from.
pie chart
column chart
bar chart
line chart
dot chart
With the following mindmap, youll be able to turn your data into a chart, in a few sec.
How? Find the clue behind the message you want tell.
(the mindmap was inspired by the table in Gene Zelaznys classic work Saying it with Charts (p. 27 in the 4th. ed)
Be honest, without message, you dont need to show something.
So,
1. Study your data and find the comparison
o Component (part of the total); you are interested primarily in showing the size of each part
o Item; you want to compare how things rank
o Time Series; you are interested in how things change over time
o Frequency Distribution; this comparison shows how many items fall into a series of progressive numerical
ranges
o Correlation; this comparison shows whether the relationship between two variable follows, or fails to follow,
the pattern you would normally expect
2. Think about the message, you want to tell.
3. Find the comparison topic clue in your message.
4. Use the suggested chart in the mindmap
An example:

We are comparing/ranking product lines (category for items), and the best selling line is undoubtedly Sweat-T-Shirts with
the largest sales revenue.

Message: Sweat-T-Shirts is our best selling product line

In other words, the line of products are items in a product hierarchy, and we want to rank them, so we can visual prove
the message we want to tell. As a result, the bar chart is the one we need.