1) Choose your chart

28 6 2) Design your chart

What would you like to show? categories time part to whole distribution geospatial relationship exact value Let your data speak
do‘s don’ts
1,0
0,8
0,6
0,4
0,2
0,0

42%

25%

21% Show in context Misleading design

12% Rank your data in 60 A truncated axis in
100% c a relevant way so a column or bar-
a patterns and 50 chart distorts the
barchart grouped bar diverging stacked bar deviation bar line chart dot-line chart area chart 100% stacked bar 100% stacked column 100% stacked area 100% bar chart d outliers become relative size of the
40
one measure two variables opposing variables delta between continuous time aggregated in time one measure one categorie + 100% one timestamp + 100% continuous time + 100% adding up to 100% b visible. columns

100%
relevant ranking cutting of Y axis
Enrich you chart Multiple Y-axis
0% 100%
with target or 30 12 give a false
0%
benchmarks, to 20 8 meaning to lines
give the values crossing or to the
10 4
more meaning. space between
floating bar stacked bar panel bar lollipop column chart stacked column stacked area 100% stacked bar 100% stacked column Sankey diagram waffle chart 0 0 lines.
delta between one category + total multiple categories like bar but thinner one measure like column + total like area + total category in time multiple categories flow 100 blocks filled multiple Y axis
target or benchmark
8 10 a b c 100%

10 11

7 13 Support easy comparison Beauty over accuracy

9 16 When you have Do not use 3D to
12 17 1/1 31/12
0% more than 4 series, make a chart
change you chart prettier, it will make
to small multiples. it harder and more
dumbbell proportional x/y coordinate plot vertical waterfall deviation column deviation line waterfall tree map 100% waterfall parallel set Marimekko chart confusing to read.
two groups sizing measure combination visual calculation above or below target versus cumulative target change in time nested part to whole breakdown part to multiple whole plus extra variable
15 19 15 19 15 19 15 19

bar 20% 80% 88% 96%

100% small multiple 3D effect
visualdiagram 31 86% 67%

chart
axis 1
23 70%
Gridlines make it Although fluid lines
2005 8% 54% 42%
data 2007 10
5 easier to compare might look nicer,
column legend 2004 2011 3 10
length of columns they are not repre-
numbers graph 90
70 76 2018 2019
6 5 2
1
k l m n and bars and help senting the data
to see the steep- properly.
bullet graph parallel coordinate pictograph wordcloud timeline sparklines slopegraph nested area Pareto chart pie chart donut chart ness of lines.
bad/ok/good multi variate data using icons not recommended order of events mini trend two time stamps parts inside other parts 80 / 20 analysis not recommended not recommended gridlines fluid lines

a 7 9 ? yes
? yes
b 8 11
?
no
3
no
? Visual hierarchy Too much
c 11 12 yes no
1 2 ?
? De-emphasize all The human brain
d 10 14 no yes
e 13 17
12345 12345 12345 12345 12345
a b
x y
c d e
non-data elements can only process a
mon tue wed thu fri
like axis and maximum of 4
legend. The data is series in a chart.
radial column radial bar radar chart gauge dot plot cycle plot horizon graph funnel chart Venn diagram flow chart Gantt chart more important.
not recommended not recommended not recommended not recommended before and after repeating time series high and low conversion overlapping step by step planning
less is more more than 4 series
b Highlight the most Things that are the
a important element, same, should have
to make it stand the same color
out.

dot matrix age distribution histogram frequency polygon route map symbol map flow map organization chart arc diagram bump chart sorted stream graph emphasize too much or meaningless color
frequency count two categories per interval distribution direction classes movement hierarchical relations rank over time rank + size over time

Show and tell Hard to read

Likelyhood
Team a is second Create a title to Show as little
name the insight in decimals as possi-

23.155
c

19.05

18
a the chart. ble.

14.4
Consequence
d Always show the
b same number of
J F M A
error bars box plot violin ridgeplot chloropeth map isopleth map dot map heatmap network diagram risk map scatterplot decimals.
uncertainty with median box plot + density distributions over time value by region value by area distribution use color to show relations + hierarchie visualizing risk correlation descriptive title too much details

6
Labels and anno- Text and numbers

4
ad campaign pears

23
team earned share tation help your that are not hori-
€ 10 42% 23

19
blue

18
20 apple data to tell a story. zontal aligned are

14
yellow € 6 25% 15
green € 5 20% real plan 11 pear harder to read.
red € 2 13% 20 16 8

ar
r
b
Jan

Ap
Fe
M
annotation align text other than horizontally
number table deviation box in bar labeling hexbin map bubble map chart on map dendrogram sunburst chord diagram bubble
single big number multiple numbers focus on delta more accuracy value by hex not recommended not recommended clustering nested groups relations not recommended

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