Choosing the correct chart for visualization (POWERBI)

Sowmyalakshmi

The First step for visualization is understanding the dataset. Depending on what we want to visualize, we choose the variables from the dataset. The two main types of variables are continuous and categorical.

* Continuous variables are typically the ones that change over time. Examples are sales, inventory, weight..

* Categorical variables are the ones that have the data that is distributed over categories. Examples are Product, Location, Gender..

The variable type has a profound impact on the chart type we choose. The main part of visualization is to know which chart type will represent the data clearly and accurately. There are 4 primary ways we present our data.

* Comparisions

* Compositions

* Relationships

* Distributions

Comparisions

These are used when we want to compare multiple values side by side. In addition, they are also good in ranking the data points and to show trends or patterns in the data.

Column chart, Bar chart - Continuous or categorical

Line chart - Continuous

Compositions

These chart types are good in showing the individual parts and as a whole of something.

Stacked Column chart, Stacked Bar chart, Waterfall chart - Continuous or categorical

Pie charts also fall under this category but they are the least effective way to present the data.

Relationships

They are best suited to show how one or more variables relate to other variables - Positive, negative or no co-relation.

Scatter plot - Continuous (Trends or clustering)

Bubble chart - Categorical

Distributions

Typically the least used chart type. They are used to see the range of values, understand how the data is distributed and the outliers.

Histogram - Continuous or categorical

This chart below guides us to choose the correct chart for our data.

Example charts

Comparision

Composition

Relationship

Distribution (Table)

Enjoy Choosing the correct chart for visualization !!