Stop 05 · Data VisualizationTopics · 1/10

Choosing the Right Chart Type

In short

The right chart makes an answer obvious in three seconds. The wrong one hides it, even when your numbers are perfect. The trick is to start from the question, not the chart menu.

Matching the chart to the question — trends over time want a line chart, comparisons want a bar chart, parts of a whole want a (careful) pie or stacked bar, relationships want a scatter plot.

The jaadu holds a pot of soup, choosing between a bowl, a flat plate and a glass.

Think of it like this

Serving soup in the right dish

Nobody serves rasam on a flat plate or rice in a tall glass. The food decides the dish. In charts, your question decides the shape: a trend wants a line, a comparison wants bars, a relationship wants dots.

Watch it happen

Start from the question

Your question

Change over time

Compare groups

Relationship

Part of whole

Line chart

Bar chart

Scatter plot

Stacked bar

1/5Before opening any chart menu, write the question in one sentence.

The big ideas

What you need to know

Question first

Write the question, then pick the chart. Not the other way round.

Bars for comparing

Lengths are easy to compare. Sort bars largest to smallest unless the order means something.

Lines for time

Time goes left to right as a line. Don't use lines to join unrelated categories.

Sometimes a table wins

If people need exact values to look up, a clean table beats any chart.

Save yourself the pain

Common mistakes

Oops

Using a pie chart with twelve slices.

Do this instead

Use a sorted bar chart. People compare lengths far better than angles.

Oops

Picking a fancy chart type to look impressive.

Do this instead

Use the simplest chart that answers the question. Fancy charts slow readers down.

Your mission

Match five questions to charts

~20 min

Quick check

You want to show how daily active users changed over the last 90 days. Which chart fits best?

Go deeper

1Take 5 different business questions and match each to an appropriate chart type.
2Critique a chart you've seen that used the wrong type for its data.
3Learn why pie charts fall apart with more than 4-5 categories.