Which Visualization?

A Quick Reference
You have the following data (sample): Categories Ordered Cats Continuous Metrics
Discrete Categories, City Airline Class PriceBracket Month Distance FlightTime Price
Ordered categories, Alphaville XeroTrip Coach $ 1 300 120 250
and Continuous Metrics Betastan YoloFly Business $$ 2 500 185 1,525
Chicago ZeusAir First $$$ 3 650 240 4,023
Here's how to plot them … … … … … … … …

Discrete Categories Ordered Categories Continuous Metrics

Franconeri022608111210

Bar (Row) Lollipop Dot Plot Bar (Column) Bar (Column) Area Line
1 category
Metric, binned by

A A A A A
B B B
C Price C C
$ $$ $$$ Class 1 2 3 Month 1 2 3 1 2 3
Rows allow readable More focus on the A non-zero y-axis Histogram. Boxes Time moves Adds continuity to A non-zero y-axis
labels, while columns positions of tops. base may be less help convey the horizontally. So use x-axis. base may be less
awkwardly turn text Fun factor +1 misleading here underlying bins Column, not Row misleading here

Bar Table X,Y,Z,… Bar Table X,Y, Delta Mirror Bar 2D Heat Bar Table Bar Line Table Line Table
A

Class
F Price
A A A A Price
B
2 categories

B B B B
Distance

C C C C B C
$ $$ $$$
X Y Z X Y Delta X Y 1 2 3 1 2 3 1 2 3
… by

Price Bracket
Compare X to Y to Z, Comparisons are Compare X to Y, Compare a metric Now one is Trends visible, but
‘Small multiples’ . slow. Plot critical leverages human 2D Histogram. across an ordered continuous-er use Lines (below)
Please use this more. Deltas explicitly symmetry perception Similar in spirit to a category to compare heights
bar table, but ordered
cats + color encoding
Benchmark Bar Benchmarks Bar Interleaved Bar Interleaves two Slopegraph Dual Axis Lines
Franconeri022608111210 Price
categories into one A
A A X
A Y spatial dimension. A
Distance
X Typically better to B
B B B B
Y use Bar Table
C C X (above) instead C C
C Y
Budget Xs Ys 1 2 1 2 3 1 2 3
Compare X to a Compare X to Y. Compare X to Y With two values, Use (above) instead. Compare many.
benchmark Fancier version (not recommended) slope encodes Crossings here are Getting spaghetti?
called a ‘Bullet graph’ delta salient, but Split into subset or
meaningless Line-Table (above)

Pie
1 category
Part-to-Whole, binned by

Stacked Bar (Row) Stacked Bar (Col) Waterfall

A Waterfalls are
B Beware of an illusion
A vertical stacked bars
A B C B for these: seeing
that narrate financial
differences (lines),
C values in a (typically)
These lines or category values
artificially imposed
are identical, (stacked area)
C ordering across
with equal Y separation can be difficult and
Screams More precise and flex, Now I'm standing fantasy-time A B C
at each X slice, but it even misleading
‘Percentages!’ but less screaming doesn't look that way!

MultiPie Stacked Bars (R) [Mari]Mekko Stacked Bars (C) … with lines Stacked area
Stacked bars but A A
X Y A A
now with with X, Y,
B A B Z info. Here XYZ No legends. A A
C A
2 categories

C B might be absolute B B B Instead,

B B
values of a market, directly label
B A
C ABC are company C C C actual values C C
C % market shares
Z X Y Z X Y Z X Y Z X Y Z 1 2 3
… by

Please don’t… …Use this instead Horizontal flow Added lines suggest continuity, Now it’s definitely
(not recommended) implies an ordering help depict changes continuous

Breakout Bar Treemap C

A B C A Hierarchy, ~3 levels max of Scatter Connected Scatter Parallel Coordinates
hierarchies

Let’s zoom in here. bento boxes going all Inception Price Price
A
Use different colors. within other bentos. Size+Color 3
2

Global at top or left. better code different metrics.

… by

B B1 B2 Typically misused. B
4
A1 A2 A3 B3 95% sure you actually wanted
a Bar Table (above) Month 1
C
Month Distance Price Time Month
Look at this number. An elegant graph, A scatterplot, Beyond 2 perpendicular
Just look at it. Metrics: from a civilized age connected into a Cartesian axes, Parallel
journey over time format allows more axes
relationships

43%
to other metrics Map Hans Rosling Scatter Rosling Comet
Distance Distance
Space

Dot Array Dot Array % Huge Number Connecting Lines

imply continuous data
Bars Lines
Height

Space Month Month

Same data, Zacks
ask people,
Maps and Roslings Watch Rosling's TED Show two or more
& Tversky,
“What do you see?” 1997 share the same DNA talk. Take XY scatter X+Y history values
USA Dutch USA Dutch
Color = Flight Time and adds two more for comparison
Icon Array Icon Array %
Size = Price metrics (color and size), over time
(ISOTYPE) "Dutch people are “People get taller as
taller than Americans” they get more Dutch” and then moves in time

© 2019 Steve Franconeri

Franconeri022608111210
v1.25 Download the most recent version + Instructions at ExperCeption.net
d @SteveFranconeri