Types of Charts
We provide various types of visualisations (using the tools mentioned above) which are listed below:
Line Plots
It is the most basic type of graph and is usually used to display trends or progress over time. It plots a point for each category which is joined by a line. It should be used when the data set is continuous
- - Single line
- - Multiple lines
Area Charts
It is a variation of line chart where the area below the line is filled with a colour or a pattern. It is usually used to display changes of multiple variables across time.
Bar Plots
It is one of the most common types of graphs. It is mainly used for comparison between groups or to display changes over time or to show distribution of data. Each category on the x-axis is represented by a bar whose height depends on the corresponding value of the y-axis. If you have more than 10 categories to compare then you should make use of bar graphs.
- - Horizontal
- - Vertical
- - Stacked
Histograms
A histogram is a special kind of bar graph in which the category is a range of numerical data which is plotted against its frequency i.e. these types of graphs are used to display distribution of data that is measured on an interval scale.
Scatterplots
It is also called a scattergram. It is used to determine the relationship between two different data. The x-axis represents one set of data while the y-axis represents the other. If both the data increase at the same time, then it is concluded that there is a positive relation between them and if one decreases and another increases (or vice-versa) at the same time, then it is concluded that there is a negative relation between them. When there is no recognisable pattern, there is no relationship i.e. the variables are independent of each other. A scatter plot can also be used to do cluster analysis and trend lines can be added to enhance it.
Pie Charts
It is used to compare parts of a whole. It is represented by a circle cut up into segments based on the number of parts of the whole. It is more suited to add details to other visualisations.
Box Plots
It is also known as box and whisker plot. It summarises data on an interval. It is a graphical representation of statistical data based on the components: minimum, first quartile, median, third quartile, and maximum. The term “box plot” comes from the fact that the graph looks like a rectangle with lines extending from the top and bottom. These are mainly used in exploratory data analysis.
Heatmaps
A heat map displays the relationship between two or more variables and provides rating information which ranges from high to low, represented by various colours or saturation. It comes in handy when one wants to analyse a variable against a matrix of data. The different shades allow us to easily find out extremes.
Geographical Maps
These types of maps depict a geographical region of interest for e.g. continents, countries, states, cities and so on. It is used when one needs to compare a data set against geographic regions or to show some statistics related to a region such as sales and profits, distribution of shopping malls, restaurants, warehouses etc. using their geographic coordinates.
Network
It is a structure that is used to show relationships between objects or people aesthetically. This type of chart shows interconnections between entities with the use of nodes and edges/links. The entities are denoted by nodes and the relationships are displayed by edges/links. It can be either directed or undirected.
Ridge Line Chart / Joyplot
It is a chart which is used to display the distribution of various groups of a category. In simple words it is a set of density plots. This kind of chart works well when there are medium to high numbers of groups of a category (i.e. 6 or more) and there is a clear pattern to be observed.
Bubble Plot
This type of chart portrays circles in a 2-D plot to display three dimensions of the data. The position of the bubble on the x-y plane represents one aspect of the data, the size and colour of the bubbles represents the other two.
Word Cloud
This kind of plot is used to display the frequency of a word in textual data. The bigger and bolder the word the more frequent it is in the data. It is used to discover the focus or theme of the text.
Spider/Radar Chart
This type of chart is used to display multivariate data in 2-D plots of three or more quantitative variables represented on axes starting from the same point. This plot consists of a sequence of equi-angular spokes, called radii, with each spoke representing one of the variables. The length of a spoke is proportional to the magnitude of the variable for the data point relative to the maximum magnitude of the variable across all data points. A line is drawn connecting the data values for each spoke. This gives the plot a star-like appearance and the origin of one of the popular names for this plot.
Parallel Plots
This type of plot is a common way of showing and analysing high-dimensional datasets. A parallel coordinate plot maps each row in the data table as a line, or profile. Each attribute of a row is represented by a point on the line.
Treemap
Tree map is a method for displaying hierarchical data using nested figures, usually rectangles. In it, each rectangle represents a group and its size increases with the value of the group and vice-versa. Thus it makes it easy to notice which group dominates over the others in comparison.
Dashboard
A dashboard is a visual display of all of your data. While it can be used in all kinds of different ways, its primary intention is to provide information at-a-glance, such as KPIs. Charts in the dashboard add a strong visual impact to your data and make it easier to spot trends, areas of concern, and successes
