Diksha Malkhede
Build Your Next Visual
1.Bar Graphs
When to Use?
When comparing values across
different categories, such as
sales by region or survey
responses by category
Examples:
Comparing sales
figures across
different regions.
2.Column Chart
When to Use?
When comparing data over
time, such as monthly
revenue or quarterly
performance.
Examples:
Displaying monthly
revenue over the
course of a year
3.Line Chart
When to Use?
When visualizing trend over
time, Such as tracking website
& stock prices
Examples:
Displaying monthly
revenue over the
course of a year
4. Area Chart
When to Use?
When showing cumulative values over
time to illustrate the total growth, such
as cumulative sales or employment
contributions.
Examples:
Visualizing
cumulative sales
over time to show
growth.
5.Pie Chart
When to Use?
When displaying proportions of a
whole, such as market share or
budget allocation
Examples:
Showing the market
share of different
products.
6.Donut Chart
When to Use?
When showing proportions with an
additional ability to add more data
in the center, like a breakdown of
budget allocation.
Examples:
Displaying the
percentage distribution
of customer
demographics.
7.Scatter Chart
When to Use?
When analyzing relationships
between two variables, such as
advertising spend versus sales
revenue.
Examples:
Exploring the
relationship between
advertising spend and
sales revenue
8.Bubble Chart
When to Use?
When comparing three variables,
such as product sales, profit, and
market size
Examples:
Comparing product
performance by sales,
profit, and market size.
9.Basic Map
When to Use?
When plotting geographic data
points, such as customer locations
or store sites.
Examples:
Plotting customer
locations to visualize
geographic
distribution.
10.Filled Map
When to Use?
When displaying data over
geographic areas, such as sales
performance by state or country.
Examples:
Showing sales
performance by
country or region.
11.ArcGIS Map
When to Use?
When you need advanced
geographic features and spatial
analysis, like analyzing traffic
incidents or demographic data.
Examples:
Analyzing spatial
data with advanced
geographic features
12.Tree-Map
When to Use?
When displaying hierarchical data
in a compact format, such as sales
by product category.
Examples:
Analyzing spatial
data with advanced
geographic features
13.Funnel Chart
When to Use?
Visualizing stages in a sales
process, from lead generation
to closing
Examples:
Visualizing stages in
a sales process, from
lead generation to
closing.
14.Gauge
When to Use?
When showing progress
toward a specific goal, such as
sales targets or performance
metrics.
Examples:
Showing progress
toward a sales
target.
15.KPI
(Key Performance Indicator)
When to Use?
When displaying a key metric
compared to a goal, such as
monthly sales versus target.
Examples:
Displaying a key
metric like monthly
sales compared to a
goal.
16.Card
When to Use?
When highlighting a single
important figure, such as total
revenue or the number of new
customers.
Examples:
Highlighting a
single important
figure, such as
total revenue.
17.Multi-Row Card
When to Use?
When showing multiple key
metrics in a compact format,
like sales, profit, and
expenses.
Examples:
Displaying multiple
key metrics, such as
sales, profit, and
expenses.
18.Table
When to Use?
When displaying detailed data
in a tabular format, such as a
list of transactions or product
inventory
Examples:
Presenting detailed
sales data in a
tabular format.
19.Matrix
When to Use?
When you need to show data with multiple
levels of categorization, similar to a pivot
table, like financial performance by region
and department.
Examples:
Showing financial data
with row and column
grouping, similar to a
pivot table.
20.Slicer
When to Use?
When providing interactive filtering
options for your report, such as
filtering by date, category, or region.
Examples:
Providing interactive
filters to refine report
data by date, category,
or region
21.Waterfall Chart
When to Use?
When showing the cumulative effect of
sequential positive or negative values,
such as profit changes over time.
Examples:
Showing the
incremental impact of
individual components
on a total figure, such
as profit.
22.Combo Chart
When to Use?
When combining two different types of
data in one visual, like sales volume
and profit margin.
Examples:
Combining
revenue and profit
margin data in one
visual.
23.Ribbon Chart
When to Use?
When showing rank changes over time,
such as product rankings or market
positions
Examples:
Showing rank
changes of
products over
time.
24.Decomposition Tree
When to Use?
When you need to drill down into data
across multiple dimensions to
understand contributing factors, such
as analyzing sales by region, product,
and time.
Examples:
Drilling down into
sales data to
understand
contributing factors.
25.Histogram
When to Use?
When showing the distribution of a
single variable, such as customer
ages or transaction amounts.
Examples:
Displaying the
distribution of
customer ages.
26.Heatmap
When to Use?
When visualizing data density or
intensity, such as website click
activity or sales performance across
regions.
Examples:
Showing data
density, such as
website click
activity.
27.Sparkline
When to Use?
When showing trends in a small
amount of space, often within tables
or matrices, like monthly revenue
trends.
Examples:
Adding mini
trendlines to a
table to show sales
trends per product.
28.Q&A Visual
When to Use?
When allowing users to ask natural
language questions and get visual
answers, useful for ad-hoc data
exploration.
Examples:
Allowing users to type
natural language
questions and get
visuals based on data.
29.R-Visual
When to Use?
When you need to create custom
data visualizations using R scripts
for advanced analytics or statistical
charts.
Examples:
Creating custom data
visualizations using R
scripts for advanced
analytics
30.Python Visual
When to Use?
When using Python scripts to generate
complex visuals or for advanced data
analysis, such as machine learning
model outputs or time series
forecasting.
Examples:
Using Python scripts
to generate complex
visuals or statistical
charts.
