Exploring more complex charts
Data Visualization in Excel
Agata Bak-Geerinck
Senior Data Analyst, Telenet
Single vs multi-series charts
Single vs multi-series charts
Combo charts
- Excel offers multi-series charts
Each series can be visualized differently:
- e.g., Line charts vs. column charts
- Series can be plotted on primary or secondary axis
- e.g., useful when the level of data magnitude largely varies
Bullet chart
- Bullet chart, by Stephen Few$^1$
- Useful for comparing results versus benchmark
- Require working with dual axes
- Consist of clustered columns on primary and secondary axes
1 Stephen Few is a data visualization expert, lecturer, and author of "Show Me the Numbers".
Waterfall chart
- Explains the net change in value between two points
- Starts at a baseline, followed by a series of columns, and ends in total
- Works great with colors
- Exposes the complexity hidden behind an aggregated number
Scatter plot (bubble plot)
- Presenting the relationship between two numerical variables
- Disclose a correlation between two measures
- Size of the bubble = third measure
- May uncover unexpected insights
Chart formatting options
