Which type of chart is used to compare two or more values?
Different types of graphsThere are different kinds of graphs. Show
To understand what a graph shows you, you need to understand the following phrases: A
comparison is made when you analyse things to see similarities and differences. This might seem very mathematical. Look at this list to learn more about graphs. You will find explanations for these phrases. Bar chartProportions: This bar chart could show the outcome of a vote in which five different parties have participated. The party represented by the blue bar won, closely followed by the party represented by the red bar. The least votes were given to the party represented by the green bar. Contrast: It could also represent the number of sunny days during a five week holiday. Each bar would represent one week. So the chart shows that the second and the fifth week were the sunniest ones. Comparison: The bar could also show how many students go to school on foot, by bike, bus, car etc. Trend: It could show a development over five years, how the number of car users have changed. Line chart This line chart could show a development, e.g. how the use of three different kinds of social media have developed. The social media represented by the blue line has been well used in the beginning but soon was overtaken by the social media represented by the yellow line. It could also show a trend, i.e. how eating habits have changed over the last year. The yellow line could represent vegetarians. Group bar chartThis kind of
bar chart is like the bar
chart 1, but adds a third characteristic (the different colored characteristics). Positive / Negative bar chartIt can be used for a Comparison of positive and negative data, e.g. comparison of revenues and expenditures of a newly opened shop. In the first months there were more costs than incomes, but in the next few months it has changed and the shop owner started to make money. Pie chartRelative sizes are a percentage, like a cake slice of the whole cake. This chart could show the money a person spends in a months. Section A could represent money spend on rent, B could represent money spend on food, C could represent money spend on clothes, D could represent money saved and E could represent money spend on phone, media, sports and other. Stacked bar chartProportion – For example it could show different people and how many apples (pink), bananas (violet) and oranges (pink 2) they eat. So it shows the overall consumption of fruit and the specific fruit as well. It could show a comparisonof average media use during weekdays, weekends, and holidays. The bars could represent 9 different months. The bottom of the bar could represent the average use during weekdays, the middle part could represent weekends and the top could represent holidays. Contrast – Showing different countries and the degrees of summer and winter. Area diagramThis one could show trends shown over time; e.g. the amount of rain and snow on mountains. The pink area could represent the snow, the purple area could represent the rain. Scatter diagram (x,y)Our example could be to look for the average height of students. The y-axis shows the height of students, the x-axis represents the ages of students themselves. The scatter diagram has a function to find the average height of students at a specific age. Surface diagramIn this example the three characteristics could be:
Web diagramThis one could show a target-performance comparison’; e.g. What skills and characteristics do you need for a certain job? Here we look at the skills of patience, precision, organisation, tidiness, helpfulness and team player. The different jobs are represented by a colour. For example red could represent the skills you need as a nurse. In this case it shows that a nurse has high scores in most areas. Whereas the blue line shows that in this job precision is more important than the other skills. It could represent the skills of an electrician. Bubble chartThis example shows how many hours per day people spend on social media. The y-axis represents the number of people who use the media. The x-axis stands for the media form (Facebook etc.) and the size of the bubble represents the hours the media is used. Circle chartIt can be used to depict fractions (100%) and to make comparisons. E.g. Theft (in %) in different cities in different years. The colours represent different cities, the circle rings the different rings and the coloured portions the percentage/amount of thefts. InfographsIt is used to show and create all kinds of graphs and meanings using data and your imagination. Depending on personal likes and ideas you can use pictures, colours, words or patterns. This infographic is about creativity. It uses the size of words to show their importance. Also colour is used to draw our attention immediately to the words in dark blue. Using the map of the world immediately tells us that creativity is something common all over the world. In the following table you can find out quickly about when to use what type of graphs:
We propose you always follow these 3 steps to get familiar with the data shown: Step 1: Look at title, words and pictures. What does the table show? Step 2: Look at the numbers. What do the numbers tell you? Step 3: Choose a type of graph for this data. What kind of graph would you choose to effectively represent the data? The first table gives an overview and explanation. The second table helps you decide what you want to show (comparison or proportion) and therefore what type of graph to use. Now let´s try out these 3 steps in the next chapter! Which charts are used for comparing two or more values?Column Charts
The column chart is probably the most used chart type. This chart is best used to compare different values when specific values are important, and it is expected that users will look up and compare individual values between each column.
What type of graph is best for comparing 2 or more groups?a Bar Graph. Bar graphs are used to compare things between different groups or to track changes over time.
What chart is used to compare values?Column Charts are useful to visually compare values across a few categories or for showing data changes over a period of time. A Column Chart typically displays the categories along the horizontal (category) axis and the values along the vertical (value) axis.
|
