VISUALIZATION GUIDEBOOK
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1. Bar Chart 2. Scatter Plot
Show Relationships/ Correlation/
Categorical Comparison
Clustering
Annual Sales (2024) Male Female
200K
180K 100
180K 170K
160K 150K
90
140K 80
Weight
120K
120K
100K
70
100K
80K
60
60K 50
40K
40
20K 150 160 170 180 190 200
0
East Central North South West
Height
• Always sort - ease of comparison
• Add data slicer for more number of categories • Multidimensional: Color, Shape, and Size (Bubble plot)
• Advanced: Stacked, Stacked %, Horizontal
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3. Line Chart 4. Pie Chart
Trends/ Changes over time Proportions/ percentages
Budget 2024
120 Stock Price
110
11%
100
Operations
90
17% 44%
80
Marketing
70 R&D
60 HR
28%
Stock A Stock B
• Don’t exceed beyond 6 slices
• Also called time-series plot
• Order slices by size for easier interpretation
• Don’t use for categorical data comparison
• Ensure %’s sum to 100
• Include axis scaling to avoid trend exaggeration
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5. Histogram 6. Box Plot
Single variable distribution Summarizing data distribution, including median,
quartiles & outliers
Salary distributions across departments
95K
Quartile3: 75% data fall below this value
90K max
85K Q3 Median (Q2)
80K
75K Q1
70K min
65K
60K
55K
IT Marketing Sales
• Adjust bins to reveal patterns • Used in evaluating potential of numerical predictor
• Can add kde plot for added context
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7. Area Chart 8. Pair Plot
Relationships between multiple variables
Trends/ Stacked quantities over time
simultaneously
Left skewed
distribution
Cumulative sales by product over months
1,60,000
1,40,000
1,20,000
1,00,000
80,000
60,000
40,000
20,000
-
Jan-24 Feb-24 Mar-24 Apr-24 May-24
Product_A Product_B Product_C +ve correlation
• Use baseline of zero for accurate display • Best suited for multidimensional data exploration
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9. Bubble Plot 10. Parallel Coordinates Plot
Scatter plots by encoding a third Visualize high-dimensional data by plotting each
variable with point size variable on a parallel axis
GDP vs. life expectancy (Population as bubble size)
90
Virginica tend to have longer
85
petal lengths in comparison
20,00,000
….
30,00,000
Life Expectancy (years)
80
15,00,000
75
70 1,00,00,000 50,00,000
65
60
10000 15000 20000 25000 30000 35000 40000 45000 50000 55000
GDP
• Normalize to ensure uniform scales
• Multidimensional factor: Size
• Limit to 5-10 variables for clarity
• Can add 4th variable with colour (e.g. region)
• Focus on the convergence areas
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11. Networked Data
Social networks/ Supply chains
• Nodes: Category (separated by
color)
• Edge: To display strength of
relationship
• Can add bubble size to display
volume of transactions.
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12. Word Cloud 13. TreeMap
Word frequency or importance Hierarchical data with nested rectangles
• Tree map without hierarchy is pie, but worse
• Used in qualitative insights for textual data
• Color opacity: Margin display
• Scale words by frequency
• Rectangle size: Contribution/ share in the overall
• Limit to 50-60 words for readability
market
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14. Waterfall Chart 15. Radar Chart
Cumulative changes leading to a final value Compare multiple variables for one or more entities
Financial Breakdown leading to net profit
Athlete_A
1,20,000 Speed
Athlete_B 10
9
100000 Athlete_C
1,00,000 8
7
6
Net profit 5
80,000
4
45000
3
2
(INR)
60,000
-40000 1
Endurance 0 Strength
40,000
-20000
20,000 -15000
-
Initial_Revenue Cost_of_Goods Marketing Operating_Expenses Net_Profit
Agility
• Used in financial breakdown/ profit analysis/ • Used in product feature prioritization
sequential contribution • Normalize axes for fair comparison
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16. Map Chart 17. Heatmap
Geospatial data + Color Relationships/ intensities across 2 variables
* Shown for illustration • Used in correlation matrices/ website click data, etc.
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