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Data visualization helps deliver clear messages to your audience. Data loses value without proper context and visualization. Charts break down complex data and assist with effective communication of results. Let’s discuss the best charts to show trends over time.
Before going on, please download an add-in for Excel or Google Sheets. There will be a few visualizations in this blog that you can easily create with ChartExpo without knowing any coding, scripting, or any hustle.
Interpreting a chart is easier than scrolling through a spreadsheet. At the onset of your project, you must visualize data at your disposal. Doing so helps you interpret the results and places you in a good position to interpret and present the same.
Research extensively and find the best chart to show trends over time. Before you prepare a visual diagram, assess why you need it in the first place. Establish whether there was another way of presenting the data.
What message would you like to deliver to your audience? Decide on the variables, data points, and scale. After that, find a chart that would best go with the data. What are the different variables you would like to utilize?
With dozens of chart types available, choosing the most suitable can be a tough task. Read on, learn more about trends, and discover the best chart.
In this blog you will learn:
Definition: Charts to Show Trends Over Time are visual representations of data that help track changes or patterns in values over a specific period. These charts display how data points evolve, making it easier to identify upward or downward trends, fluctuations, and patterns over time. Common examples include line charts, area charts, bar charts, scatter plots, and column charts.
These visual tools are essential for understanding temporal relationships, forecasting, and decision-making based on historical data trends.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
So, if you are bored with using a simple line chart and you have multivariable data over time then the above chart is best suitable for you. As you can see two different y-axis with different scaling values. The right y-axis shows percentage data whereas the left y-axis shows cost with the dollar sign.
There is another visualization available in the ChartExpo add-in that is dual axis with line and bar chart.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
What if you want multiple axes in your visualization? You don’t have to worry because you have ChartExpo in your spreadsheets. Below the visualization is a Multi-axis line chart which you can create to see how different variables are trending over the period.
Unique colors lines and axes easily give a brilliant impression at first look to identify the data pattern and find results.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
You will find another beautiful visualization using the line with an area chart in the ChartExpo library.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
The shaded part shows the patient visited over time and the lines show the patient treated on that day.
So ChartExpo is not stuck with simple line charts. It has a different collection of charts that fulfill your requirement to show trends over time in unique ways. For example, there is another visualization you will find in ChartExpo which is Sentiment Trend Chart.
As you can see in the below image how different values are showing in different colors and the line over the bars shows you the trend pattern.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
Data visualization possibilities are endless, with many kinds of charts and graphs to choose from. For example, we identified a line chart as the best option to show trends over time during our discussion. Nonetheless, it’s important to narrow down your choice to a specific type, as there are numerous options at your disposal.
Likewise, dozens of tools exist to assist with deriving line graphs from data sets. Presenting change over time in a visual format can, at times, be a challenging task. Rather than seeking different connectors to pull data sets, you can rely on one add-on.
ChartExpo is a Google Sheets and Excel add-on that lightens your data visualization task. It comes with in-built charts enabling you to create a line chart with only a few clicks.
As mentioned earlier, line charts are best suited for showing trends, as they illustrate changes over time in a linear fashion. Cool Excel charts and graphs, like line charts, are ideal for visualizing data such as population growth, demand forecasts, and units sold—examples of quantitative data where trends are key.
These occurrences are best visualized through line charts. We can demonstrate how to use ChartExpo in Google Sheets by using a data set example like the one below:
| Year | TV | Mobiles | Sound System |
| 2015 | 700 | 1500 | 1000 |
| 2016 | 600 | 1400 | 900 |
| 2017 | 700 | 2000 | 1300 |
| 2018 | 1200 | 1800 | 800 |
| 2019 | 980 | 1900 | 1100 |
| 2020 | 700 | 2500 | 1200 |
To choose the right chart for showing trends over time, use a **line chart** for continuous data, bar or column charts for discrete time intervals, and an area chart to emphasize trends.
For relationships between variables, a scatter plot with a trendline is effective. Keep the chart simple with consistent time intervals and clear labels for easy interpretation.
The answer is now clear, line charts. Most data analysts prefer using a line chart as compared to other types. If you want to plot changes and trends over time, a line chart is your best option. Line charts compare data, reveal differences across categories, and show trends while also revealing highs and lows.
Numerous visualization methods exist, and all show changes over time, also referred to as trends. Examples of these methods are as follows:
While these have numerous similarities, the difference is in how you connect data ranges to create lines.
Line graphs assist a data analyst in showing trends which could be a rise or drop, increase, or decrease. With these charts, you can compare facts by displaying quantities to arrive at a comparison. What is more, a reader can quickly establish relationships between the visually presented categories.
Line chart scores highly here since you can use it to map continuous data. Examples of instances where you use line graphs include identifying traffic spikes, mapping an increase or decrease in sales for a specific year, weather reports, and so on.
Raw data is impossible to interpret since it has no structure. By tabulating it in a spreadsheet, you can at least begin to realize some order. Nonetheless, data tabulations do not necessarily reveal trends over time. A perfect example is when you have tons of data in numerous spreadsheets.
Line graphs display change over time through data points spread across two axes. Straight lines connect these data points. When structuring a line graph, the horizontal axis (x-axis) is where you plot your independent data. Dependent data goes to the vertical (y-axis).
A line chart is, therefore, the best chart to show trends over time. It shows trends and data variables clearly. Besides, a line graph assists readers with making predictions for the future. However, for a data set comparison to be useful, you must use the same scale on both axes.
ChartExpo delivers more insightful charts to present trend-over-time data both in Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. Here are a few advanced charts.
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