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A picture is worth a thousand words. The truth in that statement cannot be disputed – and since a picture can be in the form of charts, then a chart is equally worth a thousand words.
Charts come in various forms – one of which is graphs. Yes, graphs are a kind of chart, but some charts are not graphs. This pretty much clears the debates about chart vs graph.
Chart encompasses all kinds of data visualizations. It’s broad, while graphs are merely a subset of charts. Speaking of data visualization, it is the display of data in a digestible format. And it provides a reliable way for the user to easily understand what’s being shown without losing sleep.
Analyzing raw data is no easy feat. But with data visualization, you are halfway there – after all, it’s not rocket science, and by merely taking a glance at what’s displayed, you can get a good grasp of what the information is all about.
Charts and Graphs are some of the most reliable ways of presenting data. Yes, it’s visually appealing, and you can use it to showcase any kind of data – whether raw or digestible information. If you are like most people, you probably do not know the difference between charts and graphs.
It’s quite easy to use them interchangeably, and the difference between the two is thin. In this guide, you will discover the difference between charts and graphs. What’s more, you get to identify where and how they are used for data visualization.
Regardless of your level of expertise, you’ve probably come across the bar graph vs pie chart debate. Well, the various misconceptions between the bar graph and pie chart will also be addressed in this guide.
Before diving into how graphs and charts can be used in effective storytelling, here are some things you need to know about the two.
In this blog, you’ll discover:
Graphs are primarily used to translate raw data, and they show the data trend over time. A graph is a two-dimensional structure with a horizontal line at the bottom and a vertical line by the side. The horizontal line is called the X-axis, while the vertical line is called the Y-axis.
A graph uses lines or curves to show the relationship (or correlation) between a data set. Mathematically, a graph is a diagram that shows the correlation (or relationship) between two or more sets of measurements or numbers.
Here are some graph examples.
A bar graph is a graphical representation that uses rectangular bars of varying lengths to compare different categories of data. The length of each bar corresponds to the value it represents, making it easy to visualize and compare quantities across categories.
A line chart is a graphical representation that displays data trends or relationships over time or other continuous intervals. It connects data points with straight lines to show the progression or change of values smoothly.
A histogram is a graphical representation of the distribution of numerical data. It consists of bars of varying heights, where each bar represents a range of values (bin) and the height represents the frequency of data within that range. Histograms are used to visualize the shape and spread of data distribution
An area graph is a type of data visualization that displays quantitative data over time or other continuous intervals. It is similar to a line graph but the area between the line and the horizontal axis is filled with color or shading to visually emphasize the magnitude of change over time or between categories.
A scatter plot is a graph that uses Cartesian coordinates to display values for two variables as dots or points on a coordinate plane. Each dot represents a single data point, and the dot’s position depends on the values of the two variables.
Large data sets can be somewhat difficult to represent. However, with cool Excel charts and graphs, you can easily visualize large data sets, identify trends, and forecast future patterns based on recent data.
It’s a simple yet effective way to transform complex data into meaningful insights, giving you a clear grasp of trends and helping predict future outcomes with precision.
A chart can take various forms – it could be a picture, diagram, or graph. With charts, you get to transform data sets into meaningful displays.
A pie chart is a circular graph divided into sectors, each representing a proportion of a whole. It visualizes data as slices of a pie, showing relative sizes of categories or percentages.
Sentiment analysis charts help you analyze incoming messages and pinpoint whether the preconceived sentiment is positive, negative, or neutral.
Typically, you’ve got to use a comprehensive report to present in-depth findings of survey results. If, however, you desire an easy way of summarizing your findings, then the specialized survey chart is the right fit.
A funnel chart visualizes the progressive reduction of data through stages of a process, often used in sales and marketing to illustrate steps in a sales pipeline reporting or customer journey, highlighting drop-offs between stages.
A Pareto chart is a bar graph combined with a line graph. The bars represent individual values in descending order, while the line shows the cumulative total.
It is used to highlight the most important factors in a dataset, often following the Pareto principle, which states that roughly 80% of effects come from 20% of causes.
Sankey chart is a great tool for showing complex web processes while highlighting a single aspect of the process. It also provides insights into how quantities are distributed across two or more stages. As an energy flow diagram, it effectively visualizes how energy, materials, or costs move through a system, offering clarity in intricate workflows.
If you desire flexibility with multiple viewing levels, the Sankey chart supports it. Viewers can explore minute details, access high-level views, and even use the graph to show profit and loss, helping experts understand the broader flow of each node from start to finish.
Exploring trends in Google Ads data is made easy with the PPC charts. This way, you get to quickly draw hypotheses about your campaigns and come up with reliable ways of optimizing the campaign.
The PPC chart includes metrics like clicks, CPC, bounce rate, and revenue – pretty much Analytic metrics and Google Ads metrics. The beauty of the PPC charts is in the flexibility that comes with combining various data into a single visualization.
All in all, if you want to track the relationship between various data metrics and gain more exposure to these metrics, then the Google ads visualization will help you do just that.
Also, note that PPC Charts are not limited to PPC data only if your business data can be shown on such visualization you can also use that for your purpose.
| Basis | Graphs | Charts |
| Definition | A graph is a kind of chart that visually represents data by plotting points horizontally (X-axis) and vertically (Y-axis). | A chart is a visual tool that organizes and represents data in various forms, such as diagrams, tables, or graphs. |
| Subset | All graphs are considered charts. This means any graph used to display data is a specific kind of chart. | Not all charts are graphs. Many kinds of charts are not categorized as graphs. |
| Data Representation | Graphs are effective for displaying raw data and highlighting trends and changes over time. | Charts are suitable for organizing data into smaller, easily understood categories or figures. |
| Application | Graphs are typically used when precise numerical data needs to be analyzed and compared, often displaying exact values on the axes. | Charts are commonly used in business presentations and surveys to summarize and present data. |
| Trend Analysis | Graphs are ideal for illustrating trends, patterns, or relationships between variables over a period. | Charts can also be used to display data without necessarily showing a trend or relationship. |
| Common Types | Examples include line graphs and bar graphs. | Common types include pie charts, histograms, and various types of bar charts. |
With lots of visualization graphs on the market, choosing the right one for your work may be quite tricky. With the right visualization data, you get to highlight key trends in your data. It also attracts viewers and gets your message across to your audience.
To get the best out of your graphs, you must understand the purpose it serves.
There is nothing fancy about creating complex visualizations. They serve no purpose, and your audience will not gain from them. Remove irrelevant information as much as possible.
Yes, less is more – and it applies to good data visualization!
Visualizations without unnecessary patterns and distractions will effectively convey your message to your audience.
Labeling is a vital piece of your visualization. It shows your audience what your visualization is saying. If you are like most creators, you may skip the labels. Therefore, before publishing your visualization, you’ve got to double-check and confirm that things are in place.
Here are some easy ways to help you out.
If you think that chart vs graph is just about compiling some numbers, you’re wrong! Use texts when necessary. Most times, texts convey the message to the audience. Headings, subheadings, and annotations are great ways of spicing up your chart vs graph. Yes, it helps to convey the message and explain the visualization at hand.
On the flip side, you should avoid repeating the same information at every point. That constitutes unnecessary information and will cause great harm in the long run.
Humans are visual beings, and colors are great ways of creating more impact in your visualization. When used the right way, it could compel the user to take action. If you are skeptical of the right colors to use in your visualization, you should check out the best colors for graphs.
The magic lies in the moderation. Yes, if used in excess, colors can mar your chart vs graph.
By now, you probably know the answer to the chart vs graph debate – the differences, and how you can use them to create great visualization. Next, you’ve got to learn how to create these visuals using ChartExpo, and possibly get a glimpse of what bar graph vs pie chart looks like.
Let’s face it, you can’t figure out the message in a raw data set by merely looking at it. However such challenges can be eliminated with visualization. Regardless of how complex a data set is, visualization makes it easy for you to digest such data into usable information.
If you are up for it, you can fuse data storytelling into charts and graphs. This way, it becomes easy to highlight key points in a data set and communicate effectively. Experts across various industries use charts and graphs to tell compelling stories to their audiences. With good data stories, you can easily relay the message in complex data without much fuss. If you want to seamlessly connect your audience to some data, then charts and graphs are probably your best shot!
The elegance and effectiveness that come with communicating your findings using data stories are second to none.
For instance, if you manage a restaurant, charts and graphs can be used to get feedback from your customers. Such feedback will help you see your restaurant through the eyes of your customers. It’s also an ideal way of ascertaining the service delivery of your restaurant.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
From the chart above, you would realize that the green bars show positive feedback from customers, while the other bar represents negative feedback from the customers. A simple glance shows that the restaurant owner has lots of work to do, given that the positive reviews by the customers are not satisfactory.
As a restaurant owner, you are more likely to get better results if you improve your overall service delivery.
Let’s say you want to check your campaign performance for the week, a graph will help you do that. By merely looking at the graph, you will get a rough idea of how your campaign is going, and possibly come up with better ways of optimizing your campaign.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
Looking at campaign data can be demanding, especially when there are lots of it. But graphs provide a thorough overview of what’s going on in your campaign.
It shows you the day(s) your campaign generated lots of results, and when the results were scanty. This way, you get to have a thorough overview of how your campaign is going, and also make more informed decisions moving forward.
Now you understand how to deliver effective messages using charts and graphs, here is how to create effective graphs and charts using simple tools.
The primary goal of your graphs and charts should be to deliver digestible information to your audience. It’s not about you – it’s about them! The thing is, creating charts and graphs is not easy. Yes, lots of work goes into the creation of any sleek chart or graph you have seen.
The key is to maintain a balance. There has to be a balance in the visual elements. Without the right balance, you would pretty much have a bad end product. All elements have to be in the right proportion – anything short of that will not cut it.
To get started, here are some tips to help you create charts and graphs like a pro.
Two things come into play here – the requirements and the audience. What are the requirements, and who is your target audience? Answers to these will go a long way to help you create the right charts and graphs.
A good understanding of the requirements and your audience will help you create a compelling chart (and graph) that resonates with your audience and also satisfies the desired purpose.
For instance, if your audiences are novices in the marketing industry, creating a chart (or graph) that’s filled with marketing jargon will do you no good. At the end of the day, everyone goes home unfulfilled.
Furthermore, charts and graphs that are filled with multiple trends are quite confusing. It would likely confuse your audience and defeat the sole purpose of data visualization.
A good chart (or graph) boils down to knowing your audience and having a good grasp of the requirements for the visualization.
To get the most out of your data visualization, you must have a good grasp of what your audience is looking for. What are their preferences? And a good knowledge of their background will go a long way to help you.
Are they comfortable with detailed visualization, and what other details (or requirements) are they comfortable with?
Your audience preference is one of the things to keep in mind as you create your visuals. This way, you will create compelling charts and graphs that will resonate with your audience.
If you understand the requirements of the visualization, you can easily create charts that convey clear, concise messages. You should also focus your energy on delivering messages with little or no fluff. Highlight vital points and eliminate any form of complexity.
Let’s say you have an electronic store and you want a thorough breakdown of items according to their orders, you can use a multi-series line chart for visualization. If after you put the data set in Google Sheets as represented below, here is what to do.
| DOW | Juicer | TV | Iron | Mobile |
| Monday | 15 | 35 | 61 | 66 |
| Tuesday | 23 | 42 | 67 | 91 |
| Wednesday | 42 | 18 | 70 | 51 |
| Thursday | 71 | 39 | 84 | 54 |
| Friday | 93 | 64 | 92 | 74 |
| Saturday | 43 | 10 | 81 | 28 |
| Sunday | 23 | 6 | 36 | 79 |
First, navigate to your Google Sheets, and from the various add-ons, choose ChartExpo.
The add-on will load at the right-hand corner of your screen. Next, click the Create Chart icon.
By now, you probably know that bar graphs vs line charts are great data visualization tools. For now, you will be using a line chart. Therefore, choose a line chart from the options displayed.
After choosing the multi-series line chart option, you’ve got to complete relevant details by providing the sheet name, dimensions, and metrics.
Click the Create chart option so the chart gets displayed on your screen.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
From the chart above, you will notice that on Monday, there is a high demand for Iron and Mobile. It remains the same for Tuesday but after that Mobile demands decline till Saturday. But on Sunday, demand for each item drops except Mobile.
Choose a graph or chart based on the type of data and the information you want to convey:
The three important features you should look out for are the title, the vertical axis, and the horizontal axis. The title provides a quick overview of what the graph and chart are. The vertical axis shows you the measured variable, while the horizontal axis shows the unit of measurement used in the visualization.
Charts vs graphs are some of the best tools for creating compelling stories for your audience. As an analyst, you can use bar graphs vs pie charts to deliver intuitive data results while maintaining accountability and transparency.
With the right kind of charts and graphs, you can easily translate complex data into digestible information. To get started, you can use ChartExpo.
The best part…
Anyone can create compelling visuals using charts vs graphs. Yes, it requires little to no technical skills.
Now you understand the difference between charts vs graphs, and how you can apply them in your marketing. Here comes the big question – bar graph vs pie chart, which would you use for representing data?
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