Chart vs Graph: Visualizations that Best Suit Your Data

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 type 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.

Chart and Graph 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.

What is a Graph?

Graphs are primarily used to translate raw data, and it shows 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.

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

Simply put, a graph is a form of visual representation where users get a glance at what a set of data values represents.

What is a Chart?

Large data sets are somewhat difficult to represent. But with a chart, you can easily represent large data sets, and also predict trends and forecast the future based on the recent data patterns. It’s a simple way of representing a large data set while getting a good grasp of the trends and forecasting future patterns with precision.

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

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.

Charts vs Graphs — What are the major differences?

• Charts translate large data sets using graphs, tables, or diagrams, while graphs show the mathematical relationship between varying data sets. Simply put, graphs are a subgroup of charts, while charts can take various forms like graphs or other diagram forms.
• Regardless of the type of data, charts translate such data into digestible information using visually appealing patterns. The same cannot be said for graphs. Graphs represent data with trends or patterns on two axes. It’s a good way of showing the relationship between data sets and making sense of such data.
• When handling well-categorized data like age buckets, then charts are the best fit. On the other hand, graphs are ideal for showing patterns or trends in a data set.

Now you’ve got a good grasp of the key differences between charts and graphs, here are ways of conveying your messages using these data visualization tools.

How to convey your message using charts and graphs?

Let’s face it, you can’t figure out the message in a raw data set by merely looking at it. But 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 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 the 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.

Creating more effective graphs and charts that delivers a clear, concise message

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 in maintaining 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.

Your charts and graphs should focus on your audience with the right requirement

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 requirement for the visualization.

• Knowing your audience

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.

• Having a good grasp of the requirement for the visualization

If you understand the requirements of the visualization, you would 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.

Select the right charts and graphs for your work

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.

i-Keep it simple

There is nothing fancy about creating complex visualization. It serves no good — and your audience will not gain from it. As much as possible, remove irrelevant information.

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.

ii-Label the graphs and charts

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.

• Labels should be clear. If your labels are not clear, it would be of no benefit. A good label should be comprehensible and easy to read.
• Your graph should have a title.The title of your graph should provide an overview of what the graph is all about.
• Use a legend the right way.Spotting the difference between different lines in a graph is made easy with a legend. However, if you are using line charts, directions should be labeled rightly. This way, your viewers get to easily identify lines.
• Label the axes. There are times when the title does not explain what the axes represent. Therefore, you’ve got to label your axes.
• Keep a close eye on the labeling on the axes. If you desire neat and clear work, then you should opt for simple labeling — label only the interval on the axes to convey a clear message.

iii-Take advantage of chart texts

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.

iv-Use colors in your charts and graphs

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.

How to create charts and graphs using ChartExpo

Data visualization, to a large extent, helps in identifying errors in a data set. If there are wrong actions during the data gathering process, you can easily identify them during visualization. To create compelling visuals, you should use the ChartExpo tool. This library is available for Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel.

Here are some things you should know before using the tool.

Types of charts and graphs you can create with ChartExpo

A solid design conquers all in data visualization. The image below shows you some solid designs you can create using ChartExpo.

Sankey Charts

Sankey chart is a great tool for showing complex web processes while highlighting a single aspect of the process. It also gives a clue on how quantities are spread across two or more stages. And if you desire the flexibility that comes with multiple viewing levels, the Sankey chart supports it.

With Sankey charts, viewers get to see minute details, access high-level views and also help experts get a broader flow of each node from start to end.

Sentiment Analysis Charts

Sentiment analysis charts help you analyze incoming messages and pinpoints whether the preconceived sentiment is positive, negative, or neutral.

Comparative Analysis Chart

A comparative analysis chart pretty much compares two or more items using various parameters. With this chart, you get to see the similarities, differences, and also weigh multiple products (or services). It’s a go-to chart that helps you compare multiple products before settling on one.

The best part…

The data is displayed in an easy-to-understand format.

Specialized Survey Charts

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.

General Analysis Chart

It’s a good tool for drawing a comparison between multiple items using different parameters. With the general analysis chart, you can opt to compare two items, or merely use different comparison points to weigh several items.

PPC Charts

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 own purpose.

Example Of Data Visualization by Using ChartExpo?

Let’s say you have the electronic store and you want to a thorough breakdown of items according to their orders, you can multi series line chart for the 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 the on Monday, there is a high demand of 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.

FAQs:

What are charts and graphs?

Graphs and charts are visualization tools that show the relationship (or correlation) between data. It also displays data in a digestible or easy-to-understand format. Experts typically use charts and graphs to show patterns, relationships, and trends between data sets. If you are still skeptical of how charts vs graphs look, then you can take a look at the bar graph vs pie chart.

Why do we use charts and graphs?

Chart vs graph compiles a large volume of data into digestible information that communicates vital findings. Bar graphs vs pie charts are clear examples of these visualization tools.

What are the three important features of charts and graphs?

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.

Wrap Up:

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 type 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 chart vs graph, 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?