How to Create Beautiful Gauge Chart Templates Easily in Excel

We’re sure you’ve all become the victims of lousy visualization at some point.

And nothing is boring like random use of visualization charts to tell your data story. There are simple and easy-to-read charts like Gauge Chart templates that could have a powerful effect on your presentation.

And this is because they communicate your intended message in a clutter-free and simple way.

After all, one of the significant traits of a compelling story is SIMPLICITY. Yes, you heard that right. Simplicity sells. The essence of incorporating visual content, such as Gauge Charts, is to help compellingly tell your data story.

Let’s agree: Throwing in any chart into your story to highlight beauty is really counterintuitive. If you want your target audience to take action, you don’t want to confuse them with irrelevant charts highlighting beauty over facts.

A gauge chart is one of those easy-to-read charts you need to learn about, and most importantly, leverage it to persuade your audience. And the uniqueness of this chart template is its simplicity. You can get insights instantly without subjecting your brain to cognitive overload.

In recent months, we’ve received multiple inbox requests from users who want to learn how and when to use Gauge Charts (or Speedometer charts). Although they have learned different coolest visualizations but also interested to know about this visualization.

We’ve taken the liberty to provide fresh tips about leveraging this chart template to persuade your audience with a compelling story. We use Gauge Charts templates from time to time, depending on our goals and the audience. And these charts do work every time we use them in our narratives.

We’ve learned that these charts spark immediate interest among people due to their similarity with car speedometers. Yes, you heard that right.

Whether you’re a seasoned data visualization expert or a business person that works with data, we’re confident you’ll find value in the blog post.

We understand this isn’t a 30-second video or a 140 character tweet. Please be patient and read on.

Data Storytelling with Gauge Chart Templates in Excel

We’ve rounded up pointers, fresh tips, and how-to about Gauge Chart templates. But before we delve in, let’s recap the true definition of the gauge chart.

What Is A Gauge Chart Template?

A gauge chart is one of the most commonly used tools for visualizing progressive values. Besides, it’s also known as a speedometer chart.

The chart looks like a speedometer or a dial (in most cases) with a needle pointing to a certain value over the pivot point. And the dial usually has different colors that divide the scale into several parts.

The use of contrasting colors has profound effects on our brains. We like to employ three colors in Gauge Charts, namely:

• Green (target or optimum performance)
• Yellow (average)
• Red (Abysmal performance/ levels)

We find these colors incredibly effective in helping shape the narrative we want the audience to get. You should try it out.

So this strategic use of colors is vital if you want your data story to be as irresistible as a gummy bear.

A gauge chart indicates the reading on a dial with the help of a needle. And this makes it incredibly valuable in comparing a small number of variables. This chart has ranges that communicate insights instantly. So you don’t have to struggle to see the bigger picture.

A tested and proven way of visualizing your data effectively using a Gauge chart is using colors strategically. And this includes red (poor performance, yellow (mod/ average performance), and green (target or top performance).

Well, don’t get us wrong. The fact above is based on what’s actually working. We’ve discovered that the aforementioned colors get an overwhelming response.

These colors are somewhat embedded into our brains as a reference for a particular phenomenon. For instance, red mostly stands for danger or hazard. And green is most associated with what’s desired- optimum performance.

Why Does Gauge Chart Templates Matters To You?

If you work with data most of the time, you’ll find having a Gauge Chart or two in your presentation dashboard helps. And it helps by simply communicating insights with unmatched clarity and simplicity.

Audiences of all walks of life should understand a well-constructed chart. So if your chart is just adding confusion rather than help strengthen the credibility of your story, discard it very far.

A visualization chart template, such as Gauge Chart, should be used purposely as a medium but not a tool. And having a strategic medium to use to strengthen the credibility of your story and arouse the interests of your audiences is gold.

So what are the golden benefits of this chart?

Gauge charts are amazingly effective in capturing the attention of an audience. And to put the power of this type of visualization into perspective, here we’ll leave you some of the core business benefits:

• Easy To Create

This chart type is mainly used to display a limited data range. And this makes it a straightforward visualization. With the right data visualization tool, you can create a professional chart with just a few clicks.

We’ll go a bit deeper into this point further in the post. You don’t want to miss this.

• User-Friendly

There’s one interesting aspect that makes gauge charts very popular, especially among seasoned data visualization experts. It’s no doubt that people usually find them familiar, thanks to their resemblance to a car speedometer or a temperature indicator.

And this makes them valuable, especially in visualizing performance metrics to non-technical viewers for clarity and smooth understanding.

Essentially, you don’t have to be an aircraft engineer or senior captain to know red in an instrument gauge means danger. And green represents optimum or recommended levels.

• Easy To Interpret

Gauge Charts comes with a user-friendly interface. And this makes them easy to read and interpret.

Besides, the sequence of colors, usually from green to red, makes them intuitive and immediate to understand.

You’ll do wonders with some of the tips you’ll learn about Gauge Charts. Keep reading. And this brings us to the application part: How to best use these charts to create a compelling data story.

When To Use Gauge Charts

Because gauge charts are easy to read and understand, they can be applied in a plethora of scenarios, namely:

• Manufacturing/ engineering sector
• Education and research institutions
• PPC marketing agencies
• Private/domestic use

However, it is important to keep in mind that the Gauge Chart template is mainly used to display one value. Therefore, they’re not the best choice if you want to extract deeper insights from your data.

For this reason, it’s imperative to identify the best scenarios in which your business can benefit from this chart type.

So check out the tips below to discover how to best leverage this chart to create a persuasive and compelling story.

• For Progressive Information

You can use a gauge chart if you have a linear metric and you want to tell a compelling story about its periodic changes.

Besides, you can use it to monitor your metrics based on a period to understand how the values change over time against your goals/objectives. And you can also compare the performance in different time periods-years, months, or quarters- to gauge performance.

• Target Metrics

You can use Gauge Charts to understand the performance of a specific KPI based on a target you’ve pre-defined.

Imagine you want to visualize sales KPIs that track the total revenue for a specific period based on a target. Use a gauge chart to visualize the percentage of the goal against the overall target.

• For Project Progress Or Deadlines

This chart visualizes all the tasks in a project against the milestones set by the project managers. So, it’s easy to keep track of all the tasks and their respective milestones with just a simple dashboard.

How To Read A Gauge/Speedometer Chart Template

Ideally, a Gauge Chart Template consists of three major parts that can vary according to the construction of the diagram:

• Gauge Dial or Axis

This is the essential part of any gauge chart as it represents the range of information (mainly in a numeric form). And apart from the data range, it also defines different intervals and colors.

• Needle

A needle points to a certain value on a dial in the present frame. Ideally, the tip of the needle can change its location over time depending on changes in variables.

• Pivot Point

A pivot point is the center of the needle where the value of its present placement is displayed for us to see.

So the Gauge Chart template functions like an analog watch or a care speedometer. Picture this: When you accelerate your car, the pointer moves progressively across the arc to denote speed is rising. Similarly, when there’s a change in variables, the pointer moves left or right depending on the scale.

This brings us to the meaty part of the blog: How to create Gauge charts (and Free access Excel templates). Keep reading.

How To Create Beautiful And Easy-To-Read Gauge Charts In Excel

Excel is one of the most used tools for visualizing data by businesses, students, researchers, Pay-per-click managers, etc. So we’ll show you how to create this chart in Excel.

Specify the Value Range and Parts you want the Gauge Chart to Show

• • Select the range F6:G10 (F for Donut Chart – Zone Settings) and (G for Pie Chart – Ticker Settings).
  • The Pie series has 3 data points, and the Donut chart series has 4 data points, as shown below.

• • Go to the Insert Tab on the ribbon and in the Charts Group.
  • Click on to Create Custom Combo chart icon to create the default chart, as shown below.

• • Choose Doughnut as the chart type.
  • For the Pie series, choose Pie as the chart type.
  • Remember it’s crucial to mark the checkbox to Plot the Pie series on the secondary axis, as shown in the bottom-right of the screenshot (circled with green marker).

• • Click on the OK button.
  • Clean up the combo chart by removing the chart title and the legend.
  • Select the chart areaand go to the Format tab on the ribbon. Then, in the Current Selection group, select the Pie series using the drop-down list.

• • On the Format tab, in the Current Selection group, click Format Selectionand type 240 degrees into an angle of the first slice textbox.

• • Select the Donut Chart Series and repeat the previous STEP
  • If you want to change the Donut Chart Hole Size, change the default value to 70%

• Select the Pie Chart series! Use the Ctrl and the left / right arrows to select a single data point.
• On the Format tab, in the Shape Styles group, change the Shape Fill of each point.
• Point 1 = No Fill
• Point 2 = black
• Point 3 = No Fill.
• Select the Donut Chart series! Use the Ctrl and the left / right arrows to select the Shape Fill of each point.
• Point 1 = Red
• Point 2 = Yellow
• Point 3 = Green
• Point 4 = No fill.

Darn! We won’t lie.

The journey was incredibly long. And it took us around an hour to come with the aforementioned steps on how to create a Gauge Chart using Excel. We could have put those 60 minutes into more productive work rather than waste it on a single chart.

And besides, you’ve got to re-work excessively on the resulting chart for it to fit seamlessly into your data story. And just imagine spending hours (of the time you barely have) just to end up with something that’s misaligned with your storytelling goals.

You’ve got to be advanced Excel users to accomplish even half of the steps we’ve highlighted above. We had to seek the help of an Excel Guru just to create this single chart.

Well, there’s a tool that can save you a whopping 60 minutes to create a Gauge Chart plus more than 50 other beautiful and intuitive visualization templates. And this tool is incredibly affordable and easy to use.

So you don’t have to be armed with coding/programming skills to run some kind of a visualization script on your Excel. Keep reading to get a money-saving solution to your data visualization woos.

What’s the best Gauge Chart Creator in Excel?

The tool we always recommend to our clients and other users is ChartExpo. And this highly affordable and easy-to-use tool comes as an add-in for Excel.

Besides, it comes with a very user-friendly interface to provide you unlimited access and convenience with simplicity. So, you don’t need programming or coding skills to use it. And in fact, you only need basic knowledge of visualization to operate it without hitches.

ChartExpo comes with an extensive library of chart templates: Over 50 visualizations, to be exact. And Gauge Chart template is one of them. All these charts are organized under 6 categories, namely:

• Sankey
• Sentiment
• Comparative
• Survey
• General

The gauge Chart template is found under the General charts category, as shown below.

This brings us to the practical section of the blog: How to install ChartExpo and get going with insightful and easy-to-read Gauge Chart templates.

How to install ChartExpo (Gauge Chart Creator) in Excel

To Get Started with ChartExpo for Excel add-In, follow the Simple and Easy Steps Below.

• • Open your Excel desktop application (Excel 2013 with sp1) or later).
  • Open the worksheet and click on the INSERT menu
  • You’ll see the My Apps option.
  • Click on My Apps and then click on See All.

• • You’ll see the screen as shown in the screenshot below.
  • You’ll see your add-in ChartExpo for Excel.
  • If you don’t, please click on the Refresh button.
  • Select this add-in and click on the Insert button.

• • The add-in will be added to the Excel application, as shown in the screenshot below.
  • Log in with your Microsoft account or create a new account by clicking the Create New link
  • Login with the newly created account and start using the add-in.
  • Enter your newly created account and start using the ChartExpo add-in.
  • You’re only required to log in for the first time. Next time, ChartExpo won’t ask for your details again.
  • Now you can start using ChartExpo for Excel to access incredible visualizations of your data.

• • Now click on the Create Chart to get started.

• You’ll see an extensive library of visual charts categorized into six different groups.
• To access Gauge Chart templates, click on the category titled General Charts and scroll down, as shown below.

After clicking on the chart you will see the Gauge Chart on the screen.

You can explore the sample data of chart by clicking on the “Explore sample Data”

Now let’s suppose you are a business owner and you want to check how much your products are sold from your total stock so that you can check the sales performance.  Replace your own data with the data you explore from the chart.

Insights:

You will see the chart on your screen.

Examples of Gauge Charts in Excel (including free Templates)

To get FREE Gauge chart templates, sign up for ChartExpo to get a 7-day no credit asked, no string attached trial.

Imagine you run a company that serves four markets, namely:

• North
• South
• East
• West

You want to communicate about the overall revenue position of the company during the forthcoming shareholders’ meeting. Essentially, you want to show the company’s performance against the objectives you set during the last meeting.

The table below has the sample data we’ll use for demonstration purposes.  We’ll use a single Gauge chart for each of the markets for the sake of clarity.

Let’s power up our ChartExpo to visualize our data using Gauge Chart in Excel.

North

Insights

• The current performance is 55% off the objective.
• And this means 45% is remaining, which is quite a milestone to cover, especially given that the financial year is almost ending. Let’s hop to the next market.

South

Insights

• The southern market’s performance is adrift the objective by a whopping 48%. And this is a significant cause of concern among the shareholders. It’s not even past the 50% mark.

East

Insights

• The Eastern market is one of the leading performers with regard to the milestone achieved
• This market has only a 20% gap in its performance, unlike the preceding markets.

West

• This is the leading market by far. And this because it has covered over 80% of the target objective.
• Less than 17% is needed to bridge the performance set.

As a significant decision-maker, it’s time to divert more resources to the best-performing markets to maximize sales revenue. The Eastern and Western markets can generate more value for the shareholders than the Northern and Southern markets.

FAQs:

Why would you use a gauge chart?

When you have to compare small number of values with the threshold values then you can use gauge chart.

How do I create a gauge chart in Excel?

By using ChartExpo add-in in Excel you easily create gauge chart in Excel.

Wrap Up

A Gauge Chart, which looks like a car speedometer, is a very crucial tool for data storytelling due to its unmatched clarity and easy-to-read- design

Accessing easy-to-customize Gauge Chart templates for Excel does not have to be complicated and time-intensive if you create it with ChartExpo library. It comes in jam-packed with over 50 Chart templates

Create compelling data stories with Gauge Chart Templates in ChartExpo add-in for Excel today.

Happy Charting