How to Interpret Graphs and Charts Like a Pro?

How to interpret graphs and charts boils down to basic analytical skills and the nature of the visualization.

The latter is what this blog will focus on.

Why?

For a chart to complement a compelling data story, it has to be simple, relevant, and clear. So the nature of the visualization used in terms of clarity and relevance determines how the audience receives and acts on the data story.

The choice of visualization determines the ease of reading and interpreting insights. If you want to create a compelling data story that inspires audiences to take action, you need charts that lend clarity.

It’s clarity that makes charts easier to read and interpret for the audience. So you really need to do away with unnecessary kinds of stuff that block or clutter key insights informing the big idea (thesis statement).

In this blog, you’ll learn the following:

Table of Content:

1. What is Interpret Graphs and Charts?
2. Why Do We Interpret Charts?
3. How to Interpret Graphs and Charts? 5 Things to Look For
4. Interpret Charts And Graphs Example
5. How To Interpret Graphs And Charts For Video Analytics Data?
6. Steps To Interpreting Charts And Graphs
7. Best Tools For Interpreting Charts And Graphs
8. How to Interpret Charts and Graphs in Google Sheets?
   • Example #1
   • Example #2
9. How to Interpret Graphs and Charts FAQs
10. Wrap Up

We’ve rounded up valuable tips and strategies you can use to make your data story compelling using charts and graphs. We’ve also included tons of examples using video marketing data.

What is Interpret Graphs and Charts?

Definition: Interpreting Graphs and Charts involves analyzing and understanding the data displayed in visual formats such as graphs, charts, and diagrams. This process includes recognizing patterns, trends, and relationships within the data to derive meaningful insights and support informed decision-making.

Why Do We Interpret Charts?

We interpret charts to simplify complex data, identify patterns, and uncover trends in a visual format. Charts make it easier to analyze relationships, compare values, and communicate insights effectively, helping individuals and businesses make informed decisions quickly and accurately.

How to Interpret Graphs and Charts? 5 Things to Look For

In many ways, visualization is like cooking. You are the chef, and datasets, geometry, and color are your ingredients. A skilled chef, who knows how to prepare and combine ingredients and plate the cooked food, is likely to prepare a delicious meal.

Whereas the person who is only familiar with entering the time and power level on a microwave must either endure poor-tasting meals or stick only to the handful of good ones. People who understand the ingredients and know how to cook have fewer limitations.

The skilled chef might even transform an average frozen dinner into a gourmet meal. You’ve got to improve your skills to serve high-level audiences tactfully.

Imagine you’re part of the audience that’s listening to a data store. How do you interpret graphs and charts used in the story?

Well, visual data is meant to be “read,” just like the text on a page. Images with data often contain crucial information that isn’t available elsewhere in a text.

Ask these questions when you encounter visual data in a data story:

  1. What is the topic?

Look for the title and reword it in your own words. For example, a chart of the number of pants sold in June may be titled “Number of Pants Sold in June.”

  2. How and What is being measured?

Look for labels to get an idea of what the graph is saying.

The labels tell you what variables or parameters are being displayed. For example, on a line or bar graph of the “Number of Pants Sold in June,” the x-axis might be the days of the month, and the y-axis might be the number of pants sold.

Ask yourself if the units make sense with what you know about the chart so far.

  3. Is color-coding used, and if so, how?

Color coding is often used to add additional information to a graph without taking up extra space. Color itself represents meanings like green for positive and red for negative.

  4. Can I summarize this information in my own words?

Look for a trend or an insight that you find interesting and mentally form a sentence about it.

How to interpret graphs and charts? Draw conclusions based on the data, remember, you can reach conclusions faster with graphs than using a data table or a written description of the data.

Think like the audience of your story can help identify factors that will resonate with them. So always picture yourself in the shoes of the target audience as you craft a data story.

Interpreting charts is part of the grand scheme, which is listening and understanding a data story. Charts are just a medium for helping emphasize the analytical bit of the story and maintain the credibility of the whole thing.

There are lots of stories connected to one visualization. For example, if one visualization focuses on sales in a month, you might interpret it alongside another visualization showing sales by salesperson, sales by week, seasonal sales charts, or other data interpretations the list can go on

Interpret Charts And Graphs Example

Take a look at the chart above. Are you ready to interpret it? Let’s go.

Note: the human eye starts reading a chart from the left. So it’s imperative to place the scale on the left side.

• Title: The chart has a title: Sales order per person. This provides a clear context of what the chart is about. The title answers the question: what is the topic?
• Scale: on the left side (the Y-axis), the scale shows salespersons, and the X-axis shows the sales
• Color coding: there’s color coding to differentiate the current from the previous financial year, as shown by the small legend rectangle on the left bottom.

Let’s proceed to the insights part.

• The length of the bar represents the number of orders by the salesperson.
• It’s only salesperson 8 who has hit the current period’s top orders.
• The previous period was more successful for Salesperson 1 and Salesperson 7.

How To Interpret Graphs And Charts For Video Analytics Data?

Choosing the relevant visualization is crucial to creating a compelling data story that inspires action. We’ve rounded up some charts that are tested and proven to visualize video data.

Why? These charts put more emphasis on clarity and simplicity. There are 3 charts, namely:

• Sentiment Trend Charts

How to interpret graphs and charts? The Sentiment Trend Chart is a combination of both line and bar graphs. The plotted line curve helps the audience to note the differences in performance across time (financial year).

The chart incorporates color coding to help the audience distinguish performance. Green stands for desired performance or positive feedback on the video, while red stands for unwanted performance dislikes. September remained the worst month as many dislikes came on this month while May remained the best in getting likes.

• Area Stacked Chart

This Area Stacked Chart uses color coding to create variation in the performance of the variables under study. For instance, the critical metrics under review are namely shares, likes, and dislikes.

• Stacked Bar Charts

A stacked Bar Chart is made up of composite bars. So each color in a bar represents a variable that adds up to a sub-total, as shown below.

Now that you’ve learned about video data, how to represent it, explore it visually, tell a story, and design for an audience: the obvious next step is to put it into practice.

So, grab your data and visualize.

Steps To Interpreting Charts And Graphs

Step 1: Review the Title

Start by reading the title of the chart or graph to understand what it represents. This will give you an overview of the data being presented.

Step 2: Check the Axis Labels

Examine the labels on the x-axis (horizontal) and y-axis (vertical). These will tell you what each axis represents and the units of measurement used.

Step 3: Understand the Legend

If there is a legend, review it to understand the meaning of different colors, patterns, or symbols used in the chart or graph.

Step 4: Analyze the Data Points

Look at the data points, bars, lines, or sections on the chart. Identify any patterns, trends, or significant values that stand out.

Step 5: Examine the Scale

Check the scale used on both axes. Ensure that you understand the increments and how they relate to the data values to avoid misinterpretation.

Step 6: Identify Trends or Patterns

Look for trends (e.g., increasing or decreasing values) or any clusters of data that suggest a relationship between variables.

Step 7: Draw Conclusions

Based on the patterns and trends, draw conclusions about the data and what it suggests in relation to the topic or problem being studied.

Best Tools For Interpreting Charts And Graphs

You must be thinking how you can create such charts which are shown before. Can you believe these charts were drawn in Google Sheets? Yes, it’s true but the problem is these beautiful charts are not natively available in Google Sheets. You need to find some solution to have these charts in this tool.

What’s the Solution?

The solution is not to do away with your Google Sheets but rather to enhance it with a third-party Add-on.

Remember, you need visual diagrams that communicate insights effortlessly for you to create a compelling data story.

There’s a simple and easy-to-use data visualization tool you can use to create clear and compelling video data stories. This app makes charts that you can customize and download EASILY.

This easy-to-use and affordable Add-on is called ChartExpo.

What is ChartExpo?

ChartExpo is a highly affordable and easy-to-use Google Sheets and Excel Add-on that creates simple and easy-to-read visualizations for your video data stories.

So if you’re looking for a data visualization tool to create easy-to-interpret charts that seamlessly complement your report, check no further.

So how does ChartExpo help you to create persuasive data narratives?

• ChartExpo is Loaded with Over 80 different Chart Templates

This budget-friendly data visualization tool comes jam-packed with over 80 other chart templates just for YOU to select the BEST chart for your story.

This includes the Stacked bar, Area Stacked Bar, and Sentiment Analysis charts.

• Unlimited Freedom to Highlight Key Takeaways

Besides, with ChartExpo, you have unlimited freedom to alter your charts to align with your video data stories. So you don’t have to sweat over highlighting the key insights that support the main idea.

Other Benefits

• ChartExpo add-on for Google Sheets comes with a free 7-day trial.
• Essentially, if you’re not satisfied with the tool within a week, you can opt out as quickly as signing up for a trial.
• The cost of accessing 80-plus chart templates is ONLY $10 a month after the trial period.
• You have a 100% guarantee that your computer or Google Sheets won’t be slowed down because this Add-on is light.
• You can export your easy-to-read and intuitive charts in JPEG and PNG, the world’s most-used formats for sharing images.

How to Interpret Charts and Graphs in Google Sheets?

How do You Install the ChartExpo Add-on in Google Sheets?

To Get Started install the ChartExpo for Google Sheets Add-on from the link and then follow the Simple and Easy Steps Below.

• Open your Google Sheets desktop application.
• Open the worksheet and click on the ‘Add-ons’ menu.
• You’ll see the ‘ChartExpo’ option in the dropdown menu.
• Click on ‘ChartExpo’ and then open it to see your Add-on.

• After that, you will see the ChartExpo section on the right side section of the screen.

• Click on “Create New Chart” to see the available chart groups.

• You’ll see an extensive library of visual charts categorized into 6 different groups.
• Click on any of the 6 different chart groups and select the chart you want.
• You can now access your chart templates. For instance, both Stacked and Area Stacked Charts are located under the General Analysis section.
• On the other hand, a Sentiment Analysis Chart is found under the Sentimental Analysis section.

Let’s check out how you can tell stories using the charts below to enhance your understanding.

Example #1

Imagine you’re running a video storytelling campaign to create awareness on behalf of a SaaS start-up. You want to gauge the performance of the video assets using the engagement level (likes and dislikes) in a year

Note: the likes and dislikes data can easily be collected from YouTube.

Let’s use the data below to represent our scenario.

Months	Likes	Dislikes
Jan	1605	433
Feb	1342	229
Mar	740	259
Apr	653	127
May	1933	114
Jun	947	117
Jul	1687	84
Aug	792	99
Sep	1527	1038
Oct	1678	272
Nov	1121	333
Dec	1555	304

• Let’s power up the ChartExpo Add-on for Google Sheets to visualize the video data above using the Sentiment Analysis Chart, as shown below.

• Add-ons > ChartExpo > Open, as shown above.
• Then proceed to the Sentiment Analysis Charts tab.
• Click the tab to access Sentiment Analysis Charts.
• Select the Sheet Name.
• Add new metrics, which in our case are Likes and dislikes
• Add a new dimension, which in our case is months of the year
• Click on Create Chart, as shown below.

• Check out our chart below.

Let’s tell a story using this chart.

• September is the worst month of the video campaign. The dislike sentiments are more pronounced, although the likes are high.

• The best months are May, July, October, and December.
• Only 8 out of 12 months are above the trend line.

• So overall sentiment trend remains upward.

Example #2

How to interpret graphs and charts? Let’s create a simple video data story using a Stacked Bar Chart. Imagine a musician who has many videos on YouTube playing musical instruments, such as goblets, drums, violins, keyboards, flutes, and guitars.

How would you keep track of the performance of each Video? You guessed right, use a Stacked Bar Chart.

Let’s use the table below as sample data for our scenario.

Videos	Views	Watch Time	Likes	Dislikes	Share
Guitar Video	6569	487	3640	1764	580
Flute Video	8230	495	3613	1885	736
Keyboard Video	3530	457	3071	1829	874
Violin Video	5138	577	3337	541	3081
Goblet Drum Video	7192	495	3405	1526	946
Drum Video	8500	584	3984	1568	557

Let’s check out our resulting visualization.

So what are the insights?

• The violin video is more engaging and has a wider reach than the remaining 5 videos due to a high number of shares.

• There are videos with less, which is a sign that the audience might not have liked it much to click on it and view it.

• Violin video is engaging because it has fewer dislikes than the other 5 video assets.

You still haven’t installed the ChartExpo yet? Click on the link below to install your favorite tool.

How to Interpret Graphs and Charts FAQs

How do I read graphs and charts?

To read graphs and charts, begin by reviewing the title, axis labels, and legends to understand the context. Examine the data points, bars, lines, or sections to identify trends, patterns, and comparisons. Pay attention to scale, units, and any annotations to accurately interpret the data being presented.

What is the first thing you should read when interpreting a graph?

The first thing you should read when interpreting a graph is the title. The title provides context and helps you understand what the graph represents. Then, you should check the axis labels and legend to understand the variables, units of measurement, and data representation.

Wrap Up

How to interpret graphs and charts demands understanding and translating data into meaningful insights. Besides, how to interpret charts boils down to two things, namely:

• Basic analytical skills
• Nature of the visualization

When you’re creating a data story for your audiences, you should use visual charts that are easy to interpret. Why? This makes your story credible and more appealing and if you have the right chart visualization library like ChartExpo then it can add incredible value to your presentation.