How to Visualize Ranking Data With Examples?

Having jumbled and unorganized data is always hard to understand. Even you can ignore the best possible results hidden in such data collection. So therefore keeping the data in order and having proper labeling on them can show you unseen results. Visualizing ranking data is one of the strategies you can use to make your data stories persuasive.

Our brains are engineered to recognize rank in visual content instantly. We recommend using ranking data visualization charts to create compelling narratives for your audiences (and readers).

Why?

The ranking data charts display insights in a particular order. And it can either be bottom-up or the other way around.

In this blog, you’ll learn the following:

Table of Content:

1. What is Rank Data?
2. Why is it Important to Visualize Ranking Data?
3. Top 6 Charts to Visualize Ranking Data
4. How to Visualize Ranking Data?
   • How to Visualize Ranking Data in Excel With Examples?
   • How to Visualize Ranking Data in Google Sheets With Example?
5. Challenges For Visualizing Ranking Data
6. Best Practices For Presenting a Ranking Data
7. How to Visualize Ranking Data FAQs
8. Wrap Up

Before we delve right into the how-to guide, let’s understand what is rank data first.

What is Rank Data?

Definition: Rank Data is a type of data that indicates the relative position or order of items based on a specific attribute, without reflecting the magnitude of difference between them. It is commonly used to show preferences, performance, or priorities in an ordinal format.

Why is it Important to Visualize Ranking Data?

Visualizing ranking data with reliable accuracy can help you identify trends, patterns, outliers, and anomalies among the data points.

Data is arguably more important than it was decades ago.

Businesses worldwide are increasingly leveraging data to understand the needs and preferences of their target markets. Besides, we’re generating data at an unprecedented rate.

For instance, if your website is tagged, you can easily check the behavior of the visitors and optimize drop-off areas.

It’s through data analysis that you get a 360° view of all aspects related to your customers, such as:

• Attribution channels
• Demographics
• Interests and habits
• Purchasing behaviors
• Satisfaction levels

The insights you gain from the data analysis process can help optimize problematic areas for more success. Besides, you can easily personalize your marketing messages to resonate more with the target verticals.

Below are the benefits of Ranking data visualization.

• Inspires innovation

With a solid data visualization process, you can easily re-design your products or services to meet the needs of your target market. Also, it can make your offers more appealing to the market.

Innovation is driven by the insights extracted from raw data.

• Quick Action

Whether you run an online or offline business, data visualization can help you draw a solid and reliable marketing strategy.

Essentially, you can target the right audiences with offers that resonate with their needs. Most companies use ways of data analysis to optimize their marketing campaigns.

• Spot Errors and Outliers

One of the tested and proven ways of displaying errors, anomalies, and outliers is data visualization designs.

• Understanding the Story

Data visualization designs are tested and proven backdrops for stories. In other words, you can use charts and graphs in place of tables to create persuasive data stories for your clients.

• Source of Business Intelligence

To compete effectively with other players in your niche, you need reliable data about their actions. Yes, you read that right. And how can you make sense of the aforementioned data? If your answer is visualization, you guessed right.

• Latest Trends

Online users’ tastes and preferences change frequently. Data visualization charts can help you respond proactively to changes in tastes and preferences of the market.

How to visualize ranking data should never throw a curveball at you. Keep reading to discover more.

Benefits of Using the above Visualizations to Present Ranking Data

• Quick Analysis

Visualization tools make it amazingly easy for you to extract answers from your data to create compelling stories for investors.

The chart above has distilled the expansive table into low-hanging insights for everyone to pick, irrespective of their background.

Imagine using the tables and spreadsheets to explain emerging patterns and other significant insights to your audience. How would they respond? Would you get buy-in after presenting the table to them?

• Data Storytelling

The reason why we visualize data is to create data stories. Remember, poring over numbers in spreadsheets is monotonous, especially if you’re in front of an audience. People love stories. Yes, and this is because they appeal to emotions.

We hope you’re noting the importance of data visualization, especially in creating data narratives. 

• Empowers Quick Action

As we said earlier, our brains grasp visual content, such as graphs and maps, 60,000 times faster than table reports. This means a compelling data story loaded with easy-to-interpret charts can empower quicker decision-making.

• Patterns and Trends

Bulky data provides unlimited opportunities for businesses to extract actionable insights. Yes, insights that could spell the difference between you and the competition.

Visualizing data helps pinpoint relationships and patterns between metrics. Exploring these patterns enables you to save immense resources, such as time, by focusing only on areas that need urgent action.

Top 6 Charts to Visualize Ranking Data

If you are bored with a simple Horizontal or Vertical Bar Chart then you are in the right place. Because there are many ways to visualize present ranked data. You will learn how to visualize or present ranking data with the help of the following best visualizations:

• Sequence Chart(Ordered Squares Chart)
• Slope Chart
• Pareto Chart
• Likert Scale Chart
• Stacked Column Chart
• Sankey Chart

You might be thinking where can you find these charts? If you’re an ardent user of spreadsheet applications like Excel or Google Sheets, you’ve got to explore advanced visualization add-ons.

You can download and install a particular add-on to access all the ranking data charts and more amazing visualization.

Keep reading to learn more about how to visualize ranking data.

How to Visualize Ranking Data?

Excel and Google Sheets are the top of the go-to data visualization tools for businesses and professionals.

However, this freemium spreadsheet tool does not natively support some of the charts for displaying rank, such as Sankey, Likert, and Slope visualization designs, etc.

Well, you don’t have to do away with the spreadsheet tools.

You can turn Excel and Google Sheets into a reliable data visualization tool loaded with ready-made rank-based graphs, such as Sloped, Stacked Column, and Likert Charts by installing ChartExpo.

Tested and Proven Charts for Presenting Ranking Data in Excel and Google Sheets

Let’s have some examples to understand the visualization of ranking data.

How to Visualize Ranking Data in Excel?

Example #1: Sequence Chart (Ordered Squares Chart)

If you are not into using simple bar charts then the Ordered Squares Chart is the best option to present your data based on the ranking.

Let’s take a look at the following data can you guess at a first look which website has top traffic and which is on second, and so on?

Website	Traffic(Million)
zoom.us	150
bestbuy.com	149
uber.com	146
instagram.com	956
chase.com	197
bing.com	995
wikipedia.org	956
twitter.com	831
ups.com	156
yelp.com	187
fedex.com	151
fandom.com	680
spotify.com	202
walmart.com	625
indeed.com	610

Of course, it will be difficult to point out by looking at the table. But by using the Ordered Squares Chart or Sequence Chart provided by ChartExpo you can have a unique visualization in no time.

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

The above visualization easily shows at first look that top top-ranked site is Bing.com on second number is Instagram.com and on least ranked is uber.com.

So how simple is this to have a unique and amazing chart to show your ranked data? If you like this visualization you can install ChartExpo by clicking below and test with your data.

• Once it is installed in your Excel, you will find this add-on in the My Apps section under the Insert menu.

• Select ChartExpo add-in and click the Insert button.

• Once the interface below loads, you will see the list of charts

• You can find the Sequence Chart in the list and click on it. After that, you can paste your data into the sheet, select the data, and click on Create Chart From Selection.

• In no time your visualization will be ready.

• You can further explore the edit properties of this chart to bring changes according to your needs.

Keep reading to have a look at more examples to convert your rank data into beautiful visualizations with very easy steps by using the ChartExpo library.

Example #2: Slope Chart

Slope Charts are simple graphs that quickly and directly show transitions, changes over time, absolute values, and even rankings. Besides, they’re also called Slope Graphs.

You can use this chart to show the before and after story of variables in your data.

Slope Graphs can be useful when you have two time periods or points of comparison and want to show relative increases and decreases quickly across various categories between two data points. Take a look at the table below, you have data on cities ranked by tourists in different years.

Years	Cities	Rank
1999	Rome	4.2
2009	Rome	5.3
2019	Rome	8.7
1999	Honolulu	5.2
2009	Honolulu	6.8
2019	Honolulu	7.1
1999	Paris	3.5
2009	Paris	7.3
2019	Paris	6.8
1999	NYC	0.6
2009	NYC	2.4
2019	NYC	6.3
1999	Sydney	1.2
2009	Sydney	1.3
2019	Sydney	5.5
1999	London	0.9
2009	London	3.4
2019	London	4.7
1999	San Diego	0.6
2009	San Diego	1.3
2019	San Diego	3.4
1999	Orlando	0.9
2009	Orlando	2.7
2019	Orlando	2.7

Can you provide a coherent story about the data above?

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

Note the difference after visualizing the data.

In 1999, the best-rated city was Honolulu, followed by Rome. However, Honolulu was outperformed by Paris in 2009. Rome took over the spot ten years later, followed by the Honolulu.

Have you installed ChartExpo? If not you can click below any of the add-ons of your choice.

Example #3: Pareto Chart

Pareto Chart is a bar chart but its main purpose is to bring attention to the improvement in your process by looking at the visualization at first look.

So why draw ranking data with a simple bar chart when you can have a Pareto Chart to show you more analysis on the same bar chart visualization?

Take a look at the following data in which orders from different cities are recorded. You need to find out which city is on top and which is on second and so on.

City	Orders
New York	540
Chicago	550
San Francisco	415
Los Angeles	572
Seattle	193
Boston	50
Phoenix	497
Atlanta	215
Philadelphia	489

The above table is randomly ordered. You don’t need to change anything. Pareto Chart by ChartExpo will automatically sort the data while drawing the visualization.

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

You can easily find out that top top-ranked city is Los Angeles, after that Chicago, and last is Boston. Moreover, the line separating and shaded blue area shows those that need attention.

Example #4: Likert Scale Chart

A Likert Scale you can use to collect attitudes and opinions of your target market.

The visualization design can help you understand the views and perspectives of the market towards your brand. The Likert Scale analyses come in different variants to help your business personalize its communication, among other benefits.

The Likert Scale measures the qualitative data (opinions and sentiments) by categorically assigning value. In other words, responses are measured based on their disagreement or agreement level.

The chart is based on the rationale that the strength and intensity of the respondents’ answers are linear. More so, they can be measured on a scale ranging from a complete agreement to a total disagreement. You can use various topics (general and specific questions) to probe respondents about their level of agreement, perceptions, or beliefs towards your brand.

This section will use the Likert Scale to display insights into the table below. Ranking 1 means not satisfied and Ranking 5 means satisfied

Questions	Rating/Ranking	Responded
How do you rate our restaurant?	1	120
How do you rate our restaurant?	2	46
How do you rate our restaurant?	3	312
How do you rate our restaurant?	4	220
How do you rate our restaurant?	5	127
How do you rate our welcome drink?	1	150
How do you rate our welcome drink?	2	140
How do you rate our welcome drink?	3	30
How do you rate our welcome drink?	4	40
How do you rate our welcome drink?	5	129
How do you rate our staff?	1	75
How do you rate our staff?	2	80
How do you rate our staff?	3	120
How do you rate our staff?	4	32
How do you rate our staff?	5	110
How do you rate our cleanliness?	1	50
How do you rate our cleanliness?	2	40
How do you rate our cleanliness?	3	90
How do you rate our cleanliness?	4	150
How do you rate our cleanliness?	5	200

So by using the ChartExpo library the above-ranking data is beautifully converted to awesome visualization.

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

In the above visualization you not only see feedback and respondents count but also the percentage of each along with unique colors. Red color shows negative feedback while green for positive feedback. Neutrals are highlighted with gray. Moreover, emojis(icon faces) add the cherry on top to this visualization.

Example #5: Stacked Column Chart

A Stacked Column Chart is a variant of the bar or column graphs. You can use the chart to compare totals across key categories in your data.

Take a look at the table below.

Rankings	Salad	Pizza	Ice Cream	Grilled Beef	Soup	Sandwich
Rank-1	200	230	95	25	25	25
Rank-2	230	140	90	55	55	30
Rank-3	70	130	105	100	105	90
Rank-4	50	65	100	175	100	110
Rank-5	15	35	170	170	100	110
Rank-6	35	30	60	165	120	190

Can you provide a reliable story of what is going on?

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

Note: the difference after visualizing the table above.

You can easily find the breakdown of ranking in this visualization. E.g. 200 people ranked salad at number 1 while 35 people ranked salad at number 6. Similarly, it goes with others like 495 people ranked ice cream at number 1 while 60 people ranked it at number 6.

How to visualize ranking data does not have to be time-consuming. Keep reading to discover more.

Example #6: Sankey Chart

If you have to use simple ordinal data then you must go for a simple bar or sequence chart. But if you have hierarchical data and want to have data visualization based on ranking in ascending or descending way then Sankey is a good choice to use.

Let’s take a look at the following hypothetical data:

Companies	Countries	Models	Unit Sold
Toyota	USA	Corolla	7973
Toyota	UK	Corolla	8701
Toyota	Canada	Corolla	2062
Toyota	USA	C-HR	7164
Toyota	UK	C-HR	7381
Toyota	Canada	C-HR	3594
Toyota	USA	Camry	3371
Toyota	UK	Camry	8984
Toyota	Canada	Camry	1850
Toyota	USA	Crown	3625
Toyota	UK	Crown	7395
Toyota	Canada	Crown	6320
Toyota	USA	GR Yaris	9251
Toyota	UK	GR Yaris	2510
Toyota	Canada	GR Yaris	7164
Honda	USA	CIVIC	1040
Honda	UK	CIVIC	9144
Honda	Canada	CIVIC	1353
Honda	USA	Accord	8992
Honda	UK	Accord	4716
Honda	Canada	Accord	2203
Honda	USA	CR-V	8568
Honda	UK	CR-V	9261
Honda	Canada	CR-V	1880
Honda	USA	VEZEL (HR-V)	9583
Honda	UK	VEZEL (HR-V)	3206
Honda	Canada	VEZEL (HR-V)	1153
Honda	USA	Fit Jazz	8918
Honda	UK	Fit Jazz	6056
Honda	Canada	Fit Jazz	4308
Nissan	USA	Versa	1243
Nissan	UK	Versa	9157
Nissan	Canada	Versa	6439
Nissan	USA	Sentra	9142
Nissan	UK	Sentra	5745
Nissan	Canada	Sentra	7774
Nissan	USA	Altima	6091
Nissan	UK	Altima	7215
Nissan	Canada	Altima	1053
Nissan	USA	Leaf	4381
Nissan	UK	Leaf	4030
Nissan	Canada	Leaf	5777
Nissan	USA	Maxima	6149
Nissan	UK	Maxima	9787
Nissan	Canada	Maxima	3525

Can you guess from the above data which Car company is top selling order? Which car brands are more sold, which one is one on the second number? Which country is on top either the USA or the UK in terms of selling cars?

Below the Sankey chart is the visualization of the above data. As you may notice below visualization is all nodes are sorted according to their rankings (sales orders on top)

Now, we will show you how you can create a Sankey Chart with a few clicks on Google Sheets. If you have not installed the Google Sheets extension yet you can simply install it by clicking below.

How to Visualize Ranking Data in Google Sheets?

• Once it is installed now open your Google Sheets application.
• Open the worksheet and click the Extensions
• Then go to Charts, Graphs, & Visualizations by ChartExpo. (If you don’t have ChartExpo. You can install it, add-on for Google Sheets from this link.)
• Finally, click the Open button in the dropdown.

• Click the Add New Chart button to access your fully stocked library of charts.

• Once ChartExpo is loaded, you will see a list of charts. Look for “Sankey Chart.”

• Select the sheet holding your data and select the Metrics Fill in the numerical numbers (in our case, we’ll use Unit Sold).
• Select the Dimensions button and fill in the dimensional data (in our example, we’ll use companies, countries, and models), as shown below.

• Finish the simple process by clicking the Create Chart

• Let’s sort models level in descending order. You can do this by simply clicking on and looking for Level. Select “By metric (Unit Sold) DESC”.

• The levels of models are ranked as shown below.

• Now, we will rank the level of countries. We will do the same as we did above.

• Here levels of countries are ranked according to unit sold.

• If you want to rank all levels of the chart. You can do this by selecting the Chart option in Sort Properties.

• Now, all levels of the chart are ranked in descending order.

Challenges For Visualizing Ranking Data

1. Overcrowding: Displaying too many categories or ranks in one visualization can make the chart cluttered and difficult to interpret, leading to confusion.
2. Loss of Granularity: Ranking data often loses specific details about the individual values, making it hard to assess the full range of differences between items, especially when rankings are close.
3. Misleading Representations: Without careful design, ranking data can be misleading. For example, using the wrong type of chart, such as a pie chart, might not accurately reflect the relative scale of differences between ranks.
4. Changing Context: Rankings can change over time or across different contexts, which might make it challenging to visualize consistent comparisons. Ensuring clarity in dynamic data is crucial.
5. Subjectivity in Rankings: Rankings are often influenced by subjective criteria, and without clear context, they may mislead the audience or invite bias in interpretation. It’s important to define ranking metrics clearly.

Best Practices For Presenting a Ranking Data

How to Visualize Ranking Data FAQs

How can you visualize ranking data in Google Sheets?

You may find a RANK function in Google Sheets but you may face difficulty in creating a good visualization of ranked data. If you are interested in having Sankey, Sequence, Likert, Pareto, Stacked Column Charts, and more. One of the options available is to plot the charts manually, which is time-intensive.

You can supercharge your Google Sheets with third-party add-ons, such as ChartExpo, to access ready-made charts for displaying rank.

What are three reasons why data visualization is important?

• Data visualization can help you absorb information quickly, and make critical decisions faster.
• You can use visualization designs, such as Likert, as the backdrop of your data stories.
• Charts and graphs are much easier to read and interpret than tables, even for non-technical audiences.

What is the best way to present rank survey data?

The Likert Chart provided by ChartExpo is the best way to present your survey data. This chart is available on different scales based on your data you can select the chart scale type and present your data in a meaningful way.

Wrap Up:

Visualizing ranking data is a tested and proven strategy to make your data stories persuasive. Our brains are engineered to recognize rank in visual content instantly.

We recommend using ranking data visualization charts to create compelling narratives for your audiences (and readers).

The best-suited graphs for displaying rank insights include:

• Sequence Chart(Ordered Squares Chart)
• Slope Chart
• Pareto Chart
• Likert Scale Chart
• Stacked Column Chart
• Sankey Chart

If you’re an ardent user of the spreadsheet application, you’ve got to explore other options with advanced visualizations.

So, what’s the solution?

ChartExpo is an add-on you can easily download and install in your Google Sheets app. Besides, this tool comes loaded with ready-to-go charts for displaying rank, such as Likert and Stacked Column Charts.

You don’t need programming or coding skills to visualize your data using ChartExpo.

As we said, how to visualize ranking data in Google Sheets should never be among your worries in data storytelling.

Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to access easy-to-interpret and ready-made charts best-suited for displaying rank data.