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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 have 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 round.
In this blog, you’ll learn the following:
Before we delve right into the how-to guide, let’s understand what is rank data first?
Definition: Ranking is the association between two mathematical values where each value can be less than, greater than, or equal to the second value.
Following are few real world examples of Ranking Data:
If you are bored with simple Horizontal or Vertical Bar Chart then you are on 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 following best visualizations:
Your might be thinking where can you find these charts? If you’re an ardent user of the spreadsheet application like Excel or Google Sheets, you’ve got to explore advance visualization add-on.
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 on 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 example to understand the visualization of ranking data.
If you are not into using simple bar chart then Ordered Squares Chart is a best option to present your data based on the ranking.
Let’s take a look at the following data can you guess at 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 table. But by using Ordered Squares Chart or Sequence Chart provided by ChartExpo you can have a unique visualization in no time.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
Above visualization easily showing at first look that top ranked site is bing.com and 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 own data.
Once it is installed in your Excel, you will find this add-on in My Apps section under 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 Sequence Chart in the list and click on it. After that you can paste your data in 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 need.
Keep reading to have a look on more examples to convert your rank data into beautiful visualizations with very easy steps by using ChartExpo library.
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 are having data of cities ranked by tourist in different years of time.
| 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-on of your choice.
Pareto Chart is a bar chart but its main purpose is to bring the attention to the improvement in your process by looking at the visualization at first look.
So why to draw ranking data with simple bar chart when you can have Pareto Chart to show you more analysis on the same bar chart visualization.
Take a look 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 ranked city s Los Angeles, after that Chicago and on last is Boston. Moreover the line separating and shaded blue area is showing those which needs attention.
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 comes 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 ChartExpo library the above ranking data is beautifully converted to awesome visualization.
Visualization Source: ChartExpo
In above visualization you not only see feedbacks and respondents count but also the percentage of each along with unique colors. Red color showing negative feedback while green for positive feedback. Neutrals are highlighted with gray. Moreover emojis(icon faces) add the cherry on top on this visualization.
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 other 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.
If you have to use simple ordinal data then you must go for 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 second number? Which country is on top either USA or UK in terms of selling car?
Below Sankey chart is the visualization of 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 Sankey Chart within few clicks in Google Sheets. If you have not installed Google Sheets extension yet you can simply install it by clicking below.
Let’s sort models level in descending order. You can do this by simply clicking on and look for Level. Select “By metric (Unit Sold) DESC”.
Level 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 level of countries are ranked according to unit sold.
If you want to rank all levels of chart. You can do this by selecting Chart option in Sort Properties.
Now, all levels of the chart is ranked in descending order.
Visualizing 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:
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 data visualization.
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.
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.
One of the tested and proven ways of displaying errors, anomalies, and outliers is data visualization designs.
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.
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.
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 above Visualizations to Present Ranking Data
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?
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.
As we said earlier, our brains grasp visual content, such as graphs and maps, 60,000 times faster than table reports.
And this means a compelling data story loaded with easy to interpret charts can empower quicker decision-making.
Bulky data provides unlimited opportunities for businesses to extract actionable insights. Yes, insights that could spell the difference between you and 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.
You may find a RANK function in Google Sheets but you may face difficulty in creating a good visualization on ranked data. If you are interested to have 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.
Likert Chart provided by ChartExpo is a 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.
Visualizing ranking data is tested and proven strategies 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:
If you’re an ardent user of the spreadsheet application, you’ve got to explore other options with advance 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.
Like 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.
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