Make a Compelling Data Story With Trend Chart Examples

For a data story to move audiences to take action or embrace change, it should have the following components:

• Clear and easy to interpret visualizations
• The big idea (thesis statement)
• Call to action (CTA)

Well, if you don’t get it right on the first part, clear and easy to interpret visualizations, you’ll fail. Yes, there’s no shortcut to this.

The trend chart is one of the easy-to-interpret visualizations you can use to highlight key insights that support your topic (theme). This blog has different Trend Chart examples to enhance your understanding.

So keep reading.

Graphs that are simple and clear, such as Trend Charts, can make your data story really persuasive.

Remember, people don’t like being subjected to cognitive load. So transforming everything into a low-hanging fruit could go a long way in persuading your audience to take the action you want. Or the recommendations you’re putting forward to inspire change.

We’ve rounded up strategies and tips you can use to transform your data story into a very compelling narrative. And this includes how best you can deploy Trend Charts to your data narrative. These tips are tested and proven by thousands of data visualization experts across the world.

Trend Charts Examples: What Is Sentiment Trend Chart?

Trend chart shows the data over time where as sentiment trend chart shows the data over time with positivity or negativity of the data response as well. There is ChartExpo library, which contains multiple charts and sentiment trend chart is one of them.  You can use this chart to show a trend of variables over time. Besides, this chart provides forecasts using past trends.

For example in the image below you can see there is product feedback in which customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction level is mentioned with respect to time. In the same chart trend and its sentiment can be analyzed very easily.

A trend chart on its own is less powerful. But when compared with other charts, such as Bar graphs, they provide deeper insights. For instance, the diagram above represents a Trend Chart incorporated into a Bar graph.

You can easily highlight trends and even forecast the future by simply extrapolating your trend curve based on past performance. The Trend Chart is also called the price action curve by hedge funds and forex brokers. A price action chart can be accessed on the Meta Trader 4 platform, an application used for online trading of currencies and commodities.

Essentially, most forex traders, including institutional hedge funds, use past price trends to forecast future prices of currencies and commodities, such as oil and gold. We’re talking about billions of dollars put on the line based on forecasting using the past movement of prices.

A trend can be positive (increasing) or negative (decreasing). As shown above, it can never be flat. It’s incredibly easy to highlight growth or lack thereof, especially when presenting a data narrative to an audience.

Now that you have a clue about Trend Charts: let’s head to the next section, which is about what to look for in these visualizations.

Elements Of A Well-Constructed Trend Chart

A Trend Chart that complements a data story should have the following attributes:

• A clear Title to describe the subject of the chart.
• Labels on the vertical y-axis and horizontal x-axis to describe the measurement and the time.
• A Legend to differentiate the plotted lines.
• Appropriate Scales that are narrow enough to show variation.
• Limited Clutter to avoid confusion and obscuring key insights.
• An appropriate Time Frame.
• Notations on any significant spikes.
• Targets or Goals should be observed on the chart for reference.
• A Trend line to show the ups and downs in the data.

So why do Sentiment Trend Charts matter to you? This is what you’ll learn in the next section.

Can Same Graph Present Sentiment and Non-Sentiment Trend?

Graph is a visual representation of data, it can show you different analysis with different data. Not all charts can be used for every data, but there are some visualization which may be used for multiple purposes.

Sentiment analysis is special case, ChartExpo library have a special chart sentiment trend chart which can be used to represent both sentiment and non-sentiment data for trend. Later in this blog you will learn how can you can create such chart.

What are the Golden Benefits of Trend Charts?

There are few benefits of the trend chart which should know.

Benefit #1: Incredibly Easy to Understand

It’s amazingly easy to interpret Sentiment Trend charts due to their simplicity and clarity.

These charts can empower your audience to understand the data, see interesting perspectives, and draw conclusions quickly. Remember, the backbone of any compelling message is its simplicity. So use simple visualizations to drive your audience to consume more of your story and, most importantly, act on your recommendations.

Benefit #2: You Can Use to Spot Patterns

Sentiment Trend charts empower your audience to see with ease the emerging trends. This can compel them to embrace change or act on your recommendations swiftly.

Trend, shifts, and outliers make more sense when graphically represented. And this is because visuals make it easier for you to identify strongly correlated parameters.

Certain correlations, associations, and distribution patterns in your data may not be that obvious. You need charts like Sentiment Trend to help you uncover relationships you didn’t even know existed.

Benefit # 3: Storytelling is More Engaging

A Sentiment Trend chart is one of the revolutionary visualization charts you can use to create meaningful stories out of your data.

Storytelling is incredibly vital in persuasion and simplifying communication. You can bet on Sentiment Trend charts to help you communicate engagingly with both your clients and teams. Conveying a message in a story is much more engaging and easier to understand.

You’re more likely to remember images and stories than typical words and numbers.

Benefit #4: Speed up the Decision-Making Process

Humans can process visual images much faster than text. Besides, a chart is easier for your brain to process than reading text and numbers in tables.

The Sentiment Trend Chart can dramatically improve the speed of decision-making processes of your audience. According to the Wharton School of Business, simplified data visualization can shorten business meetings by up to 24%.

Why?

Like we said earlier, for you to persuade people, you should strategically incorporate logos (logic), ethos (emotions), and pathos (personality). Charts, which are the bearers of insights, appeal to the logic part of our brains. Remember, we make decisions based on emotions and justify them with logic. So you have to give your audience data backed-insights for them to justify their actions.

Now that you’ve learned the benefits of Trend Charts let’s head to the next section. You’ll uncover where you can apply these charts to get the BEST out of your data.

Where Can You Apply Trend Charts?

There are many business domains where you can apply this chart:

  1. Trend Chart Example: Survey Storytelling

Survey data storytelling uses data insights in visualizations to tell a story about people’s views, opinions, and sentiments regarding a brand.

You can use a Sentiment Trend Chart to tell a story about the trend of market sentiments.

It’s incredibly easy to know what’s going on by taking a quick look at the Trend Charts. For instance, in the diagram above, the general trend of positive sentiment is rising.

  2. Trend Chart Example: Video Data Storytelling

Video data storytelling is simply using the data of the metrics you’re tracking to tell a compelling story.

When you have a video on YouTube you want to know how much people interreacted with it. People response as likes or dislikes depicts how much they appreciate the video. If you look at the graph above you will get idea that over the period of time, likes increased. In month June, minimum dislikes came and in month August maximum like came.

  3. Trend Chart Example: Income and Expense Storytelling

So how can you create a compelling survey story? Highlight Key Insights!

Highlighting key insights allow your audience to cherry-pick insights with ease. And that’s what a compelling data story is all about.

Take a look at the diagram below:

For instance, in the Trend Chart above, the best performing months are August 2020, September 2020, and June 2021, as highlighted by the red boxes.

The Best Tools To Use To Visualize Your Data Using Sentiment Trend Chart

As data resources grow, more click-and-drag tools continue to spring up to help you understand your data effortlessly without consuming much time.

The solution is not to do away with your Google Sheets but rather to enhance it with an 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 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 Add-on that creates simple and easy-to-read visualizations for your data stories.

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

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

• ChartExpo is Loaded with Over 50 different Chart Templates

This budget-friendly data visualization tool comes jam-packed with over 50 other chart templates just for YOU to select the BEST chart for your story.

And this includes Sentiment Trend Charts.

• Unlimited Freedom to Highlight Key Takeaways

Besides, with ChartExpo, you have unlimited freedom to alter your charts to align with your 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 50-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 do You Install ChartExpo Add-on in Google Sheets?

There are two methods to installing the ChartExpo add-on for Google Sheets.

The first method is to visit the Google Workspace Marketplace and enter “ChartExpo” into the search bar.

Click on the ChartExpo tool and then press the blue Install bar on the resulting page.

This will begin the installation process. You may have to log in to your Google account and accept the plugin’s permissions. Once that is done, the add-on will install and be ready for use the next time you open Google Sheets.

Alternatively, you can download ChartExpo directly from the Google Sheets App. To get started, click on Add-ons in the top toolbar.

In the small menu that appears, press the option to Get add-ons.

Search for ChartExpo in the bar and click the ChartExpo tool when it appears in the results.

Press the blue Install button. Again, you will have to accept some permissions and you may have to confirm your Google account.

• Now Open your Google Sheets application.
• Open the worksheet and click on the ‘Add-ons’ menu.
• You’ll see the ‘ChartExpo – Best Data Visualization Tool’ option in the dropdown menu.
• Once you will select to open this, on your screen, you will find this section on your Google Sheets.

• Now Click on Create New Chart, you would see 6 different chart groups. Click on Sentiment Analysis Charts to expand.

• Click on Sentiment Analysis Charts to access Trend Charts, as shown below.

How to Create a Sentiment Trend Chart using ChartExpo Add-on in Google Sheets?

Let’s create a scenario with survey data. Imagine you run an e-commerce store, and you want to establish the target market sentiments using data. So you’ve put together a short survey on the Thank You Page of your site to ask customers what they like and dislike with respect to:

• Customer service
• Shipping
• Price
• Selection
• Return policy
• Ordering process
• Communication

Essentially, you want to use data to know how your converting customers perceive your brand. The key metric is the count of both likes and dislikes. The key goal of the exercise is to optimize your sales funnel to drive more conversions and reduce drop-offs.

Let’s use the data below for the scenario.

Topic	Positive	Negative
Customer Service	67	33
Shipping	60	40
Price	75	25
Selection	85	15
Return Policy	30	70
Ordering Process	75	15
Communication	90	10

Let’s start by exporting the data to Google Sheets. And then, unleash our ChartExpo Add-on, as shown below.

• Click Add-ons > ChartExpo > Open and then head to Sentiment Analysis Charts section, as shown below.

• Look for Sentiment Trend Charts, as shown below.

• Select Sheet Name (sheet holding your data).
• Click Add new metric and select the Column with the numerical value (Count).In our case, the metrics are the count of likes and dislikes.
• Click Add New Dimension button and then select
• Click on Create Chart……BOOM! You have your beautiful Sentiment Trend chart.

Check out the resulting Chart below.

Insights

• The most disliked part of the E-commerce brand is the return policy.

• The most liked components of the e-commerce brand are namely selection and communication with customers.

• Recommendations: There’s a need to streamline the return policy to reduce dissatisfaction among converting customers.

Visualizing Video Data

Like we said earlier, you can use Sentiment Trend Charts to visualize your video data for storytelling.

Imagine you run a YouTube account for your brand. You’ve been using this channel to tell captivating stories about your offers. You want to use data to gauge the opinion of the target market for your brand.

The key metric you’ll use is the count of likes and dislikes. And the dimension is time.

Remember, the process of visualizing your data using ChartExpo Add-on is similar to survey storytelling.

Let’s use the data below for the scenario.

Videos	Likes	Dislikes
March	36405	17641
April	36137	18853
May	30712	18294
June	33374	5412
July	34059	15268
August	39846	15689

Note: The process of visualizing the data above using ChartExpo is the SAME as survey storytelling. Let’s check out our resulting chart.

Insights

• The best month to promote brand stories is June, based on the number of likes and dislikes.
• June has the lowest dislikes.

Trend Chart Example: Patient Treated Analysis

Sentiment Trend Chart in ChartExpo library can provide you different facilities to make your chart more attractive to represent data for different purposes. You can even change the colors of the chart to show the non-sentiment data which may not be representing red or green.  Let’s take an example below to present such data.

A city wanted how many females and males have got dose of vaccine and they also wanted divide this age wise. So, it can be easy to find which age group and gender is not taken dose. When they find age group and gender, it will be easy for them find reason why those people are not vaccinated.

The city hall called all the vaccination center and ask them to provide data they needed for analysis. After 3 hours they got all the data they needed. One of them took data and tried to find trend in it.

Age Group	Male	Female
18 to 24	1054	1111
25 to 29	1057	1641
30 to 34	1470	2526
35 to 39	1793	3549
40 to 44	2534	5470
45 to 49	4842	9587
50 to 54	8692	13514
55 to 59	13855	15088
60 to 64	19897	17718
65 to 69	30179	23745
70 to 74	31688	22873
75 to 79	28753	21490
80 to 84	21779	19052
85 to 89	13104	13662
90+	5645	8066

First, he pasted all the data in Google Sheet.

He decided to visualize this data. So, everyone can easily understand it.

• Then, he first clicked on Add-ons > ChartExpo > Open and then Sentiment Analysis Charts and then clicked on Sentiment Trend Charts.
• Selected Sheet Name. Clicked on Add new metric and then selected Column which had numerical value Satisfied and Dissatisfied.
• Clicked on Add new dimension and then selected Column which had Months. Clicked on Create Chart.

This is a great non sentiment data based visualization which clearly highlights different age groups treated in the local hospital since it was started. Moreover this single chart segregated based on male and female patients.

FAQs:

What is a trend in data?

A “trend” is an upwards or downwards shift in a data set over time. It allows you to predict what might happen to the data in the future.

Which chart can help sentiment and non-sentiment trend?

There is a sentiment trend chart in ChartExpo Library which can help you to create sentiment and non-sentiment trend charts.

Wrap Up:

It’s no doubt that Sentiment Trend Charts are among the simplest and easiest-to-read charts you can use to make your data story more compelling. We hope after having trend chart examples you will have well understanding of this visualization.

Sign-up for ChartExpo today to create powerful data stories that empower your audience to take action using Trend Charts.

You have everything to gain and nothing to lose by trying ChartExpo add-on for Google Sheets.