Top 5 Types of Data Visualization Charts You Must Try

Research shows that today’s world generates over 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every 24 hours.

Yes, you read that right.

You can only imagine the amount of data your business generates. While the figures above look staggering, they grow by seconds.

So how can you extract insights in data that’s getting bigger and bigger?

This is why it pays to know the most reliable types of data visualization charts to use.

This blog will walk you through the top 5 types of data visualization charts you need to give a try, especially when curating data stories. You’ll also come across a ton of data visualization design examples to get you started.

You don’t want to miss the rest of the blog if you intend to take your data storytelling skills to the next level.

Top 5 Types of Data Visualization Charts for Storytelling

Data visualization is incredibly essential in today’s business environment.

Data is modern-day’s oil. Yes, you read that right. And to get the most out of it, you need a solid strategy and reliable types of data visualization charts.

With the proliferation of data every day, making sense of it is daunting and time-intensive, primarily if you use manual ways. There’s no single industry where data is less significant. Even the music industry, which traditionally has relied on gut feeling, is becoming data-driven.

Data visualization is branching out virtually to every sector of the economy. So long as there’s data, there’s a demand for data visualization charts. Remember, you cannot create a compelling data story without a solid visualization strategy in place.

From website metrics and sales team performance to marketing campaign results and product adoption rates, your business needs to track a range of key metrics to succeed.

You need a quick and effective reporting method that allows you to get everyone on the same page.

Do you know the best types of data visualization charts to use? Well, don’t go anywhere to discover more.

Before we delve right into the mind-blowing types of data visualization designs: let check out the insight-driven benefits of charts.

Check them out below:

• A Quick and Clear Understanding of the Insights

Thanks to multiple types of data visualization charts at your disposal, you can now draw in-depth insights faster.

Yes, there’s a massive chunk of visualization tools in the software as a service (SaaS) market that allows you to draw insights quickly and timely, irrespective of the volume and size of the data.

And this means if you leverage these tools 100%, you’ll save a ton of hours every working day. Besides, your productivity will spiral through the roof. In other words, you’ll be able to accomplish a lot using minimum time.

• Timely Identification of Patterns and Trends in Data

You’ll agree when we say that identifying trends in data in tables and spreadsheets is boring at best and time-consuming at worst. It’s not easy to identify trends and patterns without data visualization designs.

Some relationships, patterns, and trends are apparent, but others can only be identified with the help of a suitable chart.

• Data Storytelling

For your data story to get an instant buy-in, you need to select the suitable types of data visualization charts. Remember, your data is pretty voiceless without accompanying stories to appeal to the target audience’s emotions.

At the heart of a compelling data story is a simple and easy-to-read data visualization design.

Top 5 Types of Data Visualization Charts You need to Try

Following are top 5 types of data visualizations you should not ignore while doing your data analysis.

1. Scatter Plot

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

A Scatter Plot is one of the data visualization designs that are incredibly easy to read and understand. The primary use of the Scatter Plot is to visualize relationships between two numeric variables.

Besides, the dots in a Scatter Plot depict the values of individual data points and trends when visualized with a bigger picture in mind.

Let’s agree on this. Use this chart only when you want to visualize correlational relationships in your data. Besides, your data should have at least 2 variables with causal effect relationships.

The relationships between variables in a Scatter Plot can be: positive or negative, strong or weak, or linear or nonlinear.

Benefits

• A Scatter Plot is one of the types of data visualization charts we recommend in tracking performance over time.
• You can quickly determine the range of data flow, i.e., maximum and minimum values in your data.
• Plotting this chart is easy peasy.

2. Double Bar Chart

The core principle behind the Double Bar Chart is that displaying data side-by-side is an important visual cue for our brains to decode comparison insights.

Benefits

• Adjacent Bar Diagrams are among the types of data visualization charts that are easy to interpret.
• Use these charts if your goal is to create a simple side-by-side comparison of metrics for high-level insights.

3. Bar Charts

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

Bar graphs are among the types of data visualization charts that are incredibly easy to read and understand.

Use these data visualization designs to show how a metric changes over time. You can also use it to compare the performance of metrics across time.

Benefits

• Bar Charts make comparisons between different variables in your data easier.
• Bar Diagrams are the easiest to plot compared to other types of data visualization charts.
• These charts are popular because they are familiar to most people, which means they’re easy to interpret.

4. Stack Bar Chart

A Stacked Bar Chart belongs to the family of Bar Charts.

A standard Bar Chart compares individual data points with each other. But in a Stacked Bar Chart, parts of the data are adjacent (in the case of horizontal bars).

The equivalent subsections are the same color in each bar. So this formatting makes it easy to compare both the whole and the components of each bar.

In a Stacked Bar Chart, you get to see changes in a series of data and where they occurred. There’s a variant of Stacked Bar Chart called 100% Stacked Bar Chart.

Remember, the chart you need depends on what you’re trying to communicate to your audience.

The main objective of this data visualization design is to compare numeric values between levels of a categorical variable. One bar is plotted for each level of the categorical variable. More so, each bar’s length indicates a numeric value.

Use a stacked Bar Chart if you care more about the decomposition of each primary bar based on the levels of a second categorical variable. Each bar in this chart is made up of sub-bars, each corresponding to secondary categorical variables.

Benefits

• If your goal is to compare data points, a Stacked Bar Chart is more insightful than a combined chart.
• It’s amazingly easy to spot outliers using this type of data visualization chart.
• Interpreting this chart is incredibly easy, even for non-technical audiences.

5. Donut Charts

Visualization Source: ChartExpo

A Donut Chart is almost identical to a Pie Chart. But, the center of the diagram is cut out (hence the name ‘donut’). Use this chart to visualize the proportions of categories that make up the whole in your data.

Benefits

• Donut Charts are incredibly easy to read and understand, even for non-technical audiences (or readers).
• The data values in this chart can be altered to align with your needs.
• You can quickly draw Donut Charts in different types and colors.
• With the help of text boxes, labels, and legend, you can easily add additional information to help the audiences understand the story better.
• Additional information, such as the aggregate values, can be placed in the hole of a Donut Diagram.
• These charts are strategically positioned to compare limited sets of categories.
• Donut charts work best, especially when you have limited data.

The Best Tool to Use to Create Insightful Data Visualization Designs

ChartExpo is a data visualization tool that goes above and beyond data.

Using a complete set of tools (below):

• A graph maker
• Chart templates
• A data widget library

You can easily create charts that are simple, easy, and clear to read.

ChartExpo is incredibly easy to use to generate Adjacent, Donut, Stacked Bar, Scatter Plot, Bar, and other 80+ types of data visualization charts.

And it gets better.

The tool comes with a library with over 80-plus charts. The data widgets in ChartExpo are perfect for visualizing map data, tables, percentages, gauges, and more.

Did we mention you can easily export charts to make stunning social media reports, sales reports, and goal projections easily using a wide range of ready-to-go charts?

ChartExpo is for anyone who needs to create data visualizations and visual graphics for a variety of purposes. For example, you can create charts for blogs, reports, proposals, school reports, presentations, print collateral, and more.

But most of all, ChartExpo is for people who need to create beautiful charts without design skills. This highly intuitive tool offers lots of resources to improve your designer’s eye and make the most out of the tools provided in the editor.

Do you need a great-looking chart on its own or as a part of a dashboard, or inside a report or proposal? Look no further. ChartExpo is the tool you’ve been looking for all this time.

Getting Started with ChartExpo

You’ll be installing a cloud-hosted add-on on your 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 button on the resulting page.

• This will begin the installation process. Log in to your Google account and give the plugin’s permissions.
• Once done, the add-on will install and be ready for use the next time you open Google Sheets.

The second method: you can download ChartExpo directly from the Google Sheets App.

• To get started, click on Add-ons in the top toolbar.

• Press the option to Get Add-ons, as shown.

• Search for ChartExpo in the bar. Click the ChartExpo tool when it appears in the results.

• Press the blue Install button and give permissions in your Google account.
• Open the worksheet and click on the Add-ons menu.
• You’ll see the ChartExpo – Best Data Visualization Tool option in the dropdown menu.

• Now Click on Create New Chart to access 6 categories of charts.
• Click the best type of data visualization chart you want for your data story.

(FAQs)

What makes a Good Data Visualization?

A suitable type of data visualization chart should establish two aspects of your data. Firstly, it should show connections that are too complex to explain with words within the data. Secondly, it makes it easier for your target audience to understand the data story and consider the recommendations quickly.

What is the Importance of Charts?

The main functions of charts are to transform raw data into insights to drive growth and profits in businesses. Use graphs to create data narratives that generate emotional connections with target audiences.

Use charts in situations where you cannot analyze tables for high-level insights quickly.

What is a Data Visualization Tool?

A data visualization tool is software designed to display insights from raw data. Although today’s tools vary in capabilities, they allow you to input data and visually manipulate it.

Many data visualization design tools available in the market are AI-driven, which means they’re more efficient at crunching numbers.

Wrap Up

Congratulations if you’ve read the blog up to this point.

As we said, to get the most out of your data, you need the right types of data visualization charts. Why?

You don’t want your audience to struggle to decode the meaning and context of your data story if you want a quick buy-in. Using the right data visualization design will save you hours every day and supercharge your data story.

Selecting the suitable chart for your data story does not have to be a struggle or even time-intensive.

The data visualization tool we recommend our readers is ChartExpo because of its full stack of tools:

• A graph maker
• Chart templates
• A data widget library

These functionalities are straightforward to use. You don’t need coding or programming skills. Besides, it produces charts that are exceptionally insightful and easy to read, even for non-technical audiences.

And this means you can create social media reports, sales reports, and goal projections effortlessly with this tool.

So whether you’re looking to create a compelling data story or get the most out of your data, ChartExpo add-in has everything you need.

Try ChartExpo today to save the time you use to create custom dashboards to track insights.