What is the Purpose of a Graph in Data Stories?

You’ll agree we interpret visual content faster than words and numbers.

Scientific researches show that our brains interpret visual content, such as charts, graphs, and maps, 60,000 times faster than texts and figures.

Visualization charts play a critical role in today’s businesses by empowering data-backed decisions and providing insights for continuous improvement.

You need charts and graphs for your data story to be credible and compelling. Besides, you need tools to help you access charts.

Excel is arguably among the most-used data visualization tools. It has been there for a long time and is familiar to many. But to generate readymade graphs for your data stories, you’ve got to think beyond the Excel spreadsheet.

Why?

The spreadsheet tool produces very basic charts that require extra time and effort to edit. However, you don’t have to do away with Excel. You can transform it into a reliable data visualization tool by installing third-party applications (add-ins).

In this blog, you’ll learn:

• What is the purpose of a graph?
• In-depth importance of graphs and charts in your data stories.
• The best tool to generate ready-to-use graphs and charts.

What is the Purpose of a Graph in Data Narratives?

Before we delve right into the meaty part of the blog post, let go through a couple of definitions.

What is a Graph?

Graphs are used to illustrate relationships in your data visually. The importance of graphs and charts, especially during data analysis, cannot be ignored.

Visualization graphs act as the bridge between raw data and insights. You can use them to display relationships, trends, and outliers that exist in your data.

When was the Graph First Used?

The first graph is attributed to the 19th-century Englishman James Sylvester, one of the pioneer mathematicians interested in visualization.

What do Graphs Tell Us?

Graphs are visual representations used to display patterns, trends, and relationships of key metrics in raw data. A graph shows this information by representing it as a shape.

Top 6 Categories of Charts and Graphs for Your Data Stories

There’re 6 main categories of visualization designs you can use for your data stories, namely:

• Sankey Chart
• Sentiment Analysis Charts
• Comparative Analysis Charts
• Specialized Survey Charts
• General Analysis Charts
• Pareto Charts

In the coming sections, we’ll use a chart from mentioned categories (above) in examples.

Which Tool Provides You With All The 6 Categories Of Charts And Graphs?

What is the purpose of a graph? To address the aforementioned questions, you also have to think about tools.

Yes, you read that right.

You cannot separate graphs from tools. You need an intuitive tool that’s loaded with ready-made charts. Excel is not the tool we’re talking about in this context.

Why?

Excel comes with pretty basic charts and graphs, which require additional time to edit. Besides, its library has a limited number of charts, graphs, and maps.  In today’s business landscape, the importance of graphs and charts cannot be stressed enough. You need a tool that can help you harness insights into your data efficiently and faster.

Here’s the deal.

You can transform your Excel into a visualization juggernaut by installing add-ins.

The add-in we’ve tested rigorously and recommend to you is ChartExpo.

ChartExpo is a cloud-hosted add-in that transforms your Excel spreadsheet app into a highly responsive data visualization tool.

What is the purpose of a graph? ChartExpo answers the aforementioned question by providing you with unlimited access to ready-made and visually appealing charts for your data stories.

How to Install ChartExpo in Excel?

You can follow the guide on ChartExpo for Excel add-In for installation purpose. Once it is installed successfully you can find the add-in in Excel by going to insert menu and click on My Apps.

You will find below screen and you can click select the ChartExpo and click on Insert.

If you are not already logged-in, it may ask you for the log-in for the first time. Otherwise you will be able to see the list of charts as shown below.

Example #1 Sankey Chart

In this example, we’ll use Sankey Chart to visualize the tabular data below.

Income	Budget	Expense Mean	Spent On	Spending
Simon	Budget	Budget Expenses	Auto Charity	100
Simon	Budget	Budget Expenses	Mortgages on 2 Houses	2,250
Simon	Budget	Budget Expenses	Dining Out and Groceries	1,358
Simon	Budget	Budget Expenses	Property Taxes 2 Houses	1,010
Simon	Budget	Budget Expenses	Utilities & House Cleaning	952
His Wife	Budget	Budget Expenses	Parking and Car Expenses	689
His Wife	Budget	Budget Expenses	Life Ins and Child Care	491
His Wife	Budget	Budget Expenses	Insurance Life and House	304
His Wife	Budget	Account	Leftover	3,800
His Wife	Budget	Saving and Retirement	Dividend Reinvestment	500
Passive	Budget	Saving and Retirement	Automatic Cash Savings	1,900
Passive	Budget	Saving and Retirement	Retirement	1,911
Passive	Budget	Saving and Retirement	HSA	360
Passive	Budget	Saving and Retirement	Deferred Compensation	300
Passive	Budget	Saving and Retirement	I-Bond	100

• You can copy the above table into Excel sheet and then from the ChartExpo add-in you can find Sankey Chart.

• Select al the columns and rows in sheet which is holding the data and then click on Create Chart From Selection.

• You can change the chart properties to add header and properties and can have the final look as shown below.

Insights

• Simon accounts for 37% of the aggregate monthly income, while his wife accounts for 38%.
• Conversely, passive income accounts for 25% of the total monthly cash generated by the couple.
• Expenses take a whopping 47% of the income earned by the couple.

Example #2: Sentiment Analysis Charts Category

In this example, we’ll use the Sentiment Trend Chart (which belongs to the Sentiment Trend Chart category) to visualize the data set below.

So here we go.

Month	Positive Count	Negative Count
Jan	3000	500
Feb	4500	1200
Mar	5571	1624
Apr	4059	1545
May	4655	1876
Jun	4366	2173
Jul	4417	1698
Aug	3863	1321
Sep	2600	200
Oct	3300	1200
Nov	4200	677
Dec	4500	800

• Paste this data into Excel and find Sentiment Trend Chart in the list and click on it.

You can now select all the columns and rows from the sheets in which data is present and click on Create Chart From Selection.

Check out the final Sentiment Trend Chart as shown below:

Insights:

• August has the lowest positive sentiment. On the other hand, March has the highest positive sentiment.

What is the purpose of a graph? Continue reading to get in-depth information about the importance of graphs and charts in your data stories.

Example #3: Comparative Analysis Charts Category

In this example, we’ll use the Comparison Bar Chart (which belongs to Comparative Analysis Charts Category) to visualize the data set below.

So here we go.

Year	Store Items	Sales Order
2018	K2 Southern Style Sauce	700
2018	Turkish Taffy Vanilla	500
2018	Turkish Taffy Strawberry	380
2018	Jimmie Stix	600
2018	Root Beer Barrels Candy	600
2018	Maple Beef Jerky	400
2018	Zachary Mello Crème Candy Corn	800
2018	Goetze’s Caramel Cream	800
2018	Rada Cutlery Popcorn on the cob	600
2018	Burning Asphalt Bourbon Beacon Ketchup	400
2018	Classic Country Gravy Mix	380
2018	Tuttorosso Marinara Pasta Sauce	800
2018	Tuttorosso Marinara Pasta Sauce Tomato	400
2018	Tuttorosso Marinara Traditional Sauce	700
2019	K2 Southern Style Sauce	370
2019	Turkish Taffy Vanilla	350
2019	Turkish Taffy Strawberry	450
2019	Jimmie Stix	350
2019	Root Beer Barrels Candy	800
2019	Maple Beef Jerky	400
2019	Zachary Mello Crème Candy Corn	650
2019	Goetze’s Caramel Cream	550
2019	Rada Cutlery Popcorn on the cob	700
2019	Burning Asphalt Bourbon Beacon Ketchup	350
2019	Classic Country Gravy Mix	500
2019	Tuttorosso Marinara Pasta Sauce	700
2019	Tuttorosso Marinara Pasta Sauce Tomato	450
2019	Tuttorosso Marinara Traditional Sauce	500
2020	K2 Southern Style Sauce	700
2020	Turkish Taffy Vanilla	370
2020	Turkish Taffy Strawberry	550
2020	Jimmie Stix	380
2020	Root Beer Barrels Candy	360
2020	Maple Beef Jerky	500
2020	Zachary Mello Crème Candy Corn	700
2020	Goetze’s Caramel Cream	600
2020	Rada Cutlery Popcorn on the cob	350
2020	Burning Asphalt Bourbon Beacon Ketchup	450
2020	Classic Country Gravy Mix	600
2020	Tuttorosso Marinara Pasta Sauce	600
2020	Tuttorosso Marinara Pasta Sauce Tomato	500
2020	Tuttorosso Marinara Traditional Sauce	360

• Import the tabular data (above) into your Excel spreadsheet to get started with Comparison Bar Charts by finding it from the list as shown below.

You can select the data in the sheet and click on Create Chart From Selection.

• Check out the final Sankey Chart.

Insights

• The most popular orders in 2018-20 were: Goetze Caramel Cream (10%), Root Beer Barrels Candy (11%), and K2 southern style sauce (10%).
• Conversely, the worst-selling menus were: Turkish Taffy strawberry, Turkish Taffy vanilla, and Rada Cutlery.

Example #4: Specialized Survey Charts Category

In this example, we’ll use the 5-point Likert Chart (which belongs to Specialized Survey Charts Category) to visualize the data set below.

1 = Strongly Disagree

2 = Disagree

3 = Neutral

4 = Agree

5 = Strongly Agree

Questions	Scale	Responses
How do you rate our cleaning staff’s behavior?	1	35
How do you rate our cleaning staff’s behavior?	2	100
How do you rate our cleaning staff’s behavior?	3	146
How do you rate our cleaning staff’s behavior?	4	45
How do you rate our cleaning staff’s behavior?	5	193
How do you rate our cleaning services?	1	180
How do you rate our cleaning services?	2	204
How do you rate our cleaning services?	3	129
How do you rate our cleaning services?	4	193
How do you rate our cleaning services?	5	134
Will you recommend our services in your circle?	1	150
Will you recommend our services in your circle?	2	5
Will you recommend our services in your circle?	3	105
Will you recommend our services in your circle?	4	3
Will you recommend our services in your circle?	5	253

• To get started with the Likert Chart, export the data (above) into Excel and find the chart in the list to continue.

• Follow the steps we highlighted earlier to visualize your data in Excel using ChartExpo.

You can now select the data in the sheet and click on Create Chart From Selection.

You can have the final look as shown below by changing some properties of the charts.

What is the purpose of a graph? Continue reading to get in-depth information about the importance of graphs and charts in your data stories.

Example #4: General Analysis Charts Category

In this example, we’ll use the Grouped Bar Chart (which belongs to General Analysis Charts Category) to visualize the data set below.

Brand	California	New York	Chicago
Adidas	4,500	3,500	3,000
Nike	3,000	2,000	4,000
Tesco	3,500	2,500	3,000
lucky brand	2,000	3,500	2,500
Calvin Klein	3,000	2,000	3,500
DIESEL	2,000	3,000	3,500
DOCKERS	3,000	2,500	2,000
George	2,500	3,000	3,500
SANMAR	3,000	2,500	3,500

• Export the data set (above) into your Excel to get started with Grouped Bar Charts.

You can select the data from the sheet and click on Create Chart From Selection.

• Check out the final Grouped Bar Chart (below).

Insights

• Adidas is the most popular brand in California.
• Nike is the best-selling brand in Chicago
• Lucky and Adidas tie as the best-performing brands in New York.

Example #6: Pareto Bar Chart

In this example, we’ll use the Pareto Bar Chart (which belongs to the Pay-per-click Charts category) to visualize the data set below.

City	Current Period Sales	Previous Period Sales
New York	610	650
Chicago	550	545
San Francisco	445	389
Los Angeles	572	533
Seattle	153	185
Boston	188	143
Phoenix	497	485
Atlanta	265	180
Philadelphia	489	460
Miami	487	367
Dallas	8	6
Houston	7	4
St Louis	7	4
Columbus	1	1
Fresno	6	3
Mesa	2	2
Oakland	3	1
San Antonio	1	2
San Diego	1	1

•  Paste the data (above) into your Excel and find the Pareto Bar Chart.

Select the data and click on Create Chart From Selection.

 

You will have a final look as shown below.

Insights:

New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Phoenix, Philadelphia, and Miami cities accounts for 80% of the aggregate sales values in the USA.

What is the purpose of a graph? The aforementioned question is what the blog has just addressed.

FAQs:

Why is data visualization important?

Data visualization can help you to tell stories by transforming data into a form that’s easier to understand. A good visualization strategy should enable you to tell a story compellingly.

It acts as the bridge between raw data and insights by displaying relationships and trends in your data.

Why is it important to use graphs to visually represent data?

The purpose of a graph is to separate key insights from noise in your data using abstract images.

Our brains can interpret visual content over 60,000 times faster than texts and numbers. By using charts and graphs in your data story, you can easily influence the decisions of your target audiences (or readers).

Wrap Up

What is the purpose of a graph?

The key purpose of charts and graphs is to appeal to the emotions of the target audience. Like we said, our brains have a knack for interpreting visual information faster than words and numbers.

If you’re a business person or professional, chances are you already know the importance of graphs and charts. But do you leverage them fully to get the most from your data?

What tools are you using to extract insights into your data?

If your use Excel full-time, you’re really missing big. The spreadsheet application has basic charts, which require more time and effort to customize. Essentially, you cannot find ready-made graphs and charts in the spreadsheet application.

To harness your raw data 100%, download and install add-ins in your Excel.

One of the proven and tested data visualization add-in for Excel is ChartExpo.

ChartExpo with over 50 graphs ready-made and visually appealing charts to get you started in data storytelling. It’s trusted by thousands of professionals and business owners worldwide.

Besides, it has a super-friendly user interface (UI), which means you don’t need coding or programming skills to visualize your data.

Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to harness your raw data fully for actionable answers.