![]() Unlike our list of months, one kind of produce doesn’t necessarily lead to the next. Let’s also say we have a list of types of produce: apples, pears, limes, lemons, dates, grapes. January 2020 leads to February 2020, which leads to March 2020, and so on. It would feel wrong to list them in any other order, because they are continuous and have an intrinsic order. Let’s say we have a list of the first six months of 2020: January, February, March, April, May, June. While some line graphs do not use continuous data on the x-axis (particularly slopegraphs and parallel coordinates diagrams, which are specialized variants of line graphs), what we absolutely can’t use on our x-axis is data that doesn’t have any meaningful relationship among the categories shown. ![]() The y-axis usually shows the value of whatever variable we are measuring the x-axis is most often used to show when we measured it, either chronologically or based on some independent variable (e.g., as we rev our old car’s engine, we measure the decibel level at different RPM). What kind of data can be used on a line graph?Ī typical line graph will have continuous data along both the vertical (y-axis) and horizontal (x-axis) dimensions. We can take advantage of the white space in our line graphs to include informative context that helps an audience understand why these specific changes matter. Remember: line graphs work by emphasizing how our measured values change over time, or as a specified independent variable changes. Only the markers for the months in which we hit our maximum and minimum sales values remain, because they are important to the story we plan to tell with this graph.Ī dotted line shows the projected sales over the next three months.Īnnotations at key moments in time explain the reasoning for the numbers, actions we took in response to those numbers, and our expectations. To reduce some visual clutter, the data labels and most of the markers of individual points on our line have been removed. Our collected sales data is still shown on the chart, as the solid black line, but now we’ve been able to put that data into context.Ī gray reference band shows what the range of monthly sales totals have been, and we’ve labeled those specific values as well.Ī green line shows us what our sales goal is, to make it easy to see if our sales numbers were worth celebrating in any given month. Once we have lots of these measurements, we plot those points on our graph, and then draw a line that connects those points, to make it easier to see how those values rose, fell, or stayed the same over time. For example, at the end of every month, our store wants to record how much money we brought in through sales. Think of the lines on a line graph as little histories.įirst, we measure the value of something we want to keep track of at different points in time. In future articles, we’ll go into more detail about some special variants of line graphs, like the slopegraph and the area graph. How much space should I leave at the top and bottom of my graph? What kind of data can be shown on a line graph? Then, we’ll answer some commonly asked questions about line graphs: In this post, we’ll talk about how a line graph works, and how to build one that provides meaningful information and context to your audience. On the other hand, they are not necessarily your best choice for: Highlighting anomalies within and across data series Including important context and annotation Line graphs are common and effective charts because they are simple, easy to understand, and efficient. Whenever you hear that key phrase “over time,” that’s your clue to consider using a line graph for your data. Line graphs (or line charts) are best when you want to show how the value of something changes over time, or compare how several things change over time relative to each other.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |