7 Common Quantitative Relationships and Graphs
Stephen Few: "Eenie, Meenie, Minie, Moe: Selecting the Right Graph for Your Message" September 18, 2004 http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/ie/the_right_graph.pdf
- Nominal Comparison: categorical subdivisions - bar graph
- Time series: value changing through time - line graph
- Ranking: relative performance of items, sort in descending or ascending order - horizontal bar
- Part to whole: individual categories as ratio to whole - vertical bar
- Deviation: 2 sets of values differ from each other - line graph for overall pattern
- Range: frequency distribution across a range - vertical bar graph
- Correlation: both scales quantitative - scatter plot
Pie Charts or Not?
Stephen Few on Pie Charts: "Our Irresistible Fascination with All Things Circular" http://www.perceptualedge.com/articles/visual_business_intelligence/our_fascination_with_all_things_circular.pdf
