Question

Consider the impact of a poorly designed chart. Explain why it is important to have a well-designed chart, and name at least three tips for creating a good chart.

Answer 1

I'm writing with perspective to the chart demonstration in Excel.

A chart demonstrates a graphical representation of data, rather than providing thousands of numerical data to provide a coexistence relation between data a graphical representation becomes easier, it becomes easier to understand the trends, forecast and we can easily create a corelation between different aspects of datas. In other words data analysis becomes easier. Not only from the perspective of working in Excel but even working in Power BI we can see how data sheets can create marvelous charts and provide in-depth analysis of data.

Taking the above into consideration, a chart would not be enough it is the detailed analysis of the chart which can help us clearly understand the relation. A poorly designed chart will limited amount of information will not at all be useful. A chart should represent everything in the most detailed way as possible whch can be co-related and easy to understand.

Here are some of the tips that one can follow while designing a chart -

• Remove noise from your chart's background - It is very important to remove any unwanted information from the chart, that can be any unnecessary data that you included from the datasheet or any unwanted chart customization.
• Add a descriptive title / Make your data more descriptive - A good descriptive title will clearly explains what you have represented. With a proper descriptive it is always advised to provide a proper axis title with legends to clearly tell the reader what each data represents. Also note that the data labels should be properly oriented in the correct angle so that it is readable, many times people tends to display it in some weird angle and one has to tilt their head in order to read the labels.
• Delete legends with one data series - If you are representing data with only one series then avoid unnecessary legends which is not at all required, because it is known from the title that the chart represents the followig data there is no requirement to add legend.

There are more ways in which we can avoid designing poorly chart, but that is upto us to understand what we can do to make the chart readable and explanable to others.

Thanks