Planning a visualization is an iterative process, depending on the results of an initial exploration of the data. This section of the guide provides guidance with this process: cleaning data (below), exploring data, creating a narrative, and finding a home for your visualization.
There are countless tools on the internet that help you choose the right visualization for you. Below are some of our favorite tools.
Data Viz Project is a website run by data viz company Ferdio. Their website goes above and beyond to ensure all visualization types are represented. In addition, you can filter types by the family (chart, diagram, geospatial, etc), input (2 variable, 3 variable, chronological etc), or function (comparison, conceptualization, etc). It's important to note that some of the visualization examples are not good visualizations. Make sure that your visualizations accurately depict your data.
graffiti is a search engine that shows you some of the best charts for a visualization type or by topic. It's designed to work similar to Google, but for data visualizations.
Chart Chooser from Extreme Presentation
Below are some common visualization types for different data relationships. This is not a comprehensive list. There are a variety of types that are not mentioned below, and, depending on the story you want to tell with your data, these types might not be the perfect fit for you. To explore more visualization types, check out the Tools Page (on the tabs to the left)!
Data Visualizations for Data Relationships
Compare Values
Example Bar Chart
Composition
Example Waterfall Chart
Distribution of Data
Example Column Chart
Trends
Example Dual-Axis Line Chart
Relationship
Example Bubble Chart
