Our brains can easily interpret connections and patterns. Also, we can easily distinguish between slopes of straight lines.
And it’s for this reason that seasoned data visualization experts use Slope Charts in their data stories. These charts are easy to read and understand. Besides, this makes them ideal if you want to communicate high-level insights quickly to a non-technical audience.
You cannot find ready-made and visually appealing Slope Graphs in Google Sheets.
You actually don’t have to do away with Google Sheets. You can supercharge it by installing a particular add-in to access a ready-to-use and visually appealing Slope Chart.
In this blog, you’ll discover:
Before jumping into the how-to guide, we’ll address the following question: what is a Slope Graph?
Slope Charts are simple graphs that quickly and directly show transitions, changes over time, absolute values, and even rankings.
Edward Tufte first used the Slope Charts in his book-The Visual Display of Quantitative Information– to describe the hierarchy of countries between 1970 and 1979.
You can use this chart to show the before and after story of variables in your data.
Slope Graphs are useful, especially when you have two time periods or points of comparison and want to show relative increases and decreases quickly across various categories between two data points.
This chart packs in a lot of information. In addition to the absolute values (the points), the lines that connect them give you the visual increase or decrease in the rate of change (via the slope or direction).
Whether a slope chart will work in your data story or not depends on the nature of your data. For instance, if many lines are overlapping, your chart will lose effectiveness. And this is due to clutter.
However, you can overcome the above challenge to some degree by highlighting a single line category that has either increased or decreased over time.
So, what are the common applications of a Slope Graph maker?
Use this chart in your data story because it shows high-level insights, such as rankings, and changes over time easily. Your audience won’t struggle to decode the key insights at the center of your data story.
Use Slope Graphs to show the differences between two related points, changes over time, or changes in the formation of a group (e.g., part vs. whole).
Check out more benefits below.
A Slope Graph can improve the productivity and efficiency of staff in your business. In other words, you can leverage data to predict risks, such as declining productivity.
Besides, it can help you track productivity metrics in real time. With a solid business analytics strategy, you can easily point out gaps and improvement areas in your workplace or business.
Customers have a broader range of choices in today’s world.
If your business is not aligned with the customers’ desires and expectations, you can easily find yourself in a downward spiral. Customers change their minds as they are continuously exposed to new information in their purchasing journey.
With the vast amount of data, it’s practically impossible for you to make sense of all the changes in the market.
One of the benefits of a Slope Graph maker is that it provides you with answers about the changing behavior of the market. You can easily point out significant shifts in tastes and preferences by using charts.
Timely awareness of customer behavior changes can be the decisive factor in the current competitive landscape.
Most small and medium-sized businesses are still betting on gut feelings rather than facts and data.
One of the key reasons for this could be a lack of access to quality data to back up decision-making processes.
A Slope Graph maker can help you distill signals from noise in your raw data. And this can save massive amounts of time. Imagine the competitive advantage you would enjoy by relying on data to make strategic decisions.
Gone are the days you could easily sell a standard set of products and services to customers.
Today’s market craves products and services that can meet their individual needs.
One of the benefits of a Slope Graph is that it can help you keep track of your target market’s tastes, preferences, and needs. You can leverage data from various attributions, such as social media and websites, to create a reliable persona for the market.
Thanks to a Slope Graph maker, you can interpret vast quantities of data clearly and cohesively to draw conclusions and see perspectives.
You can easily create and rapidly consume key metrics associated with your business or workplace.
If any of the aforementioned metrics have anomalies, such as a dramatic decline in sales, you can easily dig into the data.
In the ensuing section, we’ll address the pros of a Slope Graph maker.
This is one of the easiest charts to read and interpret. Essentially, your audience will not struggle to understand the key insights. Besides, it’s incredibly easy to plot the chart if you use the right Slope Graph maker.
With a Slope Chart, you don’t need much customization to highlight key insights. Again, it depends on the tool you’re using for the exercise.
Change is around us. Change in business is critical because it can drive profits or result in monetary loss. So, you need the best chart in your data story to help persuade the management. The best chart to visualize change over time in your data is the Slope Chart.
A Slope Chart has identical features to other graphs, such as the Line Chart. Let’s take a quick look at these features.
Data is the most significant part of making this chart for your story. Essentially, you need a substantial amount of data before you decide to use this chart for your visualization.
You need a tool that’s easy to use to plot this chart for your data story. There are a plethora of tools for data visualization, such as Google Sheets.
Remember, we naturally read starting from the left. Besides, it makes sense to label the axes (on the left side) to guide your audience towards the meaning and context of your insights.
The legend is a side section of the chart that gives a short text description of each series. Use a legend to help your audience understand the charted data.
A title is the big idea you want to communicate to your audiences. A title that compels the audience to pay attention and take the recommended action should convey what’s at stake.
For instance, ‘Our Sales have declined by 65% in the last 7 years. And at this rate, we won’t be in business in the next 2 financial years.
In the coming section, we’ll address how to create a Slope Graph?
Google Sheets is a trusted data visualization tool because it’s familiar and has been there for decades.
But the spreadsheet application lacks ready-made Slope Chart types. So, it’s not a reliable Slope Graph maker.
We understand switching tools is not an easy task.
This is why we’re not advocating you ditch Google Sheets in favor of other expensive data visualization tools.
There’s an easy-to-use and amazingly affordable visualization tool that comes as an add-in you can easily install in your Google Sheets ready-made Slope Chart. The tool is called ChartExpo.
So, what is ChartExpo?
ChartExpo is an incredibly intuitive add-on for Google Sheets which you can easily install without watching hours of YouTube tutorials.
With many ready-to-go visualizations, the ChartExpo turns your complex, raw data into insightful Slope Charts that tell the data stories in real time.
In the coming section, we’ll take you through how to install and use ChartExpo into your Google Sheets.
You don’t want to miss this!
This section will use a Slope Chart to visualize the tabular data below.
| Period | State | Sales |
| Current | Chicago, Illinois, US | 14 |
| Current | Dallas, Texas, US | 7 |
| Current | Houston, Texas, US | 12 |
| Current | Austin, Texas, US | 14 |
| Current | Albany, New York, US | 31 |
| Current | Trenton, New Jersey, US | 24 |
| Current | Newark, New Jersey, US | 22 |
| Current | Helena, Montana, US | 8 |
| Current | San Antonio, Texas, US | 7 |
| Previous | Chicago, Illinois, US | 21 |
| Previous | Dallas, Texas, US | 27 |
| Previous | Houston, Texas, US | 30 |
| Previous | Austin, Texas, US | 69 |
| Previous | Albany, New York, US | 21 |
| Previous | Trenton, New Jersey, US | 34 |
| Previous | Newark, New Jersey, US | 21 |
| Previous | Helena, Montana, US | 21 |
| Previous | San Antonio, Texas, US | 28 |
To install the Slope Graph Maker (ChartExpo), add-in for Google Sheets, click this link.
Take a look at the table below. How easy is it to create a meaningful data story?
| Period | Regions | Percentage |
| Q1 | Asia Pacific | 14 |
| Q1 | North America | 5 |
| Q1 | Middle East and Africa | 12 |
| Q1 | Latin America | 14 |
| Q1 | Western Europe | 31 |
| Q1 | Central and Eastern Europe | 24 |
| Q2 | Asia Pacific | 21 |
| Q2 | North America | 27 |
| Q2 | Middle East and Africa | 10 |
| Q2 | Latin America | 9 |
| Q2 | Western Europe | 19 |
| Q2 | Central and Eastern Europe | 14 |
| Q3 | Asia Pacific | 53 |
| Q3 | North America | 23 |
| Q3 | Middle East and Africa | 6 |
| Q3 | Latin America | 6 |
| Q3 | Western Europe | 7 |
| Q3 | Central and Eastern Europe | 5 |
You can use this chart to show your data’s before and after story of key variables.
Use the chart if your goal is to show relative increases and decreases quickly across various categories between two data points.
A Slope Chart is useful when you have two time periods or points of comparison and want to quickly show relative increases or decreases across various categories between the two data points. You can use it to visualize a wider range of data in business and other areas.
According to Prof. Edward Tufte, the pioneer of these charts:
Our brains can easily interpret connections and patterns. Besides, we can easily distinguish between slopes of straight lines.
And it’s for this reason that seasoned data visualization experts use Slope Charts in their data stories. These charts are easy to read and understand. Besides, this makes them ideal if you want to communicate high-level insights quickly to a non-technical audience.
You cannot find ready-made and visually appealing Slope Graphs in Google Sheets. Therefore, it’s not a reliable Slope Graph maker.
So, what’s the solution?
We recommend you install third-party apps, such as ChartExpo, to access ready-to-use Slope Graphs.
ChartExpo is an add-on for Google Sheets that’s loaded with insightful and ready-to-go Slope Charts. You don’t need programming or coding skills to use ChartExpo.
Sign up for a 7-day free trial today to access ready-made Slope Charts that are easy to interpret and visually appealing to your target audience.
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