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The right types of charts and graphs can help business owners analyze data, track performance, and communicate insights effectively. They simplify complex information, making it easier for stakeholders, team members, and customers to understand key metrics at a glance.
Visual data is powerful—around 50% of the human brain processes information visually—so using charts is one of the most effective ways to influence decisions and highlight trends.
There are many types of charts and graphs available, each suited for different purposes. Choosing the right chart depends on the story you want your data to tell and the message you want to convey.
This guide presents a comprehensive overview of both popular and lesser-known types of charts and graphs, helping business owners select the most effective visualizations for clear and persuasive data presentation.
In this blog, you will learn,
Understanding complex data sets can be challenging, especially when comparing multiple variables or tracking trends over time. Presenting data visually through charts and graphs makes it easier for audiences to grasp insights quickly and accurately.
Different types of graphs and charts, such as Area Charts, Line Charts, and Sankey Diagrams, help convey patterns, relationships, and flows clearly and intuitively. They are particularly useful in reports, sales presentations, team meetings, and data storytelling.
Visual communication through charts and graphs allows business stakeholders to understand the story behind the numbers without having to interpret raw data. For example, a Sankey Chart illustrates the flow of funds clearly, making it easy to see relationships and movements without analyzing the actual figures.
Using the right chart type simplifies complex information, improves decision-making, and ensures your audience can quickly understand key messages.
Below, we have compiled a list of 14 different types of graphs and charts to guide you in selecting the most suitable visualization for your data.
Knowing when to use different types of charts and graphs is essential for presenting data clearly and effectively. The right choice ensures your audience can quickly understand patterns, relationships, and comparisons.
Selecting the appropriate chart type enhances clarity, improves decision-making, and engages your audience by presenting insights in a visually intuitive way.
Histograms are best for showing data distribution. Choosing the right chart helps your audience quickly understand and engage with your insights.
In this section, we will explore the most common types of charts and graphs used in business and how they can help in daily operations. Choosing the right chart allows teams to communicate data insights effectively and make informed decisions.
With the rapid growth of data, businesses now rely on a variety of charts to summarize, compare, and analyze complex datasets. Each chart type has unique advantages depending on the type of data and the insights you want to highlight.
Some innovative charts, like Mekko charts, have gained popularity for visualizing complex relationships and multiple variables simultaneously. Below, we’ll cover essential chart types and explain when and how to use them effectively in business settings.
Just like the name suggests, a Sankey Chart is used to present the flow of processes within a business.
This chart type usually has a series of turning points and paths that display how a particular process changes from one point to another. Also, it can be used to display decisions, information, and action changes within an interaction process.
You don’t need to possess any technical skills to understand a Sankey Chart. The chart outlines data in a simple way that is straight to the point, depending on what is being displayed.
This chart draws the reader’s attention to the enormous flows, the largest consumer, the major losses, and other insights. Besides, Sankey uses links and nodes to uncover hidden insights into relationships between critical metrics.
The size of a node is directly proportional to the quantity of data points under review. A flow that’s twice as wide represents double the value of the metric. Utilizing a chart maker ensures that these visual elements are accurately represented, enhancing data interpretation.
A Likert Scale is an ordinal scale usually used to measure attitudes, knowledge, perceptions, values, and behavioral changes. To present this information graphically, we use the Likert Scale Chart.
A Scatter graph is used to showcase a comparison between two numbers or variables outlined on a chart’s axis. In this case, the data points do not form a line like a chart. This is because the relationship in the numbers is varied.
If you have complex data at your disposal that you would like to analyze and understand more about its relationship, you can use a scatter chart to help you get the job done.
For instance, business owners can use scatter charts to display the relationship between sales and revenue collection and the type of customers who contribute to the revenue collected by the business.
Understanding this type of data offers the business stakeholders a chance to work on other strategies that will attract more customers in the long run, contributing to the business’s continued growth.
A Comparison Chart is a visualization design that uses composite-colored bars to show comparison insights in a specified period. The graph is ideal if your goal is to compare more than two key data points.
A Waterfall chart is a variation of a bar graph that shows how an initial value changes due to other factors over time. It is also known as a Bridge Chart in finance, or a floating brick chart.
The purpose of a Bridge Chart is to show a before-and-after picture of your data. It depicts each step in the journey and shows which factors help or hurt the progression.
Knowing the ins and outs of Bridge Charts enables you to use this visualization for your data effectively.
A Radar Chart with different scales (also known as a Dual Axis Radar Graph) is a two-dimensional visualization design you can use to display insights into two different metrics in your data.
A Radar Chart is very versatile and can be used in many situations.
Think of the Gauge Chart as your speedometer to evaluate the speed of your growth and performance.
It shows your results along a curved bar, quickly visualizing where your performance is at and where it could be. With this knowledge, you’ll be more than ready to elevate your results to the next level.
The value of the Gauge Chart can’t be overstated. It holds many benefits that you and your team will love when it comes to data storytelling and visual analysis.
A Pareto chart is one of the creative data visualization examples that empowers you to categorize occurrences based on their impact on a common strategic goal or objective.
This data visualization aims to categorize key variables in your data based on their frequency of occurrence.
A line chart, also known as a line graph, is one of the most common types of charts that are essential in specific scenarios in data processing. This chart is good at showcasing how the changes that appear in one number are closely related to the changes in another.
If you want to communicate to your market audience or team members about how numbers have changed over a particular time frame, the line chart has your back covered. You can also use this chart as an exponential growth chart.
For instance, you can use a line chart to depict how the business revenue has changed from one period to another within a specific duration. Also, you can use it to evaluate how the customer satisfaction rate has changed from one year to another.
You can use a Line Chart for conducting trend analysis in Excel. When you visualize the business data using a line chart, you can easily spot trends and patterns essential in decision-making and making predictions regarding the future of the business.
If you are dealing with continuous data, a line chart, such as a Slop Chart, can help you analyze the data and generate insights and an easy-to-read data report. This chart type allows you to analyze any kind of data that falls in your way.
The above variations of line charts can be used in your analysis depending on the data type.
The bar chart is a common type used in different scenarios across the business industry. The main reason why a bar chart is common is that it’s easy to create, read, and understand without the need for interpretation. This is the best choice, especially when dealing with numeric or quantitative data.
Business owners can use bar charts to compare the differences between values or sums of money, especially when creating data reports. The bar chart explains the total number of customers, revenue, and sales, among other essential items within the business.
In addition, this chart is more versatile, giving you advanced room for data processing and presentation.
At some point, you may come up with a bar chart that looks like vertical columns while sometimes they take a horizontal shape. When a business needs to display multiple comparisons, they have the freedom to use multiple bar graphs or a Tornado chart to ensure that all its needs are catered for.
Anytime you realize that you doubt certain data elements, you need to consider using a bar chart to clean up the doubts, giving you enough flexibility to work comfortably.
There are many variations of bar charts that you can use in your analysis, e.g.
Sunburst Chart displays hierarchy in your raw data. This chart displays hierarchy insights through a series of concentric rings.
Each ring in the chart, often referred to as a Circular Chart, corresponds to a level in the hierarchy. Besides, each ring in the Sunburst Chart is segmented proportionally to represent its constituent details.
Focusing on a segment in the ring gives a sense of the part-to-whole relationship of a data point concerning its parent ring segment.
Both Sunburst and Treemaps Charts are ideal for uncovering hierarchical insights in your data. However, the Sunburst Chart is most effective at showing how one ring is broken into its contributing pieces. On the other hand, a Treemap chart is ideal for comparing the relative sizes of the key metrics in your data.
The chart simplifies bulky and complex data sets into quartiles and averages. Also, you can use the chart to pinpoint outliers in your data.
A Slope Chart, also known as a Slopegraph, is a simple line chart used to track changes between two data points or over time. Its concise design eliminates unnecessary details, helping to focus on significant shifts or trends. Ideal for ranking, comparing, or analyzing before-and-after data, it offers a clear view of changes.
Slope Charts are versatile tools for reporting and data visualization, providing actionable insights with simplicity.
It is ideal for comparing data across two points or tracking trends over time, helping to highlight shifts, before-and-after views, and rankings.
Slope Charts are versatile, making them perfect for ranking, trend analysis, and understanding significant changes in data over time.
A Radial Bar Chart is an exceptional bar visualization displayed in polar coordinates instead of a Cartesian plane. Be aware that reading this chart style is similar to reading bar visualization designs.
The circular bars of a Radial Bar Chart represent potential changes in your data variables, just like any other Bar Graph style.
Beyond the 14 most commonly used charts, there are several other chart and graph types that businesses and analysts frequently use depending on the data and purpose. These charts may be specialized for certain industries or for visualizing complex datasets in unique ways.
Including these additional types ensures you have a broader toolkit for data visualization and can choose the best chart to clearly communicate insights in reports, presentations, or dashboards.
This section will use a Scatter Plot in Excel with different variables to display insights into the tabular data below.
| Products | Category | Sales | No. of Orders | In Stock |
| Primer | Cosmetic | 114 | 40 | 35 |
| Lipstick | Cosmetic | 178 | 16 | 18 |
| Blush | Cosmetic | 220 | 35 | 23 |
| Moisturizer | Cosmetic | 101 | 18 | 26 |
| Perfume | Cosmetic | 154 | 40 | 19 |
| Contour | Cosmetic | 68 | 38 | 17 |
| Makeup Remover | Cosmetic | 93 | 24 | 37 |
| Nail Polish | Cosmetic | 159 | 28 | 29 |
| Mixer | Electronics | 276 | 21 | 24 |
| Coffee Maker | Electronics | 216 | 40 | 26 |
| Kitchen Hood | Electronics | 388 | 31 | 30 |
| Vacuum Cleaner | Electronics | 274 | 40 | 33 |
| Washing Machine | Electronics | 331 | 23 | 23 |
| Microwave | Electronics | 383 | 17 | 22 |
| Toaster | Electronics | 327 | 15 | 17 |
| Blender | Electronics | 215 | 31 | 31 |
| Gear Lever | Car Parts | 389 | 37 | 27 |
| Hood | Car Parts | 234 | 27 | 28 |
| Trunk | Car Parts | 202 | 28 | 27 |
| Taillights | Car Parts | 260 | 35 | 32 |
| Battery | Car Parts | 158 | 35 | 30 |
| Muffler | Car Parts | 150 | 20 | 33 |
| Radiator | Car Parts | 176 | 12 | 22 |
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Choosing the correct chart or graph depends on your data, your objective, and your audience. The right visualization ensures your insights are clear, actionable, and easy to interpret. Follow these steps to select the best chart type:
Popular chart types include Line Charts, Bar Charts, Sunburst Charts, Scatter Plots, and Sankey Charts. Charts are a great approach to display data insights.
Business graphs are tools for visual data analysis. Due to the ease with which patterns and relationships may sometimes be seen on the chart or graph, they can greatly simplify the process of comparing different sets of data. Additionally, they aid in presenting the information to the audience in a style that will stick in their minds.
Here are the most common types of data visualization charts:
Presenting business data through the right charts and graphs allows people to grasp insights almost instantly. Visual information is processed far faster than raw numbers, which saves time and helps audiences understand key points without extra explanation. When data is easy to read, decision-making becomes quicker and more confident.
That said, effectiveness depends on choosing the chart that fits your data and purpose. A chart should clarify the message, not distract from it. When the chart type aligns with the data structure and audience expectations, it strengthens communication and helps turn insights into timely action.
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