Types of charts

The chart you select to represent your data will be influenced by many factors. Kirk (2016) has put each chart into the five main families below:

• Categorical: Comparing categories and distributions of quantities values
• Hierarchical: Charting part-to-whole relationships and hierarchies
• Relational: Graphing relationships to explore correlations and connections
• Temporal: Showing trends and activities over time
• Spatial: Mapping spatial patterns through overlays and distortions

Select a chart type from the text and discuss what the chart is used for and why you selected it. (The author has included a lot of different chart types in our course book).

Reference: Kirk, A. (2016). Data Visualisation: A Handbook for Data Driven Design (p. 50). SAGE Publications.