Tableau: Which Chart or Graph?

candlestick chart

advanced chart type commonly used for financial analysis, showing metrics over a period of time, shows open, close, high, and low values of a specific financial instrument

scatterplot

an effective way to give a sense of trend, concentrations and outliers that facilitate deeper investigations of data, can be enhanced with trend lines, used to show if one variable is a good predictor of another

heat maps

compare data across two or more categories using color, quickly shows where the intersection between two categories is strong or weak, can pack hundreds of comparisons into a small area but still easy to understand

line chart (line graph)

connects several distinct data points, presenting them as one continuous evolution, results in simple, straightforward ways to visualize changes in one value relative to another, best used with ordinal data on the x axis (time)

highlight table

expanding heat maps to show intersections with color and numbers by cell, draws attention to detailed information

pie chart

features simplicity, best used alongside other charts to add information rather than supply the bulk of it, fewer categories are ideal

box-and-whisker plot (box plot)

name refers to two parts of the diagram, one contains the interquartile range, the other most often representing 1.5 times the IQR, can also show the max and min of a data set, best to show if the data is skewed to the right or left

bar chart

one of the most common data visualizations, used to quickly highlight differences between categories, clearly show trend lines and outliers, and reveal historical highs and lows at a glance, best suited for data that can be split into several groups

gantt chart

purpose-build for illustrating the start and finish dates of steps in a process, shows sequence that needs to happen, can represent time series data, used to display a schedule or show changes in activity over time

tree map

relate different segments of data to the whole, creates subdivisions of categories, makes efficient use of space for each category, used best with multiple levels of categorization

histogram chart

shows how data is distributed across distinct groups (bins), clearly shows a distribution, differs from bar chart because there are no gaps between categories

bullet chart

shows progress against a goal by comparing measures, shows how a metric is doing at a single point in time, best suited for quick overview not deep analysis

map

used to highlight geographic trends in an understandable format, simple and compelling way to show correlations with location

bubble (chart)

visualization technique that adds great detail to other types of charts (map or scatter plot), varying sizes and colors increases effectiveness of large volumes of data, used to add more detail than a traditional two axis chart can show without overwhelming the viewer