Choosing the Right Chart

Match your message to the right visual — and avoid the charts that confuse more than clarify.

The chart you choose either reinforces your message or undermines it. Most people default to bar charts and line charts for everything. But matching chart type to insight type is a key skill of data storytelling.

The chart selection framework

Ask yourself: what relationship am I trying to show?

**Change over time** → Line chart

**Part-to-whole** → Bar chart (stacked) or treemap

**Comparison across categories** → Bar chart (grouped)

**Correlation** → Scatter plot

**Distribution** → Histogram or box plot

**Geography** → Map

Common mistakes

**Pie charts with too many slices.** If you have more than 4-5 slices, use a bar chart instead.

**3D charts.** Never. They distort perception and make data harder to read.

**Dual-axis charts.** Use sparingly. They're often misread as showing a relationship that doesn't exist.

The simplest chart wins

When in doubt, choose the simpler chart. Your audience should spend their cognitive energy understanding the insight, not decoding the visualization.

The chart selection framework

Common mistakes

The simplest chart wins

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