Working with Advanced Chart Types

Envision allows you to create the following types of charts of the subcategory Advanced - Map, Delta Drill, Slope, Heat Map, Funnel, Word Cloud, Radar, Waterfall, and External URL. You can define or modify the titles and color schemes for the charts, and control the look and format of the legend, grid, and axes by using context-sensitive menus to create meaningful visualizations.

Different chart types cater best to different methods and are used to convey one of the following: relationships/comparisons, distribution, trends, or composition. Once you understand how your visualization should look, it will be easier to decide what kind of visualization you should use and how it will look and communicate its data.

The following questions will help you determine the most appropriate information that you want to convey with your data:

·       What type of data is it? Nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio data?

·       How do the different parts of the data relate to each other?

·       Can you pre-organize the data in a way that makes it easy for you to create your visualizations?

·       What do you want to communicate with your data?

When you have understood the data, its organization, and how the parts of data relate to each other, you should consider using Envision visualization patterns to communicate your data. After creating a chart, you may want to adjust its appearance by modifying the chart properties.

When to Use what Chart Type

Charts represent relationships among many values efficiently, and allow you to analyze data at a glance. The selection of chart type solely depends on the purpose of the visualization.

The following table displays the recommended chart type to use based on the visualization purpose.