Lesson 3.36mBeginner18.5k students

Choosing the right chart

The chart type encodes your claim. Comparison, distribution, composition, and relationship each have a form that reads instantly and several that mislead.

This lesson sits in Visualising Data, part of Python for Data Work. It assumes what came before it and leads directly into the next lesson in the module.

In this lesson you will

  • Match the chart form to the question being asked
  • Remove decoration that competes with the data
  • Avoid axis choices that overstate a difference

Pro tip

If the chart needs a paragraph to explain what it shows, the chart is the wrong one.

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