On a recent consulting project, I was redesigning some graphs for an upcoming report.
We were showing patterns over time.
Pretty easy, right?
Let’s pretend your line chart has tons of lines. I’ve got plenty of resources about fixing spaghetti line charts.
But what if your line chart only shows a single variable??
A single line is so… lonely.
Before: Lonely Line Chart
There’s not much to look at.
It’s just a line.
Competing for attention with the gray grid lines.
Not terrible. But not great either.
(This report was for a lay audience, so we didn’t need to label all the percentages along the line. Those details belong in tables in the appendix. We purposefully labeled the first and last point – plenty of info for this audience – and kept the light gray grid lines so our readers could estimate the other values if they wanted to.)
After: Shading Under the Line
Whenever I have a single line, I add shading underneath it.
(Behind the scenes in Excel, this is called an “area chart.”)
Now, there’s more to look at.
(In technical terms, the shading gives us more preattentive attributes. The line isn’t competing with the grid lines for attention anymore; there’s more color to see.)
I used a 50% transparency, not a solid fill, so that readers can still see the grid lines peeking through.
Ann’s Favorite: Line + Shading Together
My personal fav is combining the line and shading together.
(Behind the scenes in Excel, this is called a “combo chart.”)
All 3 Options Together
What do you think?? Comment and let me know.
Download My Excel File
Want to explore how I made these charts?
It’s available for free here.
fntokenodds
1 Comment
Shading the area under a line is a clear way to show accumulation, not just the latest point on a lonely line. A cumulative chance curve works the same way: it should rise smoothly with each additional try, and the filled area makes how far you have already come easier to read.