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.

The post Lonely Line Chart? Try Shading Under the Line appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

The post 3 Ways to Fix Dense Graphs appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

In this 8-minute lesson, you’ll learn:

(1) how small multiples layouts can help, and

(2) how to make small multiples charts in Excel.

What’s Inside

• 0:00 My goal: Convince you to use MORE GRAPHS
• 0:32 The fictional example: 3 different variables/units
• 1:44 Before: Everything together in one graph
• 2:30 After: Small multiples
• 3:21 How to make small multiples line graphs in Excel
• 4:30 Use the “Select Data” menu to graph 1 variable/unit at a time
• 5:10 Copy-paste to make the additional graphs
• 6:24 Align and group the separate graphs together
• 6:55 1 lonely line? Try an area chart
• 7:30 What it would look like in Word
• 8:09 Recap of key points

Download the Excel File

It’s here.

The post Small Multiples Line Charts in Excel appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

Too often, I see organizations show just a single point in time.

A single number is meaningless. We need at least two numbers — preferably three, four, or four thousand! — to make accurate comparisons.

In this video, I’ll try to convince you to show more points in time, not fewer.

What’s Inside

• 0:00 Welcome
• 0:18 The pretend dataset: Daily numbers for the past decade
• 0:33 Types of workplaces that DO have daily data: Hospitals, universities, government agencies, public health, etc.
• 1:11 Hesitancy to show lots of data
• 1:28 Don’t just show 1 day!
• 1:46 We need AT LEAST 2 numbers to make a helpful graph
• 2:07 Show at least 1 month
• 2:19 Show at least 1 year
• 2:40 Show years and years of data!
• 2:53 Hesitancy to show lots of data – because the x-axis gets ugly
• 3:19 Excel how-to
• 4:30 My wish: Getting you thinking
• 4:38 Exceptions? When is it better for decisionmakers to have less context?

Download the Excel File

It’s here: https://depictdatastudio.kit.com/showmorepointsintime

The post Show MORE Points in Time On Your Graph!!! appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

Sometimes, the line you want to highlight… is stuck all the way in the back. Nobody can see that line, because it’s all covered up. Oops!

In this video, you’ll learn how to rearrange the line chart so that the line you want your audience to see isn’t covered up.

Watch the Tutorial

What’s Inside

• 0:00 The Problem: Excel Graphs with Covered-Up Lines
• 0:23 Welcome to Dataviz On The Go
• 0:31 The Dataset
• 0:47 Another Problem: The Spaghetti Line Chart
• 1:10 3 Fixes for Spaghetti Line Charts
• 1:37 The Edited Graph – But Average Line Hiding and Covered Up
• 2:06 The Solution & Where to Click in Excel
• 2:50 Bottom of the List… Front of the Graph
• 3:04 Download the Spreadsheet
• 3:11 Don’t Forget to Like, Subscribe, and Share

Download the Spreadsheet

Want to download the Excel file and follow along?

Download the file here: https://depictdatastudio.ck.page/movelinetofront

Read the Transcript

Ann K. Emery: [00:00:00] In this video, you’re going to learn how to bring the average line to the front of your graph. So instead of covered up and hiding, it’s just going to be in the front so people can actually see it. If this sounds like something that might be relevant to you and your workplace, stick around. I’ll give you some context about this graph, and then I’ll teach you how to fix it right inside of good old Excel.

Hi, I’m Ann Emery, you’re watching Dataviz On The Go, the series where I make jet speed tutorials as I’m racing around between my workshops and meetings. And speaking of workshops, this is the real life, sort of, table that I was working on in a workshop recently. These aren’t the real state names. These aren’t the real timeframes or the real numbers, but the graph looked more or less like this.

What happened was, when we highlighted the table and we Inserted the graph. We were left with Ann Emery’s least favorite chart of all time, the spaghetti graph. This happens all the time in real projects. So if you get a spaghetti [00:01:00] graph, don’t worry. There are some common fixes and just to make it super duper clear what we’re not doing.

Let me just make it really, we’re just, we’re not doing this. Okay. Are we in agreement? We’re not doing this. Common fixes. Common fixes, uh, you could either gray everything out, highlight one, one line at a time, that’s what we’re going to do here. Another fix, you could do small multiples, or another fix is interactivity.

Okay, those are the three common fixes for really busy, really dense graphs. In this case, we wanted to gray everything out and highlight one line at a time so people could see the average. They could see the big picture. Here’s, on average, how all of our states are doing, but then a split second later, They could look a little bit further and they could see all the gray lines.

One star of the show, lots of sidekicks. But then the problem we ran [00:02:00] into is like, the average line is missing, or, not missing, but it’s hiding. It’s really hard. You can’t see it. Where’s our main character? So let me copy paste this one so we can admire them side by side. I’ll show you what to click on. You’re going to click on…

The middle of the graph. Not the side, not the top, not the bottom. Okay, the middle. You’re going to right click. You’re going to go to Select Data. I have a love- hate relationship with this menu. I think there’s a little bit of a learning curve. All you need to know is: the thing you want to be in the front of your graph needs to go on the bottom of the list.

I’ve clicked on the average here. I’m going to tap down, tap, tap, tap, tap, tap with the arrows. Is that at the bottom? Yeah. The thing that’s on the bottom of the list is going to be on the front of your graph. Bottom of the list, front of the graph. Super counterintuitive. You would have thought that Microsoft would do it the other way around, but they didn’t.

Okay. I put the average on the bottom of that list. [00:03:00] Therefore, it’s on the front of the graph so people can actually see it. If you want to download this and click around and explore some more, check below the video. I’ve got a link where you can grab it for free.

Don’t forget to like, subscribe, and share.

The post How to Move Lines to Front or Back of the Chart in Excel appeared first on Depict Data Studio.

Stick around for the how-to lesson in Microsoft Excel.

You’ll learn how to select a single dot (or “marker”) along the line, which controls the preceding line segment.

Then, you can turn just one section of the graph into a dotted line.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=titF7TQcwDc

What’s Inside

0:00 Don’t Use Dotted Lines “Just Because”

0:20 Dotted Lines are for Projections or Estimations

1:24 How to Make Dotted Lines on Excel Graphs

3:44 Questions??

The post Dotted Lines are for Projections (& How-To Instructions for Excel) appeared first on Depict Data Studio.