What visual should I use?

Following on my last blog post, I am frequently asked what visual to use to display data.  While I often hear this question about dashboards, it also applies to many formats including websites, infographics and PowerPoint slides.

There are  many excellent sources that describe visualization best practices as well as recommend what data visualizations to use.  Here are three that I have used:

1.  Dona Wong’s The Wall Street Journal Guide to Information Graphics.  For more details, please see  http://donawong.com .

2.  Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic’s book called Storytelling with Data.  For more details, please see  http://www.storytellingwithdata.com/book .

3.   The web site from data to viz.  Based on the type of data you have, the website recommends different types of visuals.  In addition, it provides caveats so you can avoid common mistakes.

I hope you find this helpful the next time you are wondering what visualization to use.

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