Data Visualizations: Choosing the Right Chart

In the digital age, whether you're presenting to a board, sharing updates with your team, or publishing a dashboard, the clarity of your message depends on how you visualize your data. In my experience, I've found that the key to turning dry statistics into compelling narratives is choosing the right type of chart. Let’s explore various ways to display data, for YOU to choose the types that suit your organization best.

Different Chart Types

Data visualization is more than just an aesthetic choice; it’s a strategic decision that can influence understanding and decision-making. Below is a breakdown of some common chart types and when to use them:

Bar Charts and Graphs

Ideal for comparing the quantity of several items. Whether they are vertical or horizontal, bar charts are best when you want to illustrate size differences. For instance, use a bar chart to show different department budgets within your organization to easily identify which areas are receiving more funding.

Line Graphs

Perfect for displaying data trends over time. Use a line chart when you need to demonstrate changes, like sales growth from one quarter to another, highlighting trends that might not be as obvious in other formats.

Pie Charts

Best for showing proportions within a whole. When you want to highlight segments of a total population, such as the distribution of resources per department, pie charts make it clear at a glance.

Status Snapshots

Ideal for providing a quick overview of project or initiative progress at a given point in time. Status snapshots are particularly effective for visualizing the completion stages of various projects, allowing viewers to instantly assess which initiatives are on track, behind schedule, or completed.

Gauges

Excellent for displaying performance against a set target. Gauge charts are particularly effective in illustrating how close a specific department is to achieving its goals, such as incident rates against established benchmarks.

Experience Counts: Insights from ClearPoint’s Dashboarding Experts

At ClearPoint Strategy, we understand that each organization has unique needs. Our dashboarding spans across industries from internal to public-facing, providing tailored visuals that transform raw data into compelling stories. ClearPoint’s dashboards are designed to present data and make it actionable, facilitating more informed decisions that drive success.

As someone who builds ClearPoint dashboards for a living, I’ve crafted a seasoned approach that makes every chart not only represent data accurately, but also align with audience needs. Dashboards that do more than inform - they engage.

Real Impact with ClearPoint

Don’t just take my word for it; hear from our users:

Informative dashboards and reports illustrate the alignment of initiatives, measures, and goals while giving a clear visual indication of progress in charts and graphs.

#ClearPointCommunity testimonials echo our commitment to improving clarity and communication through professional-grade visualizations.

Winning ClearPoint Community Dashboards

Let's delve into some of my favorite Community Dashboards we’ve created for our customers, highlighting what makes each unique and effective.

Germantown, TN's Baldrige-Winning Dashboard

Take a tour through Baldrige excellence award recipient Germantown, TN’s public-facing dashboard. It’s a testament to simplicity and functionality, seamlessly integrating both initiatives and key performance indicators (KPIs) across three levels. What I appreciate most is the dashboard’s intuitive design—statuses are immediately visible on landing pages, making it easy for anyone, from city officials to residents, to quickly grasp the city's progress and performance.

Fairfield, CA’s Community-Centric Dashboard

Fairfield, CA’s Community Dashboard is a brilliant example of community-focused reporting. It’s tailored specifically to be initiative-focused, offering clear, actionable insights that are consumable for community members. This approach ensures that everyone in Fairfield can understand what’s being done and why it matters, fostering greater community involvement and transparency.

Bartlett, TN’s Accessible Dashboard Design

In Bartlett, TN, the focus was on making data accessible to everyone. The public dashboard features Google Translate and is optimized for mobile devices, which I find incredibly forward-thinking. This ensures that no matter where you are or what language you speak, you have access to important city information at your fingertips. Bartlett’s commitment to accessibility is something I hold in high regard!

Storytelling with the Town of Davie’s Dashboard

The Town of Davie’s Annual Dashboard is self-serviced straight from the ClearPoint platform. What stands out to me is how they’ve managed to convey their yearly achievements in a narrative that’s easy to follow, yet rich with data. They also provide sources for their data, which adds an additional layer of transparency and trust to their storytelling.

Successful Sharing with Fort Lauderdale’s Dashboard

The way Fort Lauderdale’s external dashboard presents the city’s data not only informs, but also engages. The branding is beautifully integrated, and including the source of the data is something I find particularly thoughtful. It invites stakeholders to dig deeper into the data if they choose to.

Each of these dashboards uses a different approach to visualize data, but they all share one thing in common: the use of ClearPoint Strategy to create an experience that meets the specific needs of their audience. From multi-level insights to accessibility features, these examples show how diverse the applications of good data visualization can be.