7 Best Practices for Choosing Visualization Types

Effective visualizations help you quickly analyze and understand data. Qlik Cloud Analytics provides various charts, each suited for different data insights. Here’s how to choose the right chart for your needs:

1. Viewing Comparisons

Purpose: Compare values against each other to see differences or trends.

• Questions that might be answered by comparison charts include:
  • What product has the highest sales this year?
  • How have sales changed over the last 24 months?
• Recommended Charts:
  • Bar Chart: Compare categories.
  • Line Chart: Compare trends over time.
  • Combo Chart: Compare measures with different scales.

2. Viewing Relationships

Purpose: Explore correlations, outliers, and clusters.

• Questions that might be answered by relationship charts include:
  • Is there a correlation between ad spending and sales?
  • How do expenses and income vary by region?
• Recommended Charts:
  • Scatter Plot: Show relationships between two or three measures.

3. Viewing Compositions

Purpose: Break down a total value into its components, either statically or over time.

• Questions that might be answered by composition charts include:
  • What percentage of sales comes from each region?
  • How is the budget allocated across departments?
• Recommended Charts:
  • Bar Chart: Short-term composition changes.
  • Line Chart: Long-term composition changes.
  • Pie Chart: Static composition.
  • Waterfall Chart: Accumulation or subtraction of values.
  • Treemap: Static accumulation of values.

4. Viewing Distributions

Purpose: Show how values are grouped, including ranges and outliers.

• Questions that might be answered by distribution charts include:
  • How many customers fall into each age group?
  • Which cities have the highest service usage?
• Recommended Charts:
  • Histogram: Data distribution over intervals.
  • Scatter Plot: Distribution of two measures.
  • Distribution Plot: Measure values in a dimension.
  • Box Plot: Range and distribution of data.

5. Viewing Performances

Purpose: Provide a quick overview of performance measures.

• Questions that might be answered by performance charts include:
  • What are the current total sales for this quarter?
  • Are sales meeting projections?
  • How does this product line perform compared to others?
• Recommended Charts:
  • Bullet Chart: Performance comparison.
  • Gauge: Immediate performance view.
  • KPI: One or two performance measures.
  • Text & Image: Text or measures with an image.

6. Viewing Data

Purpose: Present detailed data for precise value comparison.

• Questions that might be answered by data charts include:
  • What are the transaction records for this month?
  • What are the sales and quantities for each item?
• Recommended Charts:
  • Table: Precise data values without trends.
  • Pivot Table: Precise values for multiple dimensions and measures.

7. Viewing Geography

Purpose: Visualize data on a map by points or areas.

• Questions that might be answered by geographical charts include:
  • Which cities have the highest service usage?
  • Which countries have the most customers?
• Recommended Charts:
  • Map Chart: Geographical data representation.

Custom Visualization Options

If standard charts don’t meet your needs, use controls or objects from Qlik’s Dashboard or Visualization bundles. You can also create custom visualizations.