Database Reference
In-Depth Information
C H A P T E R 12
Comparison Visuals
Using a visualization to compare two or more objects either at a point in time
or over a period is one of the oldest forms of visualization. In Chapter 11, a
treatment of comparisons over time has been done, so this chapter focuses
on point-in-time comparisons.
Comparing items of data and deciding which is better is one of the most
common actions people take. This may take the form of ranking: for instance
determining which of your stores are in the top 10% and which stores are in
the bottom 10% by sales (or gross profit) allows you to determine the appropri-
ate remedial action for the poorly performing stores, and apply what's been
learned by the best 10% to your other stores.
Another comparison is comparing actuals against targets: For instance, while a
store may be in the top 10% by sales, it could well have not achieved a target
set for the period.
In this chapter you learn about several methods for comparing values visually:
heatmaps (also called chloropleths), traditional bar charts, and pie charts, as
well as bullet graphs, radar graphs, and matrices.
oVeRVIew oF PoInT-In-TIMe
CoMPARISonS
The effect used to show
point-in-time comparisons
can take one or a combina-
tion of the following forms:
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Change in color (heatmaps, chloropleth, indicators)
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Change in width (bar charts)
