Conceiving and Reasoning Visualization Design Options - Data Visualization: A Successful Design Process - page 80

The story being expressed was about showing changes over time: that defines our
method. The selection, ultimately, of a line chart—a type belonging to this category
of visualization methods—was evidently a suitable match as we specifically wanted
to show the detail of the continuous transition across all five event years.
Had the focus been more about a comparison of all countries and the combined,
aggregate picture of results over time we might have chosen a stream graph or an
area chart. Both of these are chart types that would typically fall within the method
of "showing changes over time".
Alternatively, had we sought to demonstrate the stark comparison of the medals
won at the earliest and most recent events in our dataset, we might have chosen a
method for comparing categorical values. In this case, the use of a slopegraph or a
bar chart would have been more suitable, as shown here:
We will cover this issue in more depth in Chapter 5 , Taxonomy of Data
Visualization Methods .
Considering the physical properties of
our data
Now, we're looking to narrow down our search further by thinking about which
types of charts will most effectively accommodate the variables of data we're
looking to portray.