Dos and Don’ts of Data Visualisation
Whether on purpose or not, a statistician can mislead an audience with a chart. This article explains some chart design principles and common mistakes novice data analysts make. Think about the statistical charts you have seen on billboards, in the news, and in research studies. Using these principles as a guide, would you classify any of those charts as misleading? Be sure to take note of the suggestions for successful dashboards.
Choose your chart
Stacked charts are difficult for comparing data
Stacked area charts display cumulative trends over time. They are a good choice if showing the total is as important as showing its shares and they work best when there is a large difference between the values.
However, while the contribution to the total of the lowermost attribute is well readable, it is difficult to appreciate other attributes that are far from the reference line. So, it is not the right choice if you want to compare the size of different shares with each other, or if you have many shares.
The choice of chart depends on the focus.
If you want to show the trend of each share, opt for an individual area chart or a line chart.