Best Charts to Compare Actual Values with Targets – What is your take?

Great post. I can’t vote, though, because the answer I want to put down is “it depends”. As with all visualisations, you’ve got to take into account your audience, your purpose, technical skills, where it will be viewed, etc.

I’m with Andy: It depends. Some I would use, some I might use, some I won’t touch with a barge pole.
 
Naturally I have comments
 
The dial gauge, though familiar, is less easy to read than a linear type of chart (thermometer or bullet). It’s really no better than the traffic lights, because all it can really tell you is which category the point falls in: red, yellow, or green.
 
By the same token, pie charts are so familiar, people don’t know they can’t read them. Remember how long it takes kids to learn to read an analog clock?
 
Bullet charts don’t show trends.
 
With any of the charts that have a filled component and a marker or ine component, it makes more sense to use the filled component (area/ column) for target, and the lines or markers for actual.

I voted for #6 even though I agree with the other comments that it depends.

The majority of the votes are for the #2, thermometer chart. I still have yet to understand what happens when you are above plan/goal, which was brought up in yesterday’s post.

Also, I agree with Jon in that it would be better to flip the series and make the filled part the target or goal and the line or marker the actual.

I am also a fan of using text when appropriate if the data is among other metrics in a type of dashboard. Calling it out by saying actual and % achievement is a good option.

Another “it depends” vote. Are you just looking at one or are you comparing a number of targets with actuals? You didn’t include a text box. The problem with sentences is that they can get lost in a page of gray text. A text box can call attention to the numbers and line them up effectively.

I’m with Jon: “Some I would use, some I might use, some I won’t touch with a barge pole” and I’m surprised that some of your readers voted for the last group.

Jon says:
With any of the charts that have a filled component and a marker or line component, it makes more sense to use the filled component (area/ column) for target, and the lines or markers for actual.
Why does this make more sense? I like 6 the way it is, although I would use a heavy dash for the plan/target marker.

“It depends” is also my take. What I usually try to drill into my clients dashboard design is the fu ndamental difference between spot results (am I on target for this month) and long term trends.. I always try to create 3 different set of graphs to represent real perormance:
- spot results vs objectives
- cumulative results vs objectives
- long-term trend (moving average) mostly) to see where we’re going

Jon says:
With any of the charts that have a filled component and a marker or line component, it makes more sense to use the filled component (area/ column) for target, and the lines or markers for actual.
Why does this make more sense? I like 6 the way it is, although I would use a heavy dash for the plan/target marker.

I totally agree, Bob. I would normally favour a line for the target and a column for the actual, you can see quite easily then which columns break through the line, then.