In the 41st session of Chandoo.org podcast, Let’s take a trip to data hell and meet 6 ugly, clumsy, confusing charts. I am revisiting a classic Chandoo.org article – 6 Charts you will see in hell.
What is in this session?
In this podcast,
- Quick announcement about Awesome August
- 6 charts you should avoid
- 3D charts
- Pie / donut charts with too many slices
- Too much data
- Over formatting
- Complex charts
- Charts that don’t tell a story
- Conclusions
Listen to this session
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Learn more about which charts to avoid, which ones to make
On Pie charts:
Here is an ugly, clumsy pie chart to prove the point. [ Source: Bill the Lizard ]
- Should you use pie charts? – podcast session 004
- Why 3D pie charts are evil
On making charts when you have too much data:
- Panel charts (or small multiples) in Excel
- Panel Chart case study – Survey results visualized
- Sparklines
On formatting:
- Avoid Gangnam styles
- Impressing your boss with Excel charts – 6 step road map for you – podcast session 029
Transcript of this session:
Download this podcast transcript [PDF]
Do you create any of these charts? Share your story
As a fresh analyst, I created all of these 6 charts. But I quickly realized that each time I made a 3D pie chart, I am selling a small piece of my soul to the devil. So I atoned my sins by scattering everywhere and visiting lots of bars. 😉
What about you? Have you ever created any of these charts? What did your users say when they saw these charts? Share your story in the comments.
Note: This is a part of Awesome August Excel festival.
2 Responses to “Top 10 Power BI Interview Questions & Answers”
Hello...
In Power BI I have data that includes months by name only (e.g. May, April, December...)
I need to build charts etc. but i need the months to go chronologically... not alphabetically... I cannot seem to find the fix to this.... once again, my data does NOT have an actual date attached to it (like 02/01/2023)....only month names... can i use a helper table wher i id the month names as numbers 1 thru 12? and if so, how do i manage this to work for me ?
Thank you.
~Keith
You need to setup an extra table to map each month name to a running number. A simple 12 row table like
Jan 1
Feb 2
Mar 3
..
Dec 12
Then create a relationship between this month table and your month column
Now, go to "table view" in Power BI and set the sort by column to month number for the month name column on this new table.
Finally, use the new table's month name whenever you need to refer to the month name in the visuals.
They will be chronologically arranged.