A good chart tells a story. It is as simple as that.
Here is a fantastic example of what a good chart is. See the Time spent eating vs. National obesity rate chart below

It takes may be 5 seconds to understand what the chart is. And then you know the story. What is more interesting is, it instigates the readers curiosity to ask questions and understand the data. For eg.
- Q: Why obesity is high in countries where they spend less time eating?
- May be because of the fast food
- Q: What are the Turkish people eating for 160 minutes a day?
- May be they like the turkey cold. Okay, bad joke
The chart itself is very simple and easy. But it brilliantly juxtaposes two pieces of data: Obesity rates in countries and Time spent eating per day, to tell a story.
Are your charts telling a story?
Hat tip to Marginal Revolution for the chart.
More charting principles: Why KISS is important when it comes to charts | Vizooalization – 5 Lessons from zoo on visualization

















7 Responses to “CP014: How to create awesome dashboards – 10 step process for you”
Very interested in topic unfortunately I get no sound when I play it.
Where can I get add ins for excel 2007
#Budala
Try using Google to search for Excel Addin
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@Andy
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Hello Chandoo,
i am one of the great fan of your. i am one MIS executive in realstate company.And i try make dash board for CRM(Client Relation Management) Dept formance and anlysis process.Its get created not so effective according to can u suggest me .what i hve to give or take for makeing it for effective and attractive?.
regards,
Shashak verma
Hi,
I want to create an interactive dashboard in excel (Google Drive) which should have multiple data along with beautiful charts..
I handle two teams in IT Tech support so were preparing 2 different dashboards.. however need to club and want to create single report, can anyone help something like