14. Visuals and Their Formatting
14.3 Choose the Right Chart
Start with the question, then pick the visual.
| Question type | Best visuals | Quick-commerce example | Avoid |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compare categories | Clustered bar/column | Orders by City; Sales by Category | Pie with many slices, 3D effects |
| Trend over time | Line, area | Daily orders (Diwali/Ganeshotsav spikes); Sales vs Sales LY | Bars for 365 days |
| Composition (part-to-whole) | Stacked/100% stacked bar, donut (2–4 parts), treemap | Payment Mode mix per City; Platform share | Pie for > 5 categories |
| Change from start to end | Waterfall | Gross sales → discounts → delivery fees → net | Line chart |
| Relationship between two measures | Scatter / bubble | Orders vs Avg Delivery Time per dark store | Two separate bar charts |
| Distribution | Column chart of bins (Module 12.6), box-plot custom visual | Delivery time in 5-min bins | Average only |
| Ranking change over time | Ribbon chart | Category rank by month | Many lines crossing |
| Process stages | Funnel | Placed › Packed › Out for delivery › Delivered | Pie |
| Single KPI | Card, Card (new), KPI, gauge | AOV; % Under 10 Mins vs target | A table with one cell |
| Geography | Map / Azure map / filled map (Module 15) | Orders by dark store location | A map when location is not the point |
| Details / exact numbers | Table, matrix | Order list; City × Month matrix | Charts with 50 labels |
| Root cause | Decomposition tree, key influencers | Why are Nagpur deliveries slow? | Guesswork |
He table phone madhe photo kadhun theva – kontahi chart nivadtana kaamala yeil.
Ravindra Bagale's Tip
Ek common chuk mhanje choosing a chart karan it looks attractive instead of because it fits the question. Use the table in this section: comparison → bar, trend → line, part-to-whole with few categories → donut or 100% bar, relationship → scatter. When unsure, a sorted bar chart is almost always readable. Punha ekda karun bagha, mag pudhe jaa.