Chapter 7
Charts That Show Trending
In This Chapter
Understanding basic trending concepts
Comparing trends across multiple series
Emphasizing distinct periods of time in your trends
Working past other anomalies in trending data
No matter what business you’re in, you can’t escape the tendency to trend. In fact, one of the most common concepts used in dashboards and reports is the concept of trending. A trend is a measure of variance over some defined interval — typically, periods such as days, months, or years.
The reason trending is so popular is that trending provides a rational expectation of what might happen in the future. If I know this book has sold 10,000 copies a month over the last 12 months (I wish), I have a reasonable expectation to believe that sales next month will be around 10,000 copies. In short, trending tells you where you’ve been and where you might be going.
In this chapter, you explore basic trending concepts and some of the advanced techniques you can use to take your trending components beyond simple line charts.
Trending Dos and Don’ts
Building trending ...
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