The Harvard Business Review Good Charts Collection

Appendix A

Glossary of Chart Types

2 × 2 matrix: Box bisected horizontally and vertically to create four quadrants. Often used to illustrate a typology based on two variables. (Also called a matrix.)

+ Easy-to-use organizing principle for categorizing elements and creating “zones”

− Plotting items within quadrants at different spatial intervals suggests a statistical relationship that likely doesn’t exist

Alluvial diagram: Nodes and streams show how values move from one point to another. Often used to show changes over time or details in how values ...