Visualizing Health and Healthcare Data

Chapter SixPowerful Visualizations in Four Shapes

Bars, Lines, Points, and Boxes

It is incredible how many displays of data can be created using bars, lines, points, and boxes (alone and in combination) to create elegantly simple yet powerfully effective visualizations. In this chapter, we reveal how versatile these four fundamental shapes can be, and how to use them to display clear, actionable health and healthcare data by following best practices. (See Figure 6.1.)

Note: The term chart refers to a method for presenting information such as a table, a diagram, or a graph. Therefore, all graphs are charts but not all charts are graphs. In most places we have used the term graph for the mathematical relationship between sets of data, but in some places we use the term chart simply to make the narrative a bit more interesting.

The icons shown in Figure 6.2 have been included to indicate which graphs and charts to never use, or use with caution.

FIGURE 6.1 Four fundamental shapes are the foundation of great data visualizations.

FIGURE 6.2 Icons are used to indicate graphs and charts to never use, or use with caution, and the best practice choice.

Shape One: Bars

A true pillar of data visualization, bars display and compare values such as numbers, frequency, distribution, ...