I don't believe in complexity in data visualization. I stick with simple charts when you needs to compare measures to add context.

Tableau workbook here.

A floating bar chart is similar to a Gantt chart, except it shows the range of two data points instead of two dates.

How many people power the Forbes Cloud 100? Is there a correlation between company rank and employee size? Have they expanded or contracted.

Learn how to build 28 charts in 60 minutes that compare two years.

The midterm elections in the US are next week. If you're able to vote, please do. Democracy is at stake. 

This week's data was about fundraising, spending and debt by people currently in Congress. If you missed #WatchMeViz, I showed 16 different ways to visualize this data set. Hopefully they give you a bit of inspiration for creating your own.

Catch up with the show below. In the end, I went with a bar chart that compares funds raised vs. spent by State. I also have a gantt bar to show the difference between the two. I have a tutorial of that chart here.

Below this video is an image of the dashboard I created. Click on it to see the interactive version on Tableau Public.

Using variance as a measure in bar charts helps you:

1. Add context - You can answer the question “compared to what?”
2. Make decisions - You can answer the question "what should we do next?"
3. Alert you to areas that need focus

In this video, I show you 10 ways to add variance to bar charts. Get the workbook here.

Thanks for attending #WatchMeViz (link) for #MakeoverMonday Week 46. I enjoy the commentary and ideas you provide along the way. I hope you're learning something as well.

The topic this week was the switch in advertising revenue to the internet.

In the video, I first reviewed the initial visualization and talked about what works and what does. I then iterated through 17 different methods for visualizing the data, before settling on the one below which was inspired by Ellen Blackburn's viz about eligible free school meals and educational attainment (link)

RESOURCES

1. Data Set - https://data.world/makeovermonday/2020w46
2. Chart Guide - https://chart.guide/

Floating bar charts are similar to Gantt bar charts, except they don't use dates or duration for the length of the bar. In this video, I show you how to use floating bar charts for comparing metrics.

Example 1 - Comparing mental health syndromes between women and men

Example 2 - Comparing year over year sales

Data Sources:

1. Mental Health Symptoms - https://data.world/makeovermonday/2020w27-comparing-common-mental-disorder-by-sex
2. Superstore 2020.3 - https://data.world/vizwiz/superstore-20203