Comments on: Challenge – Show Market Share Changes

By: nixnut

nixnut — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:26:58 +0000

Come to think of it, why on earth did I use stacked bars there? A totally unnecessary complication.
For a better approach see: http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/2008/09/04/us-employment-slump-chart-how-to/
Pay attention to how the chart data is arranged.

By: nixnut

nixnut — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 14:11:15 +0000

@waseem: Jon has, of course, a splendid tutorial that explains how to create the overlapping bars. See http://peltiertech.com/WordPress/2008/10/10/overlapped-bar-chart-thinner-bars-in-front/
The charts on the right displaying the rate of change are stacked bars, with the first segment having no fill colour.

By: DSA Insights » Blog Archive » Graduation Rate and Federal Spending [Chart Reviews]

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 12:32:11 +0000

[...] from 1998 to 2008. Another option to visualize this data is in a chart like the one shown here by Jon. In the table below, I simply took the data from the pie charts and created a [...]

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:53:00 +0000

Hi Waseem - I wrote a couple of follow-up posts last week. In Explore Your Data With Pivot Tables I used this data to show how pivot tables can be used to investigate the data quickly and easily. Then in a second follow-up I showed How to Build a Simple Panel Chart.

By: Waseem

Waseem — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 05:34:49 +0000

Hi Nixnut,

Your chart is impressive but i dont know how to make this. Can you plase send me some tutorial or any website reference from where i could know how to prepare this visual.
Thanks

By: Chandoo

Chandoo — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:11:46 +0000

@Jon, Nixnut, Derek and Dave:
Thanks for posting such marvelous examples for presenting this data. I have learning quite a few techniques and enjoyed it.
Btw, I have posted a summary of this challenge here: http://chandoo.org/wp/2008/11/14/excel-charting-alternatives-market-share-data/

do check it out as it presents few more alternatives and enables discussion :)

By: nixnut

nixnut — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:59:22 +0000

@Bob: Meaningful analysis… well, that’s in the eye, or rather mind, of the beholder I guess. It’s a measure of performance, so some people might be interested in it. The change in numbers of points of share is available in the second example. I didn’t think it useful to express this as a graph as well, since it’s already visible (implicitly) in the left chart. I’ve created another variant with a table on the left and two charts next to it: http://dev.gentoo.org/~nixnut/images/example3.png (in-cell graphs this time, created with Fabrice Rimlinger’s sparklinesforxl)
The size of the markets wasn’t available and I didn’t think to make some up. It was simply outside the scope of this challenge as far as I’m concerned.

By: Bob Gannon

Bob Gannon — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 14:37:33 +0000

Re Nixnut’s bars: The market share charts are nice. But showing a per cent change of a per cent (the bars on the right)? Is that meaningful analysis? I would show the change in number of points of share. Also, some indication of the total size of each market would be helpful. With no data, you could infer that the size of both markets is the same. I have no idea if that is true or not.

Jon, I also like the panel charts but showing the value axis would be helpful.

By: Jon Peltier

Jon Peltier — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 16:33:58 +0000

Nixnut -

Those are good. You could do the left hand charts either as bullets (as you have done) implying 2007 is a target or benchmark for 2008, or as regular clustered bars with 2007 and 2008 adjacent. Thanks for reminding us that sometimes using multiple charts is better than trying to cram too much into one chart.

You should also post this comment on Chandoo’s blog post.

By: nixnut

nixnut — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 14:57:19 +0000

I tried some bars:
Just the bars: http://dev.gentoo.org/~nixnut/images/marketsharebars1.png

With extra nuts: http://dev.gentoo.org/~nixnut/images/marketsharebars2.png