A chart chooser. like the one pictured above by Andrew Abela, usually helps users to know what chart to use in what situation. Users can make their decisions based on the datasets they have. Sometimes, tutorials are be included.
On a side note, perhaps, they can also be called:
- Chart Catalogue
- Diagram Dictionary
- Figure Finder
- Graph Grammar / Guide /Glossary
- Illustration Inventory
- Map Mapper
- Plot Picker
- Schematic Safe
- Table Thesaurus
- Visual Vocabulary
From the Web: 11 Online Chart Choosers:
1. Visual Vocabulary by Financial Times
An interactive chart chooser to let readers know when and what chart types to use with some descriptions of the pros of each chart. You can find a version here on GitHub by Alan Smith with much more details on the development and descriptions of the charts. You may also see the Tableau version here by Andy Kriebel.
2. Chart Guide by Michiel
Colourful charts like Visual Vocabulary with charts grouped into categories.
3. Data Viz Project by ferdio
A comprehensive list of charts on the website. The website not only offers descriptions of each chart but also includes visual examples. Additionally, it allows searching of the charts by shape, input (number of rows and columns in your dataset), function and family.
4. Data Viz Catalogue by Severino Ribecca
This website has a good number of charts with in-depth descriptions. It also provides links to documentation of different data tools that can generate the chosen visualisation.
5. Chartopedia by AnyChart
In addition to the usual functions (descriptions and gallery) like the other websites, it also provides documentation to create the chart using JavaScript. There is also a mobile app version of this website on Google Play.
6. Depict Data Studio by Ann K. Emery
It has links to real-life examples used by data journalists.
7. Data Viz 5 by Kagen Quiballo
This is the famous chart chooser (picture at the start of this post) in website format. There are descriptions together with video tutorials for Excel and Tableau for users to learn immediately.
8. Data to Viz by Yan Holtz
A clean and neat website with detailed descriptions of each chart and the common things to look out for each of them. There are also R, Python, and D3.JS codes linked to the charts.
9. Tableau Chart Catalog by Kevin Flerlage
A data visualisation on Tableau Public of 100 charts that is actually a virtual poster (or physical one if you print it out) leads readers to other users' charts on Tableau. This allows readers to get to see the charts in action immediately instead of charts made using dummy data.
10. Tableau Cook Book by Josh Weyburne
A wordplay on a "recipe book". This Tableau Public viz collects different charts and clicking on each of them leads to a page of descriptions with links to tutorial blogs on how to create them. Links to other Tableau users as examples are also included.
11. Data For Visualization by Serif Cetiner
At first glance, the landing page that links to the charts may not be eye-catching. Nonetheless, when readers click on each hyperlink, they will find nuggets of information - definition, why the chart is needed, what kind of data can be visualised with it - and pictured examples of charts.
12. Chart Chooser by Yeo Jun Yan
This was my attempt back in 2020 when I was trying to create as many chart types as possible. However, I only managed 30 charts, and I was not able to scale the size of the chart to make it more user-friendly. This was inspired by the Visual Vocabulary mentioned above, but I added a feature whereby users can click on each chart to open a new tab to the charts' tutorials.
All in all, I hope this list will be useful to anyone looking for a chart chooser for their needs.
