Chart Experiment: Timed Pointer Chart

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Continuing the Chart Experiments from the previous posts on Coloured Bar Delta and Fold-Over Bar, as inspired by the charts from Visualising Financial Data. Here is the Timed Pointer Chart inspired by the Pointer Collection.


What is a Pointer Collection?


A Pointer Collection is a group of Pointer Charts. A Pointer Chart can be described as follows:

Similar to a laser pointer, the Upside/ Downside Capture Points chart projects both the angle and the end points onto a marked graph background. The combination of both the points and the angle enables you to assess just how far above or be- low the capture point the fund lies. The colour use and labels provide the details to distinguish the fund from the index representing market movements.


My Chart Experiment

With further inspiration from the Poppy Fields (above), the Timed Pointer Chart (shown in the opening of this post) removes the lines between the year. It also puts all the lines and dots into a single space from the starting point with the period represented by the horizontal axis. 

The dot in the Timed Pointer Chart can also be made into poppy flowers to present more data dimensions. We can perhaps also have the colours of each line fade based on the number of years in sequential colours to highlight the passage of time even more.

Pro

  1. This chart puts the duration of each value into perspective by having them start at the same zero point.
Con
  1. Putting the different time ranges may look messy to readers.


How to Create the Fold-Over Bar in Tableau - My Way (Check out how to make a Connected Scatter Plot using Dual Axis here by Ryan Sleeper before going through this)

Step 1: Set up the Data like a Connected Scatter Plot

Step 2: Create a Connected Scatter Plot in Tableau using Dual Axis as a Line and the other as Circle

  • To not show the 0 value, go to Marks card > click Label > click Lines End > uncheck Label start of line
  • OR you can create a Label column with only the non-zero values 

Step 3: Publish your Timed Pointer Chart!


Conclusion

All in all, this concludes the 3 part-Chart Experiments inspired by Visualising Financial Data. The book truly inspired me to try more unique chart types after some readings of the same charts over and over. The Timed Pointer Chart may not be entirely new, but it is something not in the book.