One Question That Helps You Pick the Right Chart Every Time

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A data visualization guide argues that chart selection should be driven by a single question: what comparison must the reader make? The framework maps four possible answers to four chart types — categories to bar charts, time to line charts, relationships to scatter plots, and part-of-whole also to bar charts. The guide warns that using the wrong chart type makes the intended comparison harder while inadvertently highlighting a different, misleading one. It also notes that pie charts are only suitable when showing parts of a whole with three or fewer slices. The practical advice is to open any existing chart, state aloud what comparison it is meant to show, and rebuild it if the chart type does not match that comparison.

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