Module 2

Choosing the right chart: from the question to the form

The usual way to choose a chart is to open a spreadsheet, select the data and click the first type that looks interesting. That produces charts that are easy to make and hard to read. The better way starts from the question: what should the reader see? If the answer is ‘how the values compare’, a sorted bar chart is almost always right. If it is ‘how something changed over time’, a line. If it is ‘how results are spread’, a histogram. If the reader needs the exact figures, a table may beat any chart. The form follows the question, and once the form is chosen, most of the craft is in what you take away: the gridlines, the legend, the decoration, the extra series and the colours that mean nothing. This module teaches the eight questions a chart can answer, the form that best answers each, when to prefer a table and the small techniques of sorting, direct labelling, highlighting and restrained colour that make a chart readable in seconds. The Chart Chooser applies the rules to the purpose, the number of categories and the audience that you give it.

General education on visual communication for lawyers, using invented organisations, people, data and cases. It states common practice in simplified form and does not describe any one country's law or court rules, which differ and change; rules on exhibits, demonstrative aids, disclosure, candour and confidentiality in particular vary. The tools apply simple rules to descriptions and text that you supply. It is not legal advice, and it does not replace advice from a qualified lawyer on a real matter.