Five Tips for Optimal Excel Chart Design

[@joefromdc]

My tip: Before I publish any report, I ask someone who knows nothing about the information being presented to give feedback. If it takes them longer than five mins to understand anything then I reevaluate my design

[@LeilaGharani]

That's a great tip!

[@Oppadu]

Great Chart lesson ! :) First part with eye tracking is very impressive. But the thing I also would consider when I make chart is Color mathing as well.❤️

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you like the video.

[@ronvds4713]

Love seeing the results of the eye tracking. Shows that KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) in charts is the way to go.

[@LeilaGharani]

It definitely is Ron :)

[@taco7rk34]

Getting data is one thing, presenting it effectively is another. I like that you're talking about it more. Thanks for another great video.

[@LeilaGharani]

Happened to me too all the time. Spent so much time gathering the data and then wasted it all by poor presentation.

So, you are teaching more then excel Leila. Thank you

[@LeilaGharani]

You're welcome :) Yes switching things up a bit....

[@excelisfun]

Great History!!!! Great empirical tests for eye movement. Thanks for the "No Chart Junk" Video, Teammate : )

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks Mike. Switching things up a bit :)

[@karolina_9873]

Thank you for the tips Leila, I love your way of teaching, it just makes me naturally understand the concepts and techniques, and your online courses are just great, I am grateful

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you for the kind feedback Karolina! I really appreciate it.

[@tahirshah6979]

If someone want to confuse his boss then work alternatively. If further confusion is required then use secondary axis and remove the labels. If you want to show no differences then don't change origin, otherwise change. Good tips for dealing abusive bosses.

[@LeilaGharani]

Good tips. Especially using a secondary axis never fails :)

[@djfmate]

I love this type of analysis which drills down to how people actually read and interpret graphs! Very insightful video Leila! Cheers, David from Australia! 😉👍

[@LeilaGharani]

Me too, it's really interesting. Greetings to Australia!

[@christophenael3284]

Thank you Leila! For rule number 3, it is very important not to write numbers with a font size too small indeed but rather than write vertically, I prefer to format my numbers in thousands for example and always write them horizontally because it is our normal reading direction.

[@LeilaGharani]

That works too Christophe. Thanks for the feedback.

[@dhananjaykansal8097]

Oh Yesss....this is lovely! Thank you Mam. I appreciate you're taking care to include a bit of History as well.

[@marcial.1636]

Just discovered this channel today and love the way she explains things.

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad to have you here Marcia.

[@landonchurch1]

I find that the study referenced changes these tips from optional, personal preferences to proven techniques. I love the eye tracking charts! Thank you!

[@LeilaGharani]

Yeah, for me it was an eye-opener too.

[@bluesage1528]

Leila, you are just so perfect in everything that you do! I love all your lessons.

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you Victoria!

[@benjaminkeyrose4294]

Values above the bars makes it so much easier! Keep the great tips coming, and thanks for sharing your sources 🙌

[@LeilaGharani]

I'll do my best :) Glad you like the video Benjamin.

[@thedavidseatonshow]

This is one of the most powerful, informative, and succinct presentations I have ever seen. Fantastic, as always!

[@LeilaGharani]

I'm happy to hear that. Glad it's useful for you.

[@MrUmbeijo]

Thank you so much Leila for your videos. I have improved a lot of my reports for the management thanks to your Excel tips. I will implement these 5 design tips in my reports to make them even more efficient and effective.

[@LeilaGharani]

I'm very happy to hear that.

[@georgetosounidis5545]

You thanked us for watching, we thank you for existing! (and providing us with all this) Thanks a lot for this, i can only imagine the number of UX pilot tests this took...

[@luvlegendas]

Obviously that was the most beneficial and helpful information in a video I have seen so far in 2019, or may be my entire life. As a data analyst in my department I am always seeking the best practice in data visualization in my report to help reader locate info easily and never get lost. thank you for this valuable video.

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you for the kind feedback Ahmed! I'm glad the video is helpful for you.

[@dennisd5776]

WOW, I never realized the eye movement in reading a graft. Thank you for this useful information.

[@LeilaGharani]

You're very welcome Dennis. Glad it's useful.

[@alexgabriel37]

Great info overall. If I may offer some feedback, your #4 tip is very vague, uses unusual wording (don’t break the axis?), and the 5 second comparison doesn’t highlight the difference. I think the takeaway is to scale the axis with the data to ensure the graph visually highlights the information and pertinent trends. Ie, doesn’t always have to start with 0.

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@huytangquoc5682]

Its great to help me figure what the #4 tip means !! thanks for both of you ^^

[@reeseinny]

I would like a video on using the proper scale for an axis which is what I think you meant from point #4.

[@OakleyTurvey]

Thanks once again Leila, Nice to have study data to back up what we have been trying to impress on people for years. Especially like the NO 3D...nearly 50% slower comprehension. Probably even more for 3D Pie Charts. Be great if your Uni sends the results of the study to Microsoft for their Excel and Power BI development teams...

[@LeilaGharani]

Yeah, it was really interesting to see these results in an objective research.

[@funniq]

Thanks again for sharing your knowledge. Very sweet of you. To make such high quality tutorials is very time consuming .... Hugs from Holland

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks for the appreciation André!

[@kaaa3485]

Great Tips Leila. I'm always learning from your videos. You are greatly appreciate it. Thanks.

[@LeilaGharani]

You're very welcome. Makes me happy when the tutorials are helpful.

[@SeamusHarper1234]

Axis braking: This is an excelent example for the influence the chart designer has on the viewer. You want to tell the story that nothing changed? Don't break the axis. You want to make them belive that there was a radical change / high volatility? Beak it ;-)

[@francescox79]

Compliments to you Leila and your Team, you are awesome!

[@LeilaGharani]

Thank you Francesco

[@stefanzonneveld317]

Some great tips! Like always. Thanks Leila. What I did missed and maybe was worth mentioning is a target value, this way anyone that see the chart can understand that the results are low or high.

[@maciejolejnik6706]

Thank You Leila for basic and very useful informations!

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure Maciej. Glad the video is useful.

[@KnuYorker]

Excellent video. The only bad thing about it is that it exposes the many mistakes I have been making over the years. I'm sure I'll review this video a few more times before building charts. Thanks!

[@LeilaGharani]

Haha, I've made all of these and many more too. But, the good thing is we can learn and improve :)

[@DK-ls1tx]

Love u so much Leila for helping us on Excel 😘😘

[@shahinshakarli5329]

Thank you, Leila! These tips are crucial.

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad it was helpful!

[@wayneedmondson1065]

Hi Leila.. eye tracking.. that's cool. It's amazing how much chart junk is out there.. and from sources that should know better. Your 5 points are great and thanks to your various videos and courses.. are all familiar and in my tool bag. Thanks for sharing your amazing knowledge, skills and insights. Thumbs up!!

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks for the thumbs up Wayne!

[@haythamelmaghawry2845]

Well done Leila Super, simple and cover most important requirements on Charts

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you like the video.

[@goodgollywally]

Another great video. I use bar charts and trend charts. I can see the difference more easily between current year and SPLY with trend charts, but that's just the way it works best for me. All great information in this video. I like making the title standout in font size. Thanks Leila.

[@LeilaGharani]

Thanks for the feedback Walter!

[@Betterifitsfree]

I wish there was a mandatory law to make those who create the awful presentations charts to watch this and learn the correct way it should be done. Thank you Leila.

[@LeilaGharani]

Yeah, that would be good :)

[@vevekharaswal7825]

WoW that's super interesting for our kind researchers documentation thanks for sharing Leila 🙏😍feels blessed👍

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure. Glad you like it.

[@subhrajyotisaha4u]

Super. Loved the video and detailed analysis.

[@yulinliu850]

Great teaching! Thanks Leila!

[@krn14242]

Thanks Leila, great explanation. I had not thought about this before.

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you like it.

[@simfinso858]

So detailed video on charts.Useful video

[@petermoran6800]

Thank you, once again you excel in these videos and are forever improving my spreadsheets

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure Peter. I'm happy if the tutorials are helpful.

[@vivekphadke16]

As usual crisp, informative and comprehensive. History of graphs was the icing on the cake.

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you liked our little trip back in time :)

[@mwendasilumesii9649]

Hello Leila, great stuff as usual. On DONT BREAK THE AXIS, kindly expand. Are we you start from ZERO or another figure that then allows for a higher degree of accuracy if one had to guess the values (supposing they are no data labels).

[@jimmyjammERRz]

I love your Excel tips!

[@PuerinTheHunter]

@4:27 I've seen that broken axis done to exaggerate the differences. I think it was a microprocessor company trying to make their product look way above the competitors but in fact the difference was irrelevant.

[@LeilaGharani]

Yeah, exactly. Small increases all of a sudden look like major improvements :)

[@maxpower111]

Thank You Leila, great analysis.

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@Oprimaita]

This kind of video is very useful and efficient. Thank you again and again

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure. I'm glad you like the video.

[@katerina6495]

Vielen Dank Liebe Leila 🤗 I always love your charting techniques Viele liebe Grüsse

[@LeilaGharani]

Always makes me happy to see your comments popping up :)

[@foridalom4375]

This is a great video Leila - I've been trying to find the report for ages but can't seem to locate it. The link on your description keeps asking me to sign in. Please can you give me the details of the report so I can either search for it or if you could provide it to me, that would be even better.

[@stevennye5075]

excellent information, I liked the vertical numbers in tip 3

[@adedejioluwapelumi849]

Thanks so much for this informative piece Leila.

[@LeilaGharani]

You're very welcome. Glad you find it informative.

[@toddclark7709]

Leila - thanks for the video - very interesting! Regarding tip #4, I may be misunderstanding your recommendation, but I generally do start a bar graph with 0 on the y axis, otherwise it can be misleading about the relative difference between the bars. Just my 2 cents!

[@LeilaGharani]

Absolutely true Tood! Especially for bar charts breaking the axis (not starting at zero) will mislead the reader.

[@SteveSwanson999]

Appreciate the effort and supporting data. Thank you. Was looking to delve more into the details, but a good deal of the reference material above is in German - are English versions available? Stay safe, Steve

[@LeilaGharani]

You need to scroll down more. The top part is German but further down they have the English material.

[@darrylmorgan]

Very interesting Leila.Definitely something to think about.Thank You

[@LeilaGharani]

You're very welcome Darryl.

[@matioesperante7518]

Hi Liela Thank you so much for your videos - you were the first person I started watching on youtube to do with excel and I've not stopped yet :) Anyway this is just an idea please - I wasn't taught about variance at at school and wondered if you could create an video please about how to build a table and/or graph which best covers this for multiple area. At work I various processes running on many PCs and I would like to create a variance graph that shows variances to do with how showing which PCs take the longest to run the different processes. That way I can inform the customer for those PCs to be checked out for example to perform PC health checks on them. Anyway I hope you find this challenge interesting and can cover this please for us IT Support people :)

[@linawinny3743]

Hi Leila, I think put the number above in combo (Bar and Line) chart is annoying for the eye. what do you think?

[@DougHExcel]

great data viz concepts!

[@peterjohnsarador6194]

Thank you so much Leila for this information.. 👍😊

[@LeilaGharani]

You're very welcome Peter :)

[@excelaficionado]

That's creative and informative.....👌👌👌👌👌

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you like it!

[@MohamedMostafa-dm9qy]

Very helpful as usual

[@monte4955]

Awesome as always Leila.👍

[@pmsocho]

Great tips!

[@waelhussein4606]

Love your videos as usual. Nevertheless, I noticed you spent a lot of time on the eye tracking issue and then cut down on the main points, particularly towards the end. Thank you though so much, as I find your videos to always be useful.

[@BernieTheBoxer]

Fascinating stuff. Trying to get my skill levels up in Power BI and some of the visualisations being bandied around the analytics world these days are just beyond baffling. I think all the analytics package providers would do well to subject their "fancy" outputs to your study - I bet I could guess the results?

[@LeilaGharani]

Me too Chris :)

[@ashrafabdalghani77]

Thank You so much The Teaching Method Is Excellent We Wait For Moe

[@LeilaGharani]

There will definitely be more. Stay tuned :)

[@YTNutflexPayb]

More of this please 🙏

[@asetbilibaev6519]

I love your channel. It’s very helpful.

[@hernanperez912]

My thumbs up today is for you! 👍... And yes, it was helpful.

[@LeilaGharani]

Then the video did its job :) Thanks for the thumbs up Hernan.

[@valboski28]

@ Leila - What did you mean "don't break the axis?" Does this have anything to do with changing the default values?

[@silversolver7809]

She means the chart on the right 'cheated' by not starting the Y axis at zero, thereby making the variances appear larger than they were. This 'breaking the axis' is a frequent trick by people seeking to deceive.

[@valboski28]

@@silversolver7809 I thought so. Just making sure. Thanks for the reply.

[@hattemghanoom9557]

Thank you Leila Very helpful presentation tips

[@LeilaGharani]

You're welcome 😊

[@lemd49]

As usual, very actionable advice.

[@mehdihammadi6145]

Thank you for sharing Leila, very informative and I'm using 4 of the tips, the last one is new for me (size of the title) but I will consider that in the future

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure Mehdi. It's helpful for the viewer to see right away what the chart is about.

[@jayshukla450]

Hi thank you for the video. I tried downloading the report. However I could find only the German version of it. Can u pls share the link of the English version of the report

[@LeilaGharani]

You need to scroll down more. First are the papers in German and then there is a separate section for the English version.

[@casper3842]

getting prettier than ever! :)

[@casper3842]

May i send email to solve my issue?

[@sytzebuz]

...and as always, Thanks Leila!

[@LeilaGharani]

... and as always, you're very welcome :)

[@yoggangurde]

Impressive I have never use any of the tricks. This was real useful👍

[@LeilaGharani]

I'm glad to hear that.

[@yoggangurde]

@@LeilaGharani 😊👍

[@joshuamanampiu6489]

Very helpful. I normally truncate the numbers of they are too big (present in thousands or millions) instead of presenting them vertically I find it a bit odd reading numbers that way but it is an interesting tip.

[@LeilaGharani]

That works too Joshua. Thanks for the feedback!

[@Buhassan5656]

Wonderful...wonderful....wonderful keep going.....

[@LeilaGharani]

Glad you like the tutorial Ahmed. There will be more. Stay tuned :)

[@luisneto2165]

Wow! Nice tips for my students!

[@LeilaGharani]

Hope it will come in handy Luís.

[@vijayarjunwadkar]

Wow! another great video! Never imagined so much could be involved behind a chart and its understanding! Thanks for these super tips! :-)

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure. Glad you like my little detour to research :)

[@Mohamed-Naji]

Thanks a lot, is there a way to print out slicers?

[@ajexcel]

Yes that's indeed helpful tips! Thanks

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure. Glad it's helpful.

[@npoess]

Great Stuff!

[@ManthaarJanyaro]

Enjoyed learning...

[@robg109]

Great vid. Maybe deserves more time on this subject

[@LeilaGharani]

True, maybe I'll expand in a follow-up video. Thanks for the feedback!

[@Molnify]

Great video!

[@Sal_A]

Hi Leila - any chance you'll explain how to graph/show disparate values ($100 vs $1M)? I've been waiting to your thoughts on that for awhile :)

[@karunkumar6577]

Great video..thanks !

[@ExcelWithChris]

Thanks. Very helpful.

[@hansamfotos]

Color also plays a vital role on reporting. Especially when you are reporting fixed and moving figures.

[@LeilaGharani]

Very true. Color is important.

[@yurd563]

Thanks for video!

[@LeilaGharani]

You're very welcome.

[@chaiyya345]

Hi Leila, How to.make bar chart value vertically? Thanx

[@vikrapareek]

Refreshing.

[@jam0to9]

Leila, this critique is something my mechanical engineering professors had a pet peeve about. I also developed and adopted the same frustration in the field of manufacturings engineering. Units!!!! I cannot count the number of charts where people, engineers, accounting, sales, and all other department present charts with absolutely no units, just numbers. Ridiculous😡. I’ve seen 3 decades of presentations with four or five charts per presentation and none had units. In your future tip email please add tip to include units to the chart Bar or as text in a note box

[@davidneil9110]

Amazing!

[@ricos1497]

Don't use thick lines in black font for scale lines, make them very light, if required at all. Always try to use consistent colours for series between charts. Never use Excel's default colours for charts, they're horrendous! I use all the techniques mentioned, but interesting to know why I do though! Thanks

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure Rico. Thanks for the additional tips!

[@lightningpop8717]

What do you mean by not breaking the axis? Is it best not to set the Y axis to zero?

[@LeilaGharani]

It is, especially for column charts.

[@guyngansop2982]

Always great and awesome😉

[@mohmmadabdo5899]

Thanks for your advices 💋 I need those for my job 📊

[@LeilaGharani]

My pleasure. I'm glad if the videos are helpful.

[@ensalzado]

Hey Leila, following on your video, I would change the title to something related to bar charts, instead of just stating “charts”. A little misleading I would say. Also, I would include markers in the video (like with music playlists, to find the next song) in case you want to just directly to the tips or to a particular one as a future reference.