Qualitative chart chooser 3.0

Qualitative Chart Chooser 3.0 is an updated version of Stephanie Evergreen and Jennifer Lyons attempt to organise different ways to show qualitative data.

It shows in a simple way what charts are appropriate for the story you want to tell with your data.

This resource and the following information was contributed by Alice Macfarlan.

Authors and their affiliation

Stephanie Evergreen and Jennifer Lyons

Key features

This tool maps out which charts are appropriate for telling various 'stories' with your qualitative data, such as whether you're trying to outline a hierarchy of concepts, the flow of events, a comparison between or a cluster of ideas or responses, or to highlight comments/words.

The visualisations included are:

• Word cloud
• Spectrum display
• Heatmap
• Histomap
• Speedometer
• Icons and colour coding
• Indicator dots
• Venn diagrams
• Quote and pic
• Callout box
• Bolded words
• Change photos
• Concept mapping
• Network mapping
• Timeline
• Journey map
• Dendogram
• Mind mapping
• Flow/Path diagram

How have you used or intend on using this resource?

I use this when I'm growing frustrated with trying to make a text-heavy report look more engaging. I find I fall into visualisation traps when it comes to qualitative data, so having a range of options mapped onto different purposes like this is really helpful to start thinking about what would work.

Why would you recommend it to other people?

Because visualising qualitative data is tricky and this chart chooser really simplifies the process. I imagine a lot of people (like me) aren't always aware of or thinking about different ways to work with qualitative data and so having a tool that helps expand knowledge about this is very useful.