Posted on by Denes Zarka

M3S1-S3 – Innovative products to promote the development of deprived areas: selecting the best possible visual aid to show the evolution of the products in time

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Author

ITC –M. Begoña Arenas

Mini Project ID

ITCMP03

Description

The case: My project is based on analyzing different innovative products entrepreneurs have issued to promote the development of deprived areas in my region. I already have the data, but I want to find the correct chart to compare the evolution of sales for the 5 products in 3 years (2017, 2018 and 2019).

I am doing this exercise in the frame of a Continuing professional development course and I would like to show trends in time.

The following chat can serve as a guide to select the right chart depending on where we want to make the focus.

Sector

VET

Data

#PRODUCT/YEAR 2017 2018 2019
Product 1 25 30 65
Product 2 10 8 9
Product 3 45 50 51
Product 4 21 30 32
Product 5 3 4 6

Model

Calculation

I finally select the “over time” option and try with 2 different charts: a line chart and column as both fit for few periods:

Graph 1: Line chart

You can see in vertical the number of items sold per category of product and in horizontal, the evolution of the sales in the different years.

Graph 2: Column chart

Graph 2: You can see the different products in the vertical axis and the and number of items in horizontal. The years are shown in different coloured columns.

Solution

I would finally select the line chart as it reflects in a more direct way the general evolution of sales over the 3-year period I want to show. Even though Product one is easy to identify as the most popular in 2019, the line chart shows this in a way that is more visual and easier to understand at a first glance.

In oral presentations I can use the line chart as visual aid to highlight the evolution over the 3-year period of the acquisition of the 5 products to give the audience an insight that would require many words or columns of numbers.

Presentation

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Denes Zarka
Denes Zarka

Very good example to use line charts. I like it.

3 years ago

Review M3S1-S3 – Innovative products to promote the development of deprived areas: selecting the best possible visual aid to show the evolution of the products in time.