Tips and Tricks for Representing your Business Statistics Online
When you make flash charts or
graphs representing your business data, you want to show your company in the
best way to attract customers and partners. So, how to make flash chart which
will show your business data the best even when these data are not too exciting?
People see the same numbers regardless of chart design, but subconsciously they
perceive values differently depending on color, size, scaling etc. There are
some tricks to make people see what you want them to see looking at your flash
graphs.
USE COLORS TO ACCENTUATE
ADVANTAGEOUS DATA.
The most common rule is using bright,
contrast colors to emphasize and dull colors to hide something. Animated
Chart allows setting different colors for each chart element. While
choosing colors for your flash graph elements, take into consideration the
color of chart background. To make some elements more eye-catching, choose the
color contrasting to the background color and vice versa. Traditionally, red
color is considered to attract attention more than other colors. So, if it
doesn’t spoil the color scheme of your chart in flash, use red color for the
chart elements you want to emphasize. Let’s demonstrate this trick with an
example. Imagine that you have to make graph representing different business
indicators of your company and two competitive companies. One of the
competitors surpasses you on a few indicators and another one is far from you.
In this case, you can represent your data in red or another eye-catching
color; the data of your nearest competitor should be represented in a color
close to background color to attract less attention; and the data of the lest
successful competitor can be represented in blue, green, yellow or another
color which is rather bright but not brighter than the color of your
data. Such color scheme will make your data look the most
advantageous.
This trick can be used for all chart
types.
USE AXES SCALING.
Depending on axes scaling, data can
look different. Animated Chart allows setting maximum value of the axis. So,
here is a tip for creating column chart or bar chart. To make the difference
in columns height or bar length more evident, set the axis maximum equal with
the value of the highest column or the longest bar. An vice versa, to make
this difference less evident, set the axis maximum approximately 1,5 times
more than the maximum value of chart data.
The most conspicuous column or bar of a
flash graph is the one reaching the axis maximum. So, if the maximal data is
advantageous for you and you want to make people see it – set the equal axis
maximum. And never let the column or bar to reach limit if it’s not intended to
be the most noticeable.
USE PHYCHOLOGICAL TRICKS
It’s proved that people perceive and
remember the last point best of all, the first – somewhat worse, and the
middle is the worst remembered. It applies to both audio and visual
perception. Thus, when making graph, place the most advantageous data to the
end and to the beginning of the chart, for example as in this line
chart.
As we read from left to right and from
top to bottom, the best place for data you want to stress is the right side of
the chart (for line, columns, bubble charts) or the bottom part (for bar
charts).
USE EFFECTS AND ANIMATION
Animated flash charts or flash graphs
give more possibilities to attract attention to your data than simple drawings
due to using flash animation and various effects. Animated Chart has 8
different animation types and allows you using different types of animation
for every chart item. To emphasize one data series, set animation which will
capture attention from the first sight. For example, use Grow animation for
all data series and Fall animation for the series you want to stress. That’ll
make this series differ from other ones and catch the viewer’s eye. Among the
effects which can be applied to data series, I want to recommend Outer Glow
effect. It’s great for line charts as it makes line seem wider, especially
when the glow color is similar to the line color. It can be also used for any
other flash chart type.
Try these simple but efficient tricks.
Use Animated Chart – a flash chart making software which lets you easily create,
customize and publish animated charts in flash. Make your data eye-catching and
convincing.
