New: Add comparison columns for election reporting and more

Elana Levin Schtulberg

Column charts are a great choice for comparing a value across several categories. But you might find yourself wanting to enrich your column chart with more context: How did those categories fare previously? Or how does a subgroup compare?

Today we’re adding a new feature to column charts that enables your readers to get these extra insights: You can now add comparison values to your column charts, to add key background information while keeping the focus on your main numbers.

We’ve integrated this feature right into column charts — as long as you have more than one numerical column in your dataset, you’ll see the option to use that data to Show comparison columns at the bottom of the Refine tab.

A clear focus — but with important context

With comparison columns, your main data remains in clear focus. The context data is there, but literally in the background. In addition to displaying comparison columns, you can also use new, more powerful labeling options to help your readers understand the data:

• Show main values under your columns instead of above, making it easier to compare them at a glance.
• Label the numeric difference between main and background columns in a muted gray.
• Use each column’s color for its main label to stand out from difference labels and help with visual grouping.

If you’re on a Custom or Enterprise plan, you can also get in touch with us to customize the styling of labels and columns.

A good fit, not just for election charts

We took our inspiration from the widespread use of comparison columns in German-language media and government organizations to show election results — as seen in these examples from Spiegel, Zeit Online, Berliner Morgenpost, the German government, and berlin.de. With a general election in Germany coming up in a few weeks, we hope it proves useful for many of our customers.

That said, this is a versatile chart type not just for election data:

Consider it any time you want to add insight and interest to a categorical column chart, without losing the focus on your main numbers.

We hope you find this addition to our column charts useful! Let us know if you have any feedback or suggestions at support@datawrapper.de. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

---

Elana Levin Schtulberg

(she/her, @elanaEllesce) is co-CEO of Datawrapper and head of visualization. Together with her team, she builds new visualization types and features for Datawrapper. Elana has a background in physics and design and sees data visualization as a perfect intersection of the two. She lives in Berlin.

Liked this article? Maybe your friends will too:

Twitter Facebook