16 Cool Chart Types Now Available in Visme [New Feature]

Let’s face it: All of us are drawn by good looks. Whether it’s a shiny, new sports car or the latest exotic fashion trend, we’re instantly mesmerized by attractive exteriors.

The same goes for information. Almost as if by magic, reams of boring figures and statistics can suddenly take on a whole new dimension when transformed into beautiful data visualizations.

This is why Visme decided to take another step forward on its mission to empower visual communicators everywhere by releasing 16 new types of charts and graphs and a slew of extremely useful customization settings.

Let’s take a look at what you can do now with Visme’s completely revamped chart engine.

RELATED: How to Create Animated Charts with Visme

Watch: New Types of Charts and Settings

New Chart Types: What You Can Create

To inspire you on your mission to tell stories with data, we've provided a few examples of types of charts created with Visme's new and improved chart engine. All of these were taken from Harvard Business Review's Good Charts, a guide on how to create more persuasive and effective data visualizations.

 

Stacked Charts

First of all, the traditional bar and line chart options are now more sophisticated, with the option to create both horizontal and vertical stacked charts, as seen below.

You can also make these 3D with the click of a button. And, unlike with traditional tools like PowerPoint or Excel, it’s much easier to achieve the exact look and feel you’re going for by modifying everything from the color scheme and font style to the background color and placement of labels, but we’ll get more into that later.

 

New Line Chart Types

The revamped chart engine now offers the ability to choose from three different line styles: smoothed line, step line and the basic line. You can also superimpose other graphic elements on your data visualizations, such as data explainers, arrows and other types of lines.

 

Rotate Pie Charts

You can now rotate pie charts to position certain segments at any desired angle. In the case below, we wanted the thin slice representing those who make it into the NBA to appear at the very top to create a more dramatic effect.

 

Stacked Area Charts

Like the first example above, this is a stacked area chart, which is useful for visualizing the changes in the contribution of different values over time. For example, in the chart, we can easily detect that less and less workers are taking week-long vacations.

 

Import Data

When dealing with many rows and columns of data, as in the case above, you can now import data from a Google Sheet or upload an Excel file instead of manually copying and pasting your information from one spreadsheet to another.

 

Apply Saved Color Palettes

It’s now easier than ever to save, apply and reapply your own unique color palettes to different projects, according to brand guidelines, so you can achieve a uniform style.

 

Scatter Plots

You can now create scatter plots like the one below, which are useful for visualizing individual points and detecting relationships between variables.

 

Radar Charts

Or you can also create radar charts (also called spider graphs) like this one. If you’re not familiar with this type of chart, its purpose is to create a single identifiable shape out of several data points.

While a single radar chart on its own would be meaningless, as you would have no point of comparison, a series of radar charts can allow viewers to quickly get an idea of an ideal shape and how actual numbers measure up to it, as in the example below.

 

Doughnut Charts

As with pie charts, you can now rotate doughnut charts within Visme and create as many segments as needed, whereas before there was a limit of up to 10 columns or rows of data.

 

Funnel Charts

Another new chart type is the funnel chart, which is extremely useful for visualizing stages in the sales process, as seen below, and detecting problems in an organization’s customer acquisition model. Like the other types, it can also be converted into a 3D version with the click of a button.

 

Pyramid Charts

Hierarchical visualizations such as pyramid charts are also useful for representing information according to levels, such as levels of importance, levels of income, among other types of categorizations.

They can also be used to represent stages in the customer acquisition model, such as the one below.

 

Mekko Charts

Lastly, you can also create Mekko charts, which are commonly used to visualize marketing and sales data.

Like a stacked bar chart, it represents the relative contribution of a specific value within a subcategory through varying heights--but goes beyond that by also using varying column widths to visualize the contribution of those same values to the overall scheme, such as in the example below.

Here, you can clearly see not only the relative market share of each of the four biggest brands in four different markets, you can also visualize the overall contribution of each of the brands in the entire device market.

New Customization Settings

1 Insert or import data.

For those of you who are new to Visme, you can easily create your own data visualizations for free by signing up with your email and name at www.visme.co and choosing any of the available templates under one of the content categories.

Next, click on the Charts and Data Widgets icon on the toolbar on the left side of your screen and then insert your data using one of three methods:

• Manually copy and paste your data into the spreadsheet area under the Data tab.
• Import data from a Google sheet under the Import Data tab in the pop-up window. To do this, choose the Publish to the Web option under the File menu in Google Sheets and then copy the published link and paste it in the text box, as seen above.
• Upload an Excel file by clicking on the Select File button under the Import Data tab.

Visme also allows you to sync live data: When you connect a Google sheet to your Visme spreadsheet, any changes made to your original data will be reflected in the online version of your chart, which is especially useful in cases where there are regular updates to information.

 

2 Invert row and column data.

We’ve all been there before: After painstakingly arranging your information in rows or columns, you then notice your information would be better visualized by inverting your column and row data.

This can now easily be done within Visme by clicking on the Switch Columns and Rows button to the top left of your spreadsheet area.

 

3 Maximize pop-up window.

If you want to add more information or manipulate any of the data, you can now easily expand your work area by clicking on the Maximize button to the top right of your pop-up window.

If you want to make the Preview chart bigger or change the size of your spreadsheet area, simply click on the handle between the two areas and drag and drop.

 

4 Change chart type.

Once you’ve finalized all changes to your data, you can now choose any of the available types of charts from the menu on the left side of your pop-up window.

You’ll see all of the options described above with their previews, as well as their 3D versions, when available.

 

5 Apply your own color palettes.

Besides the ability to choose from 50 color scheme presets under the Presets tab, you can also save your own color palettes for future use and reapply them as many times as needed. This is especially handy when your charts and graphs need to follow certain brand guidelines.

To create a new palette, simply click on one of the colors that appear to the top or left of your columns and rows of data. Then modify the palette under the Colors tab by clicking on the X to the top right of a color swatch to delete it, or clicking on the plus sign to add more swatches. Once you have your desired colors, click on the Save Palette option under the Colors tab and give it a name for future reference. 

 

6 Customize style.

Once you’ve decided on the best chart type for visualizing your information, you can then click on the Settings tab to customize the look and feel of your chart or graph.

Depending on your chart, you’ll see different options under the Style section of your Settings section. For most of the chart types, you’ll be able to turn the grid on or off and change the background color or leave it transparent.

For pie and doughnut charts, you’ll see an additional setting which allows you to adjust the angle of your pie chart so that you can position certain segments at a specific degree.

For the line and area graph types, you’ll also be able to choose from different line graph types, as seen below, and turn point markers on or off.

 

7 Customize axes.

Next, under the Axis section of your Settings, you can also choose to hide your axes and adjust the angle of your labels, which comes in handy when dealing with long category labels.

In this section, you can also name your axes and customize everything, from the color of the text to its font and point size.

One especially useful customization setting is the ability to set specific minimum and maximum y-axis values. This allows you to truncate charts when appropriate, either to make a point or when it is accepted practice within a certain industry.

 

8 Add prefixes and suffixes to values.

Sometimes you will want to create a very minimalist chart to give your audience a bird’s-eye view of your information, without overwhelming them with the details. In these cases, you’ll want to hide values, which you can do under the Values section.

In other cases, you will want to provide specifics and even add prefixes or suffixes to your values (such as $, % or any other symbol), which you can do under the Values section.

 

9 Adjust placement of legends.

If you’re like me, you like your charts and graphs as simple and easy to read as possible. In such cases, you might want to do away with your legend altogether, which you can easily do by deactivating the Show Legend option under the Legend section of the Settings tab.

Here, you can also adjust the placement of your legend so it appears either at the bottom, top, right or left of your chart.

As with the other chart elements, you can adjust the font, its size and color, as well as its alignment.

 

10 Create stacked charts.

If you’re looking to create stacked charts like the ones in the introduction to this post, all you have to do is activate the Enable Stack option under the Settings tab.

 

11 Choose animation type.

Although charts are animated by default, you can deactivate this option under the Animation section.

Or you can also choose from four different animation effects, seen above.

 

12 Insert titles.

Finally, you can insert a title and subtitle for your chart under the Titles section and adjust the font, color and point size.

Alternatively, you can also create your own stylized titles and place them wherever you like on your canvas area using Visme’s text tool.

 

Your Turn

If you haven’t already taken Visme’s chart tool for a test drive, try it out for free here and let us know what you think of these new types of charts in the comments section below.

Also, if you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to contact us via our support section.