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Data & spreadsheets · course 39 of 105

Data Charts That Make the Point

Choose the right chart for your report: start from your message, match your data to one of 9 relationships, then get the axes, order and labels right.

4 modules

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What it teaches

Decide the message first, then match your data to one of the 9 statistical relationships (distribution, time series, ranking, deviation, correlation, magnitude, spatial, part-to-whole, flow) and pick a chart the UK Government Analysis Function’s guidance recommends for it; then the limits that keep charts honest: when a pie chart is allowed, how many categories a stack or cluster can hold, when lines beat bars, why a bar chart’s axis starts at zero, gaps, ordering and labels. The AI asks 3 questions, places you, shows a short card per module, then gives you one item at a time.

How long

40 items. About 35-55 rounds plus a 12-item final: 1-2 sessions (estimate, not timed with a real student). The tutor gives a one-line save code at the end of each session.

The modules

4 modules, drilled one item at a time.

  1. M0

    Message first

    Message first: what to decide before you pick a chart

  2. M1

    Name the relationship, pick the chart

    Name the relationship in made-up data, then pick a chart for it

  3. M2

    Pie, stacked, clustered and line limits

    Is this pie, stack, cluster or line chart in line with the guidance? Yes or No, and why

  4. M3

    Axes, gaps, order and labels

    Axes, gaps, order and labels: Yes or No, and why

Before it teaches, it asks

  1. 1
    What do you make charts for (reports, slides, dashboards), and which chart do you reach for most?
  2. 2
    The data: Weekly sign-ups for your iPhone app and your Android app over the last two years, both on one chart. Which relationship is this, and which chart would you use?
  3. 3
    A bar chart whose numerical axis starts at 8% to make a fall in inflation look clearer. Is this in line with the guidance? Say why.

What’s exact, and what isn’t

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Straight from the course’s own notes.

One official source
Every key comes from the Analysis Function’s “Data visualisation: charts” guidance: M1 from its table matching chart types to relationships (checked row by row against the page), M0, M2 and M3 from sentences quoted word for word in each item. 40 quotes matched on the live page 2026-10-11.
Made up for practice
Every dataset and chart described. Which relationship a made-up dataset shows is the builder’s reading of the table.
Whose advice
The guidance is written for people in UK government who publish charts. It’s good general advice, but the course doesn’t claim any employer or publisher requires it.
Honest limits
Text only: you read descriptions of charts, you don’t draw or see them.
Not in it yet
Colours and accessible palettes, tables, maps, box plots and other advanced charts in depth, building charts in Excel or other software.