A stacked column chart can show part-to-whole comparisons over time, or across categories.
The result is a column chart, where each column is built from quarterly sales in each region.
In this configuration, the chart is a good visual representation of the data in the table.
The breakdown of sales by quarter is harder to interpret.
In the West, we can see Q4 is the strongest quarter and Q1 is the weakest.
But comparing across regions is more difficult.
Now if I use the Switch Row/Column button, we get regional sales grouped by quarter.
Now we can see sales increased in all 4 quarters.
We can also see that the South has a lower contribution overall.
But in general, it’s hard to compare the size of bars that make up each column.
We might make things a little easier to read by adding data series lines.
Once we have data series lines, I’ll want to remove gridlines to reduce visual clutter.
Now comparisons are a little easier.
Sales in the South seem to be decreasing while the East seems flat, and the West shows growth.
The North is harder to interpret.
I’ll set the maximum on the vertical axis to 200,000 to free up a little vertical space.
To make the labels easier to read I’ll make the text white.
Next, I’ll apply a more subdued color scheme that works well with the white text.
