Compare and rank
Pictogram / isotype chart
Represents quantities using repeated icons with a declared number of units per icon.
- Chart
- Magnitude
- Composition
What it answers
How many units does each group represent?
- Shape
- Repeated icons
- What it shows
- Relative counts and scale.
Example
The question
Out of every 20 customers, how many contact us each way?
How 20 typical customers contact us, one figure = one customer
Illustrative data. It belongs to no company.
When to use it
Use it when
Communicating simple quantities to broad audiences.
Avoid it when
When decorative icon dimensions distort area or fractions are hard to read.
How to read it
Read the units-per-icon key, then count full and partial icons.
Note
Define partial-icon and rounding rules.
The data you need
- Layout
- Long table
- Fields
- Category: text; Value: number
- One row is
- One category and its measured or aggregated value. What is the grain?
- Rules
- Choose an aggregation for repeated categories. Keep units consistent.
- Optional
- Optional Series or label. Wide alternative: one category column plus one value column per series.
- Preparation
- Validate the input grain and missing values. Choose an aggregation for repeated categories. Keep units consistent.
- Units
- Use the measured variable's stated unit consistently. No denominator is implied unless the value is a rate or proportion.
Worked example
A=30, B=45 with 1 icon=5 units gives 6 and 9 icons. B has 15 more units, represented by 3 extra icons.
| Category | Value |
|---|---|
| A | 30 |
| B | 45 |
| C | 25 |