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Creating visualizations

Visualizations let you present data so that your app's users can interpret and explore it. For example, you can show a bar chart that compares sales numbers for different regions, or a table with precise values for the same data. Good visualizations help you quickly and accurately interpret the displayed data.

Visualizations are easy to add and customize. They can take the form of charts (such as bar charts, pie charts, tables, gauges, and treemaps), or custom objects created using tools in the Qlik SenseDev Hub. Interactivity, such as drill-down and filtering, is built in because Qlik Sense automatically highlights items associated with your selections. You can enhance interactivity further with functionality specific to the different visualizations.

An example of a sheet with four different charts.

To build effective visualizations, you should:

  • Understand the data sources for your visualizations
  • Select visualization types that align with your purpose
  • Update visualizations to help users understand the data

Understand the data sources for your visualizations

To design an effective visualization with a clear purpose, you need to understand your data. The following questions will help you find out what you want to convey with your data:

  • What kind of data is it? Nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio data?
  • How do different parts of the data relate to each other?
  • Can you organize the data in a way that makes it easy for you to create your visualizations?
  • What do you want to communicate with your data?
  • Are there dimensions or measures you will want to reuse in multiple visualizations?

You also need to understand your data in terms of fields, dimensions, and measures. These affect how your data is used in your visualizations.

Select visualization types that align with your purpose

Each visualization type has a specific goal. You need to think about the purpose of your visualization, and pick a visualization type that lets you explore your data for that purpose effectively.

For example: You want to show how a measure, quarterly sales, behaves over time. You should create a line chart, because one of its strengths is displaying how measure values change over time.

See: When to use what type of visualization.

If you are unsure of what visualization types to use with your fields, you can also create visualizations using Qlik Sense chart suggestions.

See: Creating visualizations using chart suggestions.

Update visualizations to help users understand the data

As you create your visualizations, you can modify them to improve how data is displayed and highlighted within the sheet. You can also change the data within it, or switch the visualization to another type.

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