Displaying data geographically provides users with locational awareness, but some want to see more than just dots on a map and some numbers. They want to see how the data in each location compares, both across the map, and within a location. Other methods of displaying data, such as charts and graphs, can provide additional information.

Charts and graphs are big business. Companies spend millions of dollars creating executive dashboards, which are a mix of charts and graphs connected to company data and metrics. They work because humans aren't as good at processing large, abstract numbers as computers, but they do better at processing data visually. Good charts and graphs provide comparable data at a glance, in a way anyone can understand.

In this chapter, we shall learn: