Hello Beginners, with this article I am hoping to help you out whenever you may need to represent and visualize or compare some data in graphics form, or sometimes you may still be confused about which type of graphics format you used to represent and visualize data in application development.
Don’t worry in this article, I will give you brief details about it. I will keep it in simple words.
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Table of Content
Introduction:
In simple words, As we all know A chart is a representation of data through a diagram, picture, graph, or symbols such as bars, lines, etc to show the relationship between multiple data sets.
It is useful to better understand and predict current and future data.
In Flutter, Real-time work tools for building and project management are largely based on visualization. So a simple chart is not useful for us because it represents static data. We seek a tool that deals with real-time visualization of data which offers us some features like zooming, hovering a marker to get a tooltip choosing a variable to display & more.
Interactive Charts solve our problems. Through this, we deal with complex data easily.
Why is it useful?
- Recognize Easily:-
The Human Brain always recognizes graphical data more quickly compared to text data. We also see and deal with data and manage and rearrange data according to conditions in an easy way.
- Presenting Relationships more efficiently:-
When we deal with large amounts of data, we may come across events where we need to focus on some very specific metrics. That’s where Interactive charts come in handy. Besides, it allows the users to define timeframes of events by discerning cause-and-effect relationships.
- Added values of data storytelling:-
When human written data is aligned in the form of a story and is served as clearly as possible, making it is almost linear when it comes to comparison with the raw data. Graphical data storytelling can convert a complex parabolic function to a linear and readable form. When the data is in interactive chart form, we find ourselves relating with it at every step which causes an imprint in our minds.
When we can zoom in or out the data, and the feature of highlighting the relevant information is added, then it serves as the cherry on the cake. We can filter the data accordingly and change the parameters to make it more clear. It not only makes the presentation better but also helps in increasing the understanding range of users.
- Simplification of seemingly chaotic data:-
Dealing with a huge set of data, which may or may not constitute interconnected pieces at first glance, human psychology determines it to be less presentable and even lesser understandable. But with the Interactive chart, we can add at every step, one can connect oneself to the knowledge of the actual writer of the piece, and functions like zooming and filtering, introduce the needed order of events as they are supposed to occur practically. This in addition helps to generate visual insight. Also, including them in financial reports makes the documents more interesting and easier to read and allows users to see trends more clearly.
Keep In Mind:
Do you think, How to format graphs and charts in a better way? whenever you use an Interactive chart then keep some things in mind.
- Simplicity:- The first step in the process of formatting graphical or chart data is to keep it as simple as possible. Any use of special effects that might look flashy, must always be avoided.
Ideal visualization- One must have sufficient available data and the capability to present it, that too in such a way that it looks easy to go through. Any visual interactions that are to be used must be first cross-check whether they are of any value to the sole topic of the data.
- The purpose of the title must be the purpose of a graph or chart:- The topmost heading must be able to provide the maximum information about what’s inside the data. It helps the readers to get a better insight into whether they need to read that or are looking for someone else. This in turn helps in generating a better review.
- Units and measurements must be specified:– The x and the y axis of graphs must always contain the units along with the numerical standardization. One must standardize first that all the values are in billions or millions as per data and this in turn creates a better-looking and lesser complex graph.
- Labelling, an important step:- Each part of the graph or chart must have emphasis and must be marked with what it emphasizes. A reader must not have to look all the way around to find what the graph signifies. It should be available right where the graph is.
- Finishing touches:- Last but not least, after the concept, is created, and visualization is done, it’s time for the finishing touches. All the data must be re-read and any mistakes should be corrected. If anything improves the core concept of data, it must be implemented. With that, you are ready to go live for the user you are targeting.
Basic Types of Charts:-
Due to the increase in the amount and complexity of data and the need for data analysis to get actionable insights from it, the number of charts provided by different plugins is increasing day by day. Let’s discuss the basic types of charts.
Line Chart
Whenever we have to depict the change of data concerning time, a line chart comes in handy. Each point is separately marked as per time frames and all are connected via a line. Basically, the x-axis depicts the quantity that is changing and the y-axis represents the quantity concerning which the quantity is changing.
It visualizes the numeric, category, date-time, or logarithmic axis of a graph in a chart. We can also represent exponential data through this chart.
Bar chart
A bar chart follows almost the same trend in terms of axial representation. The difference is, that instead of points, bars or rectangles of uniform width are made from the x-axis up to the height proportional to the data to be represented.
The main feature includes that it can also be used to group the data and compare the trends of data change. For example, a bar chart may be used to depict the attendance in each subject or for depicting the developments made by all employees to compare.
Area chart
It also follows the same trend as of line chart. The difference is that the area under the graph is shaded. However, it serves an interestingly important function when many different charts, are merged over one another in different colors.
Making those charts properly translucent, it makes easier to see the changes concerning the time of different quantities.
Column chart
A simple column chart uses vertical bars to display data. Column charts are used to compare values across categories and can be used to show change over some time. In the case of showing change over some time, a column chart can also be displayed as a line chart.
In a column chart, the Y axis is typically used to display a discrete value while the X axis is used to display the category. It’s more or less the same as a bar chart, the difference being it can also be made vertical or horizontal as there is no restriction of the axis.
Pie chart
As the name suggests, it shows a circular statistic graph which mostly serves for representing numerical proportions. The sole purpose being a comparison, it comes in handy when you have to understand the trend in one glance.
The limitation is it only represents the ratio between the quantities and not about the factual quantities unless mentioned. The circular graph is divided into small sectors with varying angles, and the angles are all in proportion to their factual proportions.
Pyramid chart
These charts are used to represent the hierarchical order of different things. The shape is triangular and divided into horizontal sections.
The width of each section determines the ratio between them and the order represents a hierarchy.
Scatter chart
An incredibly powerful form of a chart, it is used when we need to represent the difference and relationship between two variables over time.
Following the same trend of axial distribution, this chart helps to immediately understand a data type, which would rather be impossible in any other type of chart.
Conclusion
The main goal of this article was to demonstrate how to represent or visualize huge or complex data through charts so users easily identify the relationship between data in our flutter app.
Now the challenge is to choose available plugins or libraries for charting in the flutter application. The concept of adding the chart is the same but the data configuration might be a bit different.
I listed some top-rated plugins which easy to implement and load with features.
fl_chart | Flutter Package
This is a temporary and very important message: 💥 FL Chart is a highly customizable Flutter chart library that…pub.dev
syncfusion_flutter_charts | Flutter Package
The Flutter Charts package is a data visualization library written natively in Dart for creating beautiful, animated… pubs.dev
syncfusion_flutter_gauges | Flutter Package
The Flutter Gauges library includes the data visualization widgets Linear Gauge and Radial Gauge (a.k.a. circular…pub.dev
graphic | Flutter Package
The graphic is a grammar of data visualization and Flutter charting library. A Grammar of Graphics: Graphic derives from…pub.dev
flutter_echarts | Flutter Package
A Flutter widget to use Apache ECharts reactively. Note: Since it is based on webview, this library has some…pub.dev
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