R

With cyclical data, a circular format might be useful. Combine that with a smooth density to reduce noise, and you got yourself a plot.

By shifting the baseline to a reference point, you can focus a line chart on relative change, which can improve the visibility of smaller categories.

Here are all the playoff threes he’s made in his playoff career, plus some R code.

Visualize rankings over time instead of absolute values to focus on order instead of the magnitude of change.

For when you want to show the occurrence of events over time.

Also known as a Marimekko diagram, the mosaic plot lets you compare multiple qualitative variables at once. They can be useful, sometimes.

Using color as the visual encoding, show changes over time in two dimensions.

A combination of a bivariate area chart, animation, and a population pyramid, with a sprinkling of detail and annotation.

Also known as ridgeline plots, the method overlaps time series for a 3-D-ish view of the data. While perhaps not the most visually efficient, the allure is undeniable.

Defaults are generalized settings to work with many datasets. This is fine for analysis, but data graphics for presentation benefit from context-specific design.

When you want to focus on the magnitude of differences between low and high values, use visual cues that highlight distance.

Mapping one dot per person, it’s all about putting the pieces together.