This post demonstrates the understanding of different types of graphs and data sets being compared to a benchmark line. By definition, a benchmark is a measure or comparison. The article includes many different graphs demonstrating climate change over the years. This article aims to compare the climate of previous years to the climate of 2023. The two following charts come from the same article on climate change.
The graph above is an example of a line graph. The orange line in this example is the benchmark line. The primary goal of this graph is to compare the climate change cross an entire year to the climate in 2023 which is highlighted.
Similar to the previous graph, this graph conveys a similar message except the creator has used two different benchmark lines instead of one.
Overall a benchmark line can convey a compelling message to a viewer. A benchmark line can allow a viewer with no previous knowledge of a certain topic to be able to follow along with a certain infographic. A viewer having other data to compare something to can help keep an audience engaged for extensive periods of time.
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Hey Bendottn,
I like the use of the benchmark here to improve the visibility of such large data sets with multiple lines. The benchmark option allows for a viewer to only see what is highlighted while also indicating the average.
My question is, have you considered using a data visualization tool such as Tableau to build a similar visualization like this yourself?
I suggest visiting https://www.tableau.com/ and playing with different options and see what you can come up with. In my experience, Tableau can be a one stop shop for various visualizations that are not possible in Excel or PowerPoint.