Charts

Charts is your flexible visualization workspace. When the standard reports don't show exactly the view you want, you can build your own — choosing the chart type, the metric, how it's calculated, what goes on each axis, and which responses it counts — then arrange everything into a board that fits how your team thinks.

The charts workspace

Charts are built per survey. When you open Data → Charts, a second sidebar lists every questionnaire grouped by workspace (searchable by survey or workspace name). Pick a survey and you'll see its board: the charts already built for it, laid out on a 12-column grid, with a shared date filter across the top that updates every chart at once and a Create Chart button beside it.

Charts that came from a template carry a Template label beside their title and a warm outline, so you can tell them apart from the ones you build yourself.

Building a chart

Create Chart (or the edit action on any chart) opens a panel with two parts: the chart's basic layout, and the data that fills it.

Basic layout

Metrics — the data behind the chart

A chart is driven by one or more metrics. Add several to compare or overlay series on the same chart (for example, this year's NPS against last year's), and use Add Metric for each one. Every metric has its own settings:

When the X-Axis is Time, you also pick a time interval: All Time, Year, Month, Week, Day, Weekday, Hour, or 24-Hour (hour of day, ignoring the date). When the X-Axis or the additional dimension is a metadata option, you choose exactly which metadata field it uses.

Filters — narrow what a metric counts

Each metric can carry one or more filters so it only counts the responses you care about (say, a specific store, or ratings of 4 and above). Use Add Filter on the metric; each filter has four parts:

• Filter by — Question, Questionnaire metadata or Responder metadata.
• Field — the specific question or metadata field to test.
• Condition — Equal, Not equal, Greater, Greater or equal, Less, or Less or equal.
• Value — the value to compare against.

Choosing a chart type

The type is just how a chart looks — the same data can be drawn many ways, so pick the one that makes your point read at a glance. Here's what each is best for.

Bars and columns — compare and rank

• Column (vertical bars) — the everyday workhorse for comparing values across a handful of categories, or across a modest run of time periods (month by month). Heights are easy to compare side by side. Best when you have up to a dozen or so categories.
• Bar (horizontal bars) — the same idea turned on its side. Reach for it when your category labels are long (store names, full question text) or when you're building a ranking or leaderboard — bars sort cleanly from top to bottom and the labels stay readable.

Lines and areas — show a trend over time

• Line — the clearest way to show a trend: where a metric is heading and how fast it's moving. It handles many time points gracefully, and you can overlay several lines to compare trends against each other (this year vs last, store vs store). Use it whenever Time is on your X-Axis and direction is the story.
• Area — a line with the space beneath it filled in. Choose it when the size of the value matters as much as its direction — response volume over time, for example — or to show how a total is composed of stacked parts month to month. It feels heavier than a line, so use it when magnitude is the point.

Pie and donut — show parts of a whole

• Pie — shows composition: how a single total splits into its parts (promoters vs passives vs detractors, answer share) at one point in time. It works best with just a few slices — beyond about five, the slices get hard to compare and a bar chart reads better.
• Donut — the same parts-of-a-whole view with a hole in the middle. When the slices are counts, the total shows in the center. Same guidance as pie: keep the slices few.

Number — put one figure front and center

• Number — a single headline figure with no axis, like a scorecard. Perfect for the one number you want people to see first — overall NPS, total responses, this period's response rate — usually sized small and placed at the top of a board. An NPS figure is drawn on its −100 to 100 scale, and a percentage on a 0–100% bar. Give a Number chart several metrics and their figures sit side by side.

Turning a metric into a chart

A metric and a chart type are chosen independently — the metric decides what the chart shows (a question, a calculation, an axis, an optional extra dimension and filters), and the type decides how it's drawn. That means the same metric can appear as a column today and a line tomorrow; switch types freely until the chart reads the way you want.

The shape of your metric is the best guide to which types will suit it:

How to put it to work:

• Start simple. A question, a calculation and Time on the X-Axis as a line is a complete, useful chart. Add an additional dimension or a filter only when you need the extra cut.
• Use a second dimension to create series. Set an additional dimension (a metadata field) and a bar or line chart splits into one series per value — that's how you get "NPS by store, month by month" on a single chart.
• Pull out the headline. When you just want the number — overall CSAT, total responses — make it a separate Number chart and size it small at the top.
• Compare like with like. To weigh two periods or two segments against each other, add a second metric to the same chart so the series sit together.

Reading a chart

Every chart leads with its takeaway. Under the title, a headline states what the chart shows, and a line under that adds detail. The legend sits there too, so you know which colour is which before you read the chart.

The headline depends on the chart's shape:

Headlines come only from the data in your date range. They never compare with an earlier period, and they don't judge whether a value is good or bad: the lowest bar is simply "lowest".

The first line or bar series is drawn in brand blue and the others in softer colours. When each bar is its own metric, the highest bar is blue and the rest are grey. A colour you set on a metric takes priority, unless the metric is split by an additional dimension: its values then need different colours to tell them apart. Line charts fit their axis to the data, so a small change still shows as a change. Bar and column charts always start at zero.

When the X-Axis is Values, each bar, slice or legend entry is named by its answer as your questionnaire defines it (for example "Yes" and "No"). A pie built from several metrics over the same answers adds them together, giving one slice per answer.

On a line or area chart, each metric is its own line, never joined to another metric. A value with nothing beside it, such as an all-time figure or a point between gaps, shows as a dot.

A chart's description appears when you hover over its title.

Managing charts on the board

Hover over a chart to show its ⋯ menu, in the top-right corner. On a touch screen it is always visible.

• Width — switch a chart between ¼, ½ and Full width; the board reflows immediately.
• Edit chart — reopen the panel to change anything about the chart.
• Delete — remove a chart you no longer need.

To reorder, drag a chart by its header to move it around the grid.

When you remove a metric from a chart, you're offered a choice: Hide it (keep it configured but off the chart) or Delete it permanently. Reach for Hide when you might want the series back later.

Template charts and metrics

Some charts and metrics come ready-made as templates. You can recognise a template chart by the Template label beside its title. Template charts and template metrics can't be deleted (the Delete item in the chart's menu says so), but you can still hide a template metric, resize a template chart, and keep them on your board alongside your own.

Date filter and printing

The date filter across the top of the workspace applies to every chart at once — change the range once and the whole board updates together. When you need to share a snapshot, the board is print-friendly, so you can produce a clean copy for a meeting or report.

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