Microsoft Office Labs: Chart Advisor
When Office 2007 was released, one of the strong pieces of feedback was Excel needs to do a better job guiding users in the proper selection of charts to effectively communicate their data. Though it wasn’t our intent, some of the new formatting options such as glow and legacy 3D charts can be used inappropriately, which obscure the meaning of a chart. Some people felt that these features contributed to creating more “chart junk.” In an effort to improve this situation, we have created a prototype called the Chart Advisor. The Chart Advisor intelligently suggests different chart types based on an analysis of your data in Excel 2007. Depending on the feedback we get on Chart Advisor, we may incorporate this as a native Excel feature in a future release. For a quick tour of Chart Advisor, please check out the video or read the steps below and give it a try.
Background
Chart Advisor was developed by Office Labs which is a new organization within Office that focuses on concept validation and incubation. Over the course of several months, we compiled a set of well defined heuristics such as when to use a line chart versus a column chart. These heuristics were incorporated into an advanced rules engine which scans your data and scores all of the relevant chart types. Top scoring charts are presented for previewing, tweaking, and inserting into your Excel worksheet. The rules used for scoring can be complex and we know that some rules are missing or need fine tuning. Given the breadth of possible chart types and data sets this will probably always be the case - even for a fully functional shipping version of Chart Advisor. To address this, the rules were separated from the rules engine into an XML file which can be modified by you to meet your individual business needs. Other notable features of the Chart Advisor are shown below.
Automatic pivoting to generate more useful charts
Hidden rows and columns are ignored in the spreadsheet
Totals for columns or rows are ignored in the charts so as not to skew the data plotted
Ability to quickly change the data displayed in the chart through the Modify chart pane
Ability to filter data
Intelligent mapping of data to the axes
Scoring of charts to show the best charts first
Chart formatting (legend on/off/location, chart style) is rules-based - e.g., no legend if only one value series
The vision for Chart Advisor was for it to address four different areas of recommendation:
Chart type (e.g., column, line, scatter, etc.)
Formatting (e.g., fill, color, effects, etc.)
Chart element (e.g., legend, trendline, error bars, etc.)
Aggregations and pivots
The Chart Advisor is a proof of concept. As such, it doesn’t address all aspects of our vision just yet. Currently it focuses on providing chart type suggestions and to a more limited extent formatting, chart element, aggregation, and pivot suggestions. However, I’d love to get your feedback on other ways you think the Chart Advisor could add value.
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