Elvisha Fernandes

2013014

Group 3

                                                               Bubbles Chart

What is bubbles chart?

- Bubbles chart is a type of chart that displays three dimensions of data. It is a variation chart in which the data points are replaced with bubbles. This facilitates the comparison of entities in terms of their relative positions with respect to each numeric axis and their size as well. It also facilitates the understanding of social, economical, medical and other scientific relationship.

When to use a Bubble Chart?

-Bubble charts are very often used to represent a financial data. when you want to present some specific values in your data more visually you use the bubble chart. it is useful when your worksheet has any of the following types of data:

• Three values per data point: three values are required for each bubble. These values may be in rows and columns int he order of x axis, y axis and the size value.
• Negative values: Bubbles can represent negative values; which are displayed in white color; which are not displayed by default.These negative values can are represented by choice by formatting the data series. 
• Multiple data series: Plotting multiple bubble series is similar to plotting multiple data series in a Scatter chart. While Scatter charts use a single set of x values and multiple sets of y values, Bubble charts use a single set of x values and multiple sets of both y values and size values.

How to create a bubble chart?

Following steps needs to followed for creating a perfect bubble chart

1. select the data. The table should have an x and y co-ordinate and bubble sizes in three columns.
2. insert a bubble chart by going to Insert > Chart > Bubble Chart
3. the chart generated shows that the bubbles are overlapping.
4.  to adjust this overlapping and creating a proper chart, right click on the created chart and select the option 'data select'.
5. remove all the heads mentioned in the columns on the left and right side by selecting the 'Remove' option. then add the required heads or data by clicking the 'Add' button.
6. after selecting the add button, four blanks will be shown, in which the values of each columns needs to entered step by step.
7. once the required cells are selected, select 'OK'
8. Continue the procedure with the remaining data in the same manner.

Where are bubble charts mostly used?

Bubble charts are often used in business to visualize the relationships between projects or investment alternatives in dimensions such as cost, value, and risk. By visualizing project portfolios using bubble charts, you can find clusters of relatively attractive projects in one area of the graph, such as areas of high value, low cost, and/or low risk, and compare them with relatively less attractive projects in a different area of the graph, such as an area of low value, high cost, and/or high risk.

In the bubble chart examples above, the most desirable quadrant is in the upper left (higher profit and lower cost) and the least desirable quadrant is the lower right (high cost and lower profits). Bubbles with larger areas have higher probabilities of success.

How does a bubble chart help in simplifying the given data

Bubbles are usually differentiated by color, pattern, number labels, or a combination of these. Colors are usually adequate for small numbers of bubbles, but subtle differences in colors become difficult to distinguish in larger number of projects. Therefore, numbers corresponding to a chart legend becomes a more useful method of distinguishing bubbles.

Reference

www.wikipedia.org

www.bubblechatpro.com