Few tools have been as reliable across time as charts have been. Think about it, inventions like the bow lightbulb lose relevance as time passes and we create better alternatives. But charts are going as strong today as they were since they were introduced in the 18th century. And that’s a lot of time on the market.
However, since charts have been with us for so long that does bring the question of how we can improve on them? The good news is that there’s no reason to fix what isn’t broken, and there are already wonderful variations on the traditional column chart. Today we’ll go over the new looks of the classic chart that you won’t be able to find on PowerPoint.
Get the right software for powerful charts
To fully utilize these new charts you’ll need software specialized for it, and our recommended pick is SciChart. The SciChart suite is very robust and counts with countless chart designs well beyond what we mentioned today. But on top of that their software is available for PCs, iOS and Android. This means you’ll be able to make charts anywhere and without issue.
Modern and dynamic designs for the new century.
When it comes to charts in modern times there two key moments that changed them forever: The introduction of PCs, and the introduction of JavaScript. PCs and their accompanying software ensured that anybody could easily make accurate column charts in a matter of minutes. And that’s the way we’ve been dealing with them ever since. However, the JavaScript chart was the one truly ready for the challenges of our current world.
By relying on JavaScript we can make dynamic charts that change their data in real-time. This allows their information to be accurate 24/7 and means they can be used to monitor information and not just portray it. On top of that JavaScript, column charts have another key advantage, and that is their variety of designs.
At the end of the day, column charts are straight forward and that is part of their appeal. Anybody can understand a column chart at a glance and that’s what makes them so useful. However 2D space is limiting on most traditional charts. Scichart is allowing us to build Javascript 3D charts that use depth to add extra rows of columns and redefine how we interact with space without making the result cluttered. This means we can portray much more info now and update it in real-time, something that charts couldn’t do a few years ago.