5 Design Tips to Create Beautiful Excel Charts and Graphs in 2023

Business owners are constantly looking for things that can make them stand out in the market. The charts and graphs used by business owners and digital marketers send a message about the nature of a respective brand. This means that the quality of the Excel charts and graphs used in data presentation delivers an extra message that customers use to gauge the professionalism and the value of a given brand. 

It is not a good idea to give terrible visualizations room to creep into your marketing data. Marketing data is an essential resource that delivers a clear picture of the business brand to your target market. When you have data that you intend to display to your target market, you need to ensure that your charts and graphs are perfectly designed and communicate a clear message. 

In most cases, Excel is likely to come up with a preferred default that you can choose to use or use your personal option. The data you display to your target market can either convince them to take the necessary action or destroy your strategies. The secret is to ensure that the data you display is highly convincing to trigger your target market to take the required action. 

If your goal is to use charts and graphs to convince your target market to take a particular action, you need to ensure that you have all the convincing aspects necessary to achieve your goal. When using advanced Excel charts, you should always ensure that you have a proper design that is attractive and actionable in nature. How to visualize data in excel should not be a time taking process, you should use data visualization tools which have excel add-in. 

Before you start creating any chart or graph in Excel, you need to study your target market keenly to understand what they want. The charts and graphs you design should go hand-in-hand with what your target market expects to see from a brand. Ensure that you attain the expectations of your target market and exceed them at some point to gain their trust and loyalty. 

Designing beautiful Excel charts and graphs is not an easy task as it may sound. However, you can achieve your goal provided that you have actionable tips that will guide you throughout the process and make your work easier. This blog post presents design tips that can help you generate beautiful charts and graphs in 2023. Let’s check them out! 

• Eliminate Unnecessary Styling

Even though styling plays a significant role in making your charts and graphs beautiful, it is vital to ensure the styling is not done unnecessarily. Unnecessary styling on your charts and graphs is likely to affect message delivery, distracting your readers from getting the right message. Despite the fact that most Excel charts come when they are pre-styled, ensure that the styles included do not affect the message you are communicating. 

Different styles, such as shadows, rotations, and outlines, are not important in your message delivery. You can choose to eradicate some of these instances and ensure that your charts and graphs are clear enough for your readers to understand. On most occasions, your target audience is likely to focus more on the styles rather than the message itself. Note that the styles are not meant to add anything to the data but only to attract readers. 

However, this does not mean that you should not style your Excel charts and graphs. Only apply relevant styles to your charts and graphs when it is important, and also present them in an orderly manner. 

• Choose the Right Graph or Chart

Before you start working on the best design to use, ensure that you have the right chart or graph that suits your data. When presenting data in a chart, you need to do everything possible to ensure that the data is presented in an optimal way like Flatiron school reviews data. Different types of charts and graphs are used to represent different types of data. This indicates that before choosing a chart type to use, you need to have analyzed your data keenly. 

Charts such as bar graphs and pie charts are used for comparing data categories. A pie chart is used when comparing parts of a whole and how every data segment contributes to the whole data set. Also, a bar graph is used to compare different data sets and how they relate to each other. However, a bar graph is easier to read and translate, thus a popular option used for data comparison. You need to ensure that you have an idea about how every chart type operates. 

The Excel chart or graph you choose to present your data is critical in enhancing message delivery. If you choose the right tool to deliver your message, you will find it easier to communicate to your target audience. 

• Remove All the Background Lines

Excel graphs and charts only give you the freedom to analyze data randomly rather than digging deep into it. When data is presented in the form of charts and graphs, nobody has time to spend their time analyzing it deeply. Charts are made to give a vivid description of your data to save time and enhance message delivery. To ensure that your target audience reads the message, ensure that you eliminate the background lines that are likely to distract their concentration. 

Remember that these lines are not helpful in any way. Once you are done doing the sketching work, and you have the chart complete, the background lines do not have any other work left. All you have to do is to cut the lines from your graphs and charts to help your readers focus on what matters. The primary goal of removing these lines is to ensure that you find it easier to read your data. 

Even though the background lines may seem to be appealing to your readers, the truth is that they are actually distracting them. Ensure that the only thing visible in your chart is the message or the data you want your target audience to read.

• Avoid 3D Effects 

If you are a keen observer, you will realize that 3D effects are mostly overused during data visualization. Even though most people use this design hoping to make their data appear fancy, the reality is that it really affects message delivery. Most people struggle reading data written using 3D effects since the values are twisted. To be on the safe side, ensure that you avoid using 3D effects, in any case, to make your data easier to read. 

Many people fail to understand that 3D effects give readers a skewed sense, making it difficult to understand the data. Since the ultimate goal of using Excel charts and graphs is to tell a story in a few words, avoid the application of 3D effects since they make the story longer. These effects consume a lot of time when traders choose your data over others. 

Keep in mind that customers do not have a lot of time to spend reading skewed numbers. Ensure that your visuals are on point and they communicate a message that anybody can translate. 

• Incorporate Your Brand Colors

Every brand has unique colors that they use in all their publications. When designing Excel charts and graphs, you need to ensure that your brand colors appear in these materials. These colors are made to bring in some professionalism and make the data presentation beautiful and easy for your readers to recognize their origin. Always ensure that your brand colors appear in most of your business materials. 

It is high time that business owners and organization managers avoid choosing colors randomly when they have their definite brand colors. If you want to create an exceptional reputation within your target market, make your brand stand out by using outstanding colors that define who you are. You can choose other additional colors, but always ensure that your primary colors are not missed in your data presentation. 

Bottom Line

Creating beautiful charts and graphs in Excel requires you to have a keen eye for details and creativity. Beautiful visuals are more likely to attract readers and easier to deliver the information you want. However, you should understand your boundaries when it comes to creativity since you are likely to distract readers in the name of beautiful designs. 

The hacks shared in this article are meant to give you a reliable foundation when composing charts and graphs for your data. Once you have basic information on how to maneuver the process, you will find it easier to communicate to your target audience without struggling.