#SWDchallenge: make a funnel chart
Google image results for the keyword ‘funnel chart’
Funnel charts are used to visualize progressions. For example, you might be interested in communicating how many applicants for a particular job opening have progressed through various stages of the hiring process (100 applications, 50 screens, 5 interviews, 1 hire). Notice how the values decrease at each step. If you visualized this data, it would take the shape of a funnel—big at the top and small at the bottom.
There are plenty of scenarios where you might want to illustrate a progression using a funnel chart (sales conversion pipelines and marketing engagement data, to name a couple).
If you’re considering using a funnel chart, it’s important to keep a few caveats in mind.
They are center-aligned. This makes accurately comparing the length or area of each section difficult to do since the bars don’t share a consistent baseline.
Each stage of the funnel differs in magnitude. While it’s expected that the top of the funnel should be larger than the bottom, what do you do when the top is more than ten times larger? You’ll have difficulty seeing the smaller values.
They aren’t interchangeable with regular bar charts. Funnel charts may look similar to bars, but there needs to be a meaningful progression from category to category in order for it to make sense. Recently I did a video makeover where I remade a funnel chart into a lollipop chart for this very reason..
For those reasons, I typically avoid funnel charts and opt for square area charts as an alternative. Similarly, one of our LinkedIn followers asked the following question: Can someone give me a good example of when a funnel chart is valuable?
I don’t have an immediate answer, but I firmly believe every chart can shine under the right circumstances. Can we, as a community, uncover when a funnel chart is preferred over another chart type? That’s the challenge for this month!
The challenge
Find some data of interest that will lend itself well and create your best funnel chart. I’ll be interested to know whether you believe the funnel chart is a more effective choice over a different chart type.
Share your redesign by June 30th at 5PM PT in the SWD community. If there is any specific feedback or input that you would find helpful, include that detail in your commentary. Take some time to browse others’ submissions and share your input via comments and datapoints over the course of the month.
Related resources
Atlassian’s complete guide to funnel charts
Nir Smilga’s suggested alternatives to funnel charts