Overview
A Gauge Chart, also known as a speedometer chart, is a Grow favorite for tracking your goal data. This articles will provide an overview of how and when to use a Gauge Chart for your data.
Use Cases
Gauge charts are found everywhere in the real world, including cars, machinery, and even on some coffee makers. Their commonality makes it easy for users to immediately understand the data being displayed. The most common use case we see is tracking sales goal data. For example, let’s say you have a goal to sale 10,000 units by the end of the month. The Gauge Chart easily tracks your progress, as each unit is sold, until you hit your desired goal.
While Gauge Charts are a crowd favorite, they do have a couple limitations. The first, Gauge Charts are limited to showing a single data point, in a single time frame. For example, if you wanted to track monthly sales goals, month over month, a Gauge Chart wouldn’t be able to support that. The second, Gauge Charts are unable to show when you have exceeded your goal. The needle on the Gauge maxes out at the 180 degree point. If you would like to see the overage visually represented on your chart, we recommend switching to a Bullet Chart.
Building a Gauge Chart
The most important first step in creating any chart is to have your data prepped and ready to go. For help on doing this see our Working with Data help articles.
When you are ready to start charting, switch the Metric Builder into Chart mode by select the Chart tab on the top of your screen. On the left hand side you will see a drop down menu displaying the current selected chart type, which is, by default, a column chart. Once selected, you will see all of Grow’s chart types along with a visual representation of each. Select the Gauge chart in the Other section.
Once you have your chart selected you are able to select Gauge Value. This is the number you are wanting to track. Once you have that selected you will need to select your Gauge Min and Max values. To do this, select the dropdown menu under the respective titles, and either type in a value for each or select the cells that will create the upper and lower limits of your chart. Most charts start at 0 and end at the desired goal number.
Note: It’s important you don’t select your data series first then select your chart type, as some chart types are not compatible with each other and you may lose your selections.
Now that you have selected your data you can further customize your Gauge chart by selecting Display in the Settings section. We recommend Displaying Number Increment and Displaying Tick Marks on your Gauge Chart for easier viewing.
Best Practices
Display a Number Increments
Displaying Number Increments allows other users viewing your Gauge Chart to quickly understand the chart, and to more easily see the progress towards the max limit.
Exceeding the Goal
Grows Gauge Chart maxes out at the 180 degree mark. For example, if you had a goal to sale 10,000 units this month, but sold 11,000 the Gauge needle wouldn’t continue around the circle, but the total number inside the chart would reflect 11,000.