Different chart types serve specific purposes in communicating data effectively:

• Bar charts compare values across categories and work best for discrete comparisons such as monthly revenue by product or conversion rates by channel.
• Line charts reveal trends over time and excel at showing continuous data evolution like user growth or engagement metrics.
• Pie charts show how different parts make up a whole, like what percent of total sales came from in-store, online, and third-party channels.
• Heat maps use color intensity to visualize data density like displaying user click patterns on a website or showing peak usage hours.
• Scatter plots help identify relationships between two variables, making them ideal for correlation analysis like examining the connection between feature usage and retention.^[1]