A bullet graph is a variation of a

bar graph A bar chart or bar graph is a chart or graph that presents categorical variable, categorical data with rectangular bars with heights or lengths proportional to the values that they represent. The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally. A ...

developed by

Stephen Few Stephen or Steven is an English first name. It is particularly significant to Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Acts, was stoned to death; he is widely regarded as the firs ...

. Seemingly inspired by the traditional thermometer charts and

progress bar A progress bar is a graphical control element used to visualize the progression of an extended computer operation, such as a download, file transfer, or installation. Sometimes, the graphic is accompanied by a textual representation of the progre ...

s found in many

dashboard A dashboard (also called dash, instrument panel or IP, or fascia) is a control panel (engineering), control panel set within the central console of a vehicle, boat, or cockpit of an aircraft or spacecraft. Usually located directly ahead of the ...

s, the bullet graph serves as a replacement for dashboard gauges and meters. Bullet graphs were developed to overcome the fundamental issues of gauges and meters: they typically display too little information, require too much space, and are cluttered with useless and distracting decorations. The bullet graph features a single, primary measure (for example, current year-to-date revenue), compares that measure to one or more other measures to enrich its meaning (for example, compared to a target), and displays it in the context of qualitative ranges of performance, such as poor, satisfactory, and good. The qualitative ranges are displayed as varying intensities of a single

hue In color theory, hue is one of the properties (called color appearance parameters) of a color, defined in the CIECAM02 model as "the degree to which a stimulus can be described as similar to or different from stimuli that are described as ...

to make them discernible by those who are color blind and to restrict the use of colors on the dashboard to a minimum. Bullet graphs can be created in

R (programming language) R is a programming language for statistical computing and Data and information visualization, data visualization. It has been widely adopted in the fields of data mining, bioinformatics, data analysis, and data science. The core R language is ...

using the bulletgraph() function developed by Marco Torchiano. Below is an example of R code using the bulletgraph() function to create a black-and-white and colored bullet graph. > # Copy bullet graph functions by M. Torchiano (http://softeng.polito.it/software/R/BulletGraph.R) into R script > par(mfrow=c(2,1), mar=c(2,9,.1,1)) > bulletgraph(x = 270, ref = 260, limits = c(0,200,250,300), name = "Revenue 2024 YTD", subname = "(US$ in millions)", colored = F) > bulletgraph(x = 270, ref = 260, limits = c(0,200,250,300), name = "Revenue 2024 YTD", subname = "(US$ in millions)", colored = T) Bullet graph in R

For each example: * The thick, horizontal center line represents the actual value. * The think, black vertical line represents a target value. * The colored or grey scale bands represent ranges, such as poor, average, and good. Bullet graphs may be horizontal or vertical and may be stacked to allow comparisons of several measures at once. More information about bullet graphs can be found in the book ''Information Dashboard Design'' by Stephen Few.Few, Stephen. Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data, 2006. {{ISBN, 0-596-10016-7

References

External links

Perceptual Edge
- Stephen Few's consultancy
The Bullet Graph design specification

IBCS Evaluation of Bullet Graphs
Infographics