About charts

 


You can use charts to present or explore your project. Charts can help you answer questions—for example, Which sources are most/least coded at the node Habitat?  or What is the demographic spread of my survey participants?  This topic gets you up and running with charts and provides links to other useful topics.

In this topic


 


Understanding charts

Charts display in Detail View with two tabs:

  • The Chart tab displays the visual representation of your data.

  • The Summary tab displays data values that were used to generate the chart.

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Chart your coding

You can create charts to display:

  • Coding for a source  Shows coding information for a particular source. You can see which nodes are most used to code a source—for example, the source Competing water uses is most coded by the node Economy. You can also see how much coding is done on a source and which users coded the source.

    This video about visualizing analyses in NVivo demonstrates how to chart coding in an interview at 1:59.

  • Coding by attribute value for a source  Shows how a particular source is coded against one or two classified case attributes and their corresponding combinations of attribute values. This can help you see which demographic groups are most/least represented in cases that code a specific source—for example, Interview about Coastal Flooding is least coded by nodes representing males aged over 50.

  • Coding by attribute value for multiple sources  Shows multiple sources as coded against a particular classified case attribute and its set of attribute values. This can help you determine which demographic groups are most/least represented in cases that code a range of sources—for example, Discussion Group 1 is coded mostly at cases representing participants under 40 years old, while Discussion Group 2 is coded mostly at cases representing participants over 50.

  • Coding for a node  Shows how a particular node is used in coding sources. This can help you see which sources are most or least coded at a node—for example, the node Habitat has more coding references from the source Interview with Barbara than from any other source. You can also display the users that did the coding.

  • Coding by attribute value for a node  Shows how a particular node is matched against one or two classified case attributes and their corresponding combinations of attribute values. This can help you determine which demographic group is most coded at a specific node—for example, residents from Riverside have spoken out the most about flood control.

  • Coding by attribute value for multiple nodes  Shows multiple nodes matched against a particular classified case attribute and its set of attribute values. This can help you determine which demographic groups have been coded most or least at a set of nodes—for example, residents from Bayview are most concerned about land reclamation, while residents from Riverside are most concerned about flood control.

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Chart your sources

This feature is available in NVivo Pro and NVivo Plus.

If you have classified your sources, you can create charts to display:

  • Sources by attribute value for an attribute  Shows the number of sources that match each value for a particular attribute. This can help you see the range of journal articles or other source materials in your project—for example, the year of publication.

  • Sources by attribute value for two attributes  Shows the number of sources that match various combinations of two attributes. This can help you see the range of journal articles or other source materials in your project—for example, year of publication and journal.

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Chart your cases

If you have classified your cases, you can create charts to display:

  • Nodes by attribute value for an attribute  Shows the number of cases that match each value for a particular attribute. This can help you see the demographic spread of your survey participants by a single attribute—for example age group.

  • Nodes by attribute value for two attributes  Shows the number of cases that match various combinations of two attributes. This can help you see the demographic spread of your survey participants by two attributes—for example, age group and education

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Types of charts

NVivo provides a range of chart types—the available chart types vary depending on the data you have chosen to view in the chart:

Type Description Example
Bar

Bar charts are useful when comparing quantity or analyzing an increasing/decreasing trend.

Variations on this type of chart include:

  • 3-axes bar chart

  • Stacked bar chart

  • 100% stacked bar chart

  • Grouped bar chart

Column

Column charts are useful when comparing quantity or analyzing an increasing/decreasing trend.

Variations on this type of chart include:

  • 3-axes column chart

  • Stacked column chart

  • 100% stacked column chart

  • Grouped column chart

Pie

Pie charts effectively show the proportion of different parts that make up a whole.

Bubble charts

Bubble charts show varying density of data when comparing combinations of variables.

Heat maps

Heat maps show varying density of data when comparing combinations of variables or matrices.

Radar charts

Radar effectively displays direction or trend when comparing several variables.

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