Dual Axis [BIME TIP]

Posted by kirsty on Apr 4, 2011 in Bime Tips, Blog | 6 comments

Bar, Column, Line and Area charts support dual axes. So you can display two quantitative scales on a single axis (either X or Y).

As Stephen Few pointed out:

A graph should only include a dual-scaled axis [...] when needed to compare data sets that have different units of measure

Dual axes are used to analyse several measures at the same time regardless of their units. In previous versions of Bime you had color and size encoding and Log Axes. Now with the dual axis it’s way better.

How do you create a chart with dual axes?

Drag and drop your elements onto columns and measures. Make sure one of the compatible visualizations is chosen from the drop down list.

You can see the dual axis option available under options. Drag and drop the second measure you want to analyze on the same chart.

This will create a separate axis on your visualization. You can then change the appearance of the second axis if you wish, by using the menu:

Here I changed the color so it is more clear for the viewer as to which measure is related to which axis. When creating your dual axis chart, the second axis will always display the measure on dual axis (i.e. the right-hand axis in column, area and line charts, and the bottom axis in bar charts).

To read other Bime tips, click here!