By Michael Krantz
Marketing
Databases hold lots of, well, data. But for data to tell a story, you need to add a little bit of color.
That’s why we launched charts, a one-click way to bring any Notion database into rich visual life.
We tried to make our bar, graph, and donut charts as simple and utilitarian as possible. Our designers followed Edward Tufte’s design principle:
“Avoid chartjunk—unnecessary and distracting embellishments that hinder the understanding of data.”
We’ve been having a blast playing around with charts here at Notion. Every year, our researchers survey thousands of Notion users to learn more about why they love, use, and value the tool (and where it falls short). Here are a few highlights from our latest survey in chart form.
In one click we turned a simple database entry into a bar chart that brings user data to life.
Who doesn’t love a donut chart? They’re super easy to create and offer powerful depictions of how each part fits as the percentage of a whole. Plus: donuts > pies.
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You can customize your charts however you’d like. This list includes many categories, so to enhance its readability we chose a simple, monochromatic color scheme of blacks and grays.
You can use donut charts even when a given topic has lots of categories—as here, where we asked respondents what features they’d most like to see us add to Notion.
It certainly is colorful, and yes, survey respondents, we’re listening.👂🏼