How to Serve Up a Perfect Pie Chart in Watershed for L&D Reporting

Let's start with pie chart design basics

Pie charts are designed to show how smaller parts represent proportions of a whole. In other words, a pie chart is ideal for showing how a group is broken down into smaller pieces.

When it comes to learning and development, pie graphs are great for:

• tracking compliance,
• showing popular content, or
• seeing how people answer an assessment question.

Ready to dish up some L&D data in Watershed?

The next time you're craving some pie, keep these pointers in mind:

• These charts work best for larger values (e.g. 20% or greater), as smaller percentages—or slices—may be difficult to distinguish.
• Pie graphs are meant to convey information in a simple, visual way, so limit charts to about five categories, or slices. Fewer slices means information will be easier to view and comprehend. And keep labels short so they’re easy to read. (TIP: When trying to show a large number of categories, try a bar chart.)
• Use colors that easily differentiate between slices. Your pallet should include colors that work well together, but be careful not use colors that are too distracting or similar in shade or hue.
• Remember, each part is separate from one another (i.e., there’s no overlap between categories), which means pie charts shouldn’t be used to compare one piece to another in the same chart. Rather, you should look at the chart as a whole.

Recommended Reading

• What’s a Pie Report?
  Dish up beautiful, new Watershed reports and slice your data however you like.
• Compliance Tracking with Pie Reports
  See how one Watershed client uses Pie Reports for employee compliance tracking and certifications.
• How to Demo Real xAPI Data without Compromising Privacy
  See how Visa uses Rocket League to demo real xAPI data sets in Watershed reports—including Pie Reports—without compromising data privacy.