If you’re handling a complex dataset, you’ll learn a lot by turning it into a few different graphs to see what they show. Trends and patterns will often leap out immediately if plotted in the right way. For example, visualization expert Robert Kosara suggests plotting linear data on a spiral. If there’s a periodic pattern to the data—say, repeating every seven days or every three months—that may be concealed by other fluctuations in a conventional plot but will leap out in a spiral plot.
