Kickstart your chart

Over $2 billion has been raised using the massively successful crowdfunding service, Kickstarter, but not every project has found success. Of the more than 300,000 projects launched on Kickstarter, only a third have made it through the funding process with a positive outcome.

Getting funded on Kickstarter requires meeting or exceeding the project's initial goal, so many organizations spend months looking through past projects in an attempt to discover some trick for finding success.

Based on a database of 4,000 past projects between 2009 to 2017, the two charts below (using Microsoft Excel) shows a count of how many campaigns were successful, failed, canceled, or are currently live.

Let's focus on the labeling, which do you think is more effective to your audience?

The Horizontal Bar Chart:

The Vertical Bar Chart:

Did you tilt your head to the left to read the labels on the bottom on the second image? Can you imagine your audience suddenly tilting their heads as soon as you present this data? That would be a funny sight. The horizontal bar chart on the other hand is a lot easier to read. This chart is especially useful if the category names are long such as those above. The text is written from left to right, as most people read, making the graph more legible for your audience. By the time they get to the data, they already know what it represents. I've also decluttered the chart by removing the border.