I am a designer and am trying to plot a set of data over time. For example,
Day1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5
10 53 21 67 38
I am using a normal line chart to plot this, but when there is no data available for a day or two in between (like below, for example) the developers are assuming it to be zero and the plot actually dips down to zero and goes up. I somehow feel this is not correct.
Day1 Day2 Day3 Day4 Day5
10 67 38
When I use MS Excel to plot the above data (with missing values in between), it draws a line from 67 to 38 (Line Chart). If I enter say, 25 in Day2, I see a line from 10 to 25 and then a gap then from 67 to 38.
- Now, my question is, is it correct to simply join the line from 25 (Day2) to 67 (Day3), so that I may get a continuous graph?
I see some designs containing splines instead if straight lines connecting two points. This is visually appealing, but I know splines are used to for data interpolation (correct me if I am wrong) and not in such cases as I have described.
- Can I still plot the known points using a spline? Is this acceptable?
(https://dribbble.com/shots/2062935-File-Dashboard-Free-PSD/attachments/369112)
I am sorry if my questions are lame, because my knowledge in statistics and data visualization is less.