Today, businesses rely on graphs in order to visualize large amounts of data in a meaningful way.
Most people would agree that graphs are way more appealing than spreadsheets. And that’s not surprising, considering people engage more with visual content. In fact, the human brain can identify images seen for as little as 13 milliseconds!
If you’re using Gravity Forms to collect information on your website, you may be wondering how to extract that data from the database and visualize it using graphs and charts.
In this post, we’ll show you how to create beautiful graphs in Gravity Forms using our powerful GravityCharts add-on. Let’s get started! 👇
Visualizing Data Using Graphs
Some people have gone so far as to call data “the new gold”. And just like gold needs to be extracted first, raw data needs to be processed before its usefulness becomes apparent. Part of that process is making the data easier to read using visuals.
Think about it… When businesses begin collecting more and more data, they eventually need a way to paint a picture of that data so they can interpret it.
Plotting data on a graph helps to give us a clear idea of what the information means. Graphs give data a visual context that make it easier to decipher. Graphs also make the data more natural for the human brain to comprehend and therefore make it easier to spot trends, patterns, and outliers.
Why Are Graphs Important for Data Analysis?
Most companies (whether big or small) that collect data follow a general business intelligence process. Something like this…
- Gathering data (e.g. using Gravity Forms)
- Organizing that data through processing and visualization
- Turning it into meaningful information through analysis
- Making actionable decisions based on identified trends and patterns
As you can see, data visualization is one of the most important steps in the business intelligence process. Data visualization takes the raw data, displays it using graphs, and delivers the data so that meaningful and actionable conclusions can be reached.
Why Create Gravity Forms Graphs to Visualize Your Form Data?
Gravity Forms makes it easy to collect all kinds of data on your site. This includes customer information, support requests, survey responses, and product orders. Graphs allow you to identify trends in the data and extract meaningful insights.
Creating graphs in Gravity Forms allows you to:
- Visualize your survey results
- Analyze the results of your polls
- Create detailed sales reports
- Measure the frequency of event bookings
- And much more!
Now let’s turn our attention to GravityCharts – the best Gravity Forms graphs plugin or WordPress.
How to Create Gravity Forms Graphs Using GravityCharts
If you’re a Gravity Forms user, you would have noticed that there’s no easy way to visualize the data you collect through your forms. That’s why you’ll need an add-on like GravityCharts.
GravityCharts is a powerful WordPress charts plugin that allows you to display your Gravity Forms data using different types of graphs.
Install GravityCharts
Before you can start creating Gravity Forms charts and graphs, you’ll need to install the GravityCharts add-on. If you’re already a GravityKit All Access customer, you can install GravityCharts through the Manage Add-Ons screen in WordPress at no extra charge.
Alternatively, you’ll need to purchase a GravityCharts license from our site, download the plugin file from your Account page and upload it to your website.
After installing GravityCharts, you can create your first chart feed!
Create a New Chart Feed
Start by editing your form in Gravity Forms. You can do this by heading over to the Forms page and clicking the Edit link underneath the form title.
Now hover over Settings at the top of the form editor and click on GravityCharts. This will take you to the GravityCharts feed page. To create a new feed, click the Add New button.
Now you can start constructing your graph, starting with choosing a graph type.
Choose a Graph Type
There are different ways of visualizing data using graphs. The type of graph you choose will depend on the kind of data you collect and how you want to analyze that data.
For example, bar charts are good for visualizing categorical data, while line charts are best for plotting data against time.
GravityCharts support 5 different graph types, allowing you to visualize your data in multiple ways.
After selecting the type of graph you want to use, scroll down and select a data source. The data source is the field from your form with the data you want to visualize.
The ‘Add Condition’ button allows you to add conditional logic filters to ensure the data you display in your graph matches certain criteria.
Finally, scroll down to the Chart Configuration panel where you can customize the look and feel of your chart before putting it live.
Customize Your Graph
In the Chart Configuration panel, you’ll see several dropdown menus with options for altering the look and feel of your chart. Below that is a chart preview that updates in real-time as you make changes.
- Colors – Select a color scheme for your chart by selecting from one of our predefined color palettes.
- Design – Customize the look of your chart (the options here will depend on the type of graph you selected).
- Title & Legend – Add a title and legend to your graph.
- Axis – Hide grid lines and enable auto-scaling.
- Live-updating chart preview.
When you’ve finished customizing the design of your graph, scroll down and click Save Settings. The final step is to embed your new graph on the front end!
Embed Your Gravity Forms Graphs on Pages or Posts
Create a new page by hovering over Pages and clicking Add New (alternatively, you can edit an existing page).
Now click on the ‘+’ icon to open the block picker and select the GravityCharts block. After adding the block to your page, select a form and a chart feed from the dropdown menus on the right under the Block Settings.
When you’re done, save your page and check it out on the front end. You’ll see your new graph displaying the data you’ve collected using Gravity Forms. As you receive new form submissions, your graph will update automatically.
That’s it! Now you can start creating your own Gravity Forms graphs and visualizations.
💡 Pro tip: You can now save your charts as static images! This allows you to include them in Gravity Forms confirmations/notifications, as well as PDFs generated by Gravity PDF.
Get GravityCharts and Create Graphs in Gravity Forms
Graphs allow you to visualize data. This makes it easier to analyze and interpret by giving a visual context to the data that’s easier for the human mind to make sense of.
If you collect data on your website using Gravity Forms, you may need a way to visualize it on the front end.
In this post, we showed you how to create graphs in Gravity Forms using your form data. Using our GravityCharts add-on, you can create beautiful graphs in only a few clicks (no code required!). So, what are you waiting for? Try GravityCharts today!