Visualizations

Why Altair is Beautifully Flexible

Altair, our visualization library, uses a declarative grammar of graphics - you describe what you want to show, not how to draw it. This means:

• Composable: Mix marks (bars, lines, points), encodings (x, y, color, size), and transformations
• Interactive: Built-in tooltips, pan/zoom, and legend filtering come free
• Consistent: Same patterns work across all chart types
• Themed: Querio applies a beautiful default theme automatically

How to Prompt Effectively for Visualizations

Because Altair is so flexible, specific prompts get better results. Here's what to include:

Key Elements to Specify

• Chart Type: bar, line, area, scatter, heatmap, donut, histogram
• Axes: What goes on x? What goes on y?
• Color: Should categories be distinguished by color?
• Additional encodings: Size? Opacity? Faceting (small multiples)?
• Sorting: Alphabetical? By value? Descending?
• Time handling: Monthly? Quarterly? Specific date format?

What's Possible in Querio

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Chart Gallery

1. Bar Charts

Best for: Comparing values across categories, rankings, top N analysis

Example prompts:

• "Show me total revenue by paper type"
• "What are the top 10 products by sales?"
• "Compare order counts across regions"
• "Create a bar chart of average order value by account manager"

2. Grouped Bar Charts

Best for: Comparing multiple metrics side-by-side, year-over-year comparisons, A/B analysis

Example prompts:

• "Compare 2024 vs 2025 revenue by quarter"
• "Show completed vs cancelled orders by region"
• "Compare average order value and total orders by paper type side by side"
• "Create a grouped bar chart showing Q1-Q4 performance for each product category"

3. Line Charts

Best for: Trends over time, time series analysis, tracking changes

Example prompts:

• "Show me monthly revenue trends for the past year"
• "How has order volume changed over time?"
• "Plot daily sales for the last 30 days"
• "Create a line chart of average order value by week, broken down by shipping mode"

4. Scatter Plots

Best for: Exploring relationships between variables, identifying outliers, multi-dimensional analysis

Example prompts:

• "Is there a relationship between discount percentage and order size?"
• "Plot accounts by revenue vs order count, sized by business size"
• "Show me a scatter plot of days to ship vs customer rating"
• "Create a bubble chart of products by price vs quantity sold, colored by paper type"

5. Stacked Area Charts

Best for: Showing composition over time, part-to-whole trends, cumulative analysis

Example prompts:

• "Show how revenue composition by paper type has changed over time"
• "Create a stacked area chart of orders by status over the last 6 months"
• "Visualize regional revenue share trends"
• "How has the mix of shipping modes evolved month over month?"

6. Heatmaps

Best for: Two-dimensional categorical comparisons, finding patterns across two dimensions, density analysis

Example prompts:

• "Create a heatmap of average order value by region and paper type"
• "Show me order volume by day of week and hour"
• "Which account managers perform best in which regions? Show as a heatmap"
• "Visualize rating distribution by product category and shipping mode"

7. Layered Charts (Combo Charts)

Best for: Showing multiple related metrics together, adding context (targets, averages), combining different perspectives

Example prompts:

• "Show monthly revenue as bars with a trend line overlay"
• "Create a chart with order volume bars and average order value as a line"
• "Plot revenue by month with a horizontal line showing the target"
• "Combine a bar chart of sales with a line showing cumulative total"

8. Faceted Charts (Small Multiples)

Best for: Comparing the same pattern across categories, side-by-side trend comparison, segmented analysis

Example prompts:

• "Show monthly revenue trends, with a separate chart for each region"
• "Create small multiples of order volume by paper type"
• "Compare seasonal patterns across account managers using facets"
• "Show me weekly trends faceted by shipping mode"

9. Donut/Pie Charts

Best for: Part-to-whole relationships, market share, simple composition snapshots

Example prompts:

• "What percentage of revenue comes from each paper type?"
• "Show the breakdown of orders by status as a pie chart"
• "Create a donut chart of revenue share by region"
• "What's the distribution of shipping modes?"

10. Histograms

Best for: Understanding distributions, identifying patterns in continuous data, finding outliers

Example prompts:

• "What's the distribution of order values?"
• "Show me a histogram of days to ship"
• "How are customer ratings distributed?"
• "Create a histogram of discount percentages"

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Advanced Customization

Custom Tooltips

Tooltips aren't just for showing raw values - you can customize them with labels, formatting, and calculated fields!

Example prompts:

• "Create a scatter plot of revenue vs units sold, with detailed tooltips showing product name, rating, and discount"
• "Show me a bubble chart where hovering reveals formatted currency values and percentages"
• "Make a chart with emoji labels in the tooltips"
• "I want tooltips that show multiple metrics with proper number formatting"

Custom Color Scales & Semantic Colors

Use colors that mean something! Red for bad, green for good, or custom gradients that tell a story.

Example prompts:

• "Create a bar chart where high cancellation rates are red and low ones are green"
• "Show a heatmap with a diverging color scale centered on the average"
• "Use traffic light colors to indicate performance levels"
• "Make revenue green and costs red in the same chart"

Text Labels & Annotations

Add labels directly on your charts for extra clarity - no legend hunting required!

Example prompts:

• "Add value labels on top of each bar"
• "Label each point with the manager name instead of using a legend"
• "Show percentages inside each pie slice"
• "Put the exact dollar amounts on the chart"

Calculated Fields & Transforms

Create new metrics on the fly! Ratios, rankings, running totals - all computed in the visualization.

Example prompts:

• "Show revenue per order as a calculated metric"
• "Rank the managers and highlight the top 3"
• "Calculate the running total of revenue"
• "Show each manager's percentage of total revenue"
• "Create a chart with a profit margin calculation"

Customizing Axes & Legends

Fine-tune every visual element - axis labels, legend positioning, tick formatting, and more!

Example prompts:

• "Angle the x-axis labels at 45 degrees"
• "Put the legend at the bottom of the chart"
• "Format the y-axis as currency with no decimals"
• "Remove the axis title and grid lines"
• "Make the legend horizontal"
• "Use dashed grid lines"

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Pro Tips for Better Visualizations

Be Specific About What You Want

Specify Chart Types When You Have a Preference

• "...as a line chart"
• "...using a heatmap"
• "...show this as small multiples"
• "...create a stacked area chart"

Add Context for Richer Visualizations

• "...colored by category"
• "...sized by revenue"
• "...with a reference line at the average"
• "...sorted from highest to lowest"

Request Specific Styling When Needed

• "Use green for revenue and red for costs"
• "Make it a horizontal bar chart"
• "Add data labels to the bars"
• "Show values in millions"

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Creative Possibilities

Altair's flexibility means you can ask for almost anything! Here's the key insight:

The more specific your prompt, the better the result.

Feature Categories You Can Request

Pro Tips for Creative Requests

• Be specific about what you want to highlight - "Color the bars red if above average, green if below"
• Describe the story you want to tell - "Show how each manager contributes to the total"
• Reference the visual style - "Like a Bloomberg terminal chart" or "Clean and minimalist"
• Ask for interactivity by name - "Click to filter" or "Hover to see details"
• Specify number formats - "Show revenue as $X.XM" or "Percentages with 1 decimal"