Charting confidence interval with a fuzzy line?

[Jordo82]

Hi all,

When building charts, I always like to include confidence intervals so the reader has a sense of how solid the results are. However, I don't think error bars do a great job of visually demonstrating the idea of a confidence interval. It shows the upper and lower range, but doesn't leave the reader with the impression that a result closer to the center of that range is much more likely than something at the outer edge.

My idea is to use a line that's colored using a gradient which is dark in the center of the range, and gradually fades out to the edge of the confidence interval. It would basically look just like a fuzzy line.

I've tried building a fuzzy line using multiple area charts, but with no luck. I'm looking for suggestions on how to attempt this, or any other clever ideas for clearly charting a confidence interval. I'm trying to think outside the box (and whisker).

Thanks!

 

[tusharm]

If you are using Excel 2007 or later, you can achieve what you want with error bars. Format the error bar so that is is thick (5pt or more) and use a gradient that is rectangular and dark in the middle and light towards the edge.

Hi all,

When building charts, I always like to include confidence intervals so the reader has a sense of how solid the results are. However, I don't think error bars do a great job of visually demonstrating the idea of a confidence interval. It shows the upper and lower range, but doesn't leave the reader with the impression that a result closer to the center of that range is much more likely than something at the outer edge.

My idea is to use a line that's colored using a gradient which is dark in the center of the range, and gradually fades out to the edge of the confidence interval. It would basically look just like a fuzzy line.

I've tried building a fuzzy line using multiple area charts, but with no luck. I'm looking for suggestions on how to attempt this, or any other clever ideas for clearly charting a confidence interval. I'm trying to think outside the box (and whisker).

Thanks!