Bubble chart race
Packed circles sized by value, with logo and value inside each. For magnitude comparisons across five to twenty entities.
When to use it
Bubbles are area-proportional: a value twice as large draws a bubble twice the area. They re-pack as values change, so the whole cluster breathes over time.
Best for five to twenty entities where relative size is the story and precise rank is not. If viewers need to know exactly who is third, a bar race communicates that far better — reading rank from a packed circle layout is genuinely hard.
Each bubble can carry a logo, value, and name inside it, which makes them self-labelling in a way pies are not.
Sizing and packing
In the Chart panel, Visible Item Count caps the bubbles and Show Items filters which qualify.
Minimum Bubble Radius is the important one. Without a floor, a small value draws a dot too small to hold its label, and the chart looks broken rather than accurate. Raising the minimum keeps every bubble legible at the cost of strict proportionality.
Space Between Bubbles loosens or tightens the packing.
Styling and images
The Bubble panel carries Bubble Opacity, Bubble Border Width, and Bubble Border Color. A visible border helps when adjacent bubbles share similar colours.
The Image panel has a single control, Image Size (of Bubble), expressed relative to the circle — so logos scale with their bubble instead of staying a fixed size as values change.
Values
The Value panel is the familiar set — animation, prefix and postfix, decimals, multiplier, format — with one difference worth noting: it exposes Max Value Font Size rather than a fixed size, because text has to fit inside a circle whose size changes over time.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do small bubbles look larger than their values suggest?
Minimum Bubble Radius sets a floor, so the smallest bubbles are drawn larger than strict proportionality would allow. That is a deliberate trade for legibility — lower it if exact proportionality matters more than readable labels.
Can viewers tell the ranking from a bubble chart?
Only roughly. Area is good for 'much bigger' and poor for 'slightly bigger'. If rank is the point, use a bar race.
How many bubbles is too many?
Past about twenty the individual circles get too small to carry a logo and value. A treemap handles longer lists better.
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