Here is another simple tip for creating infographic-style data visualisation. If you are looking for an alternative to pie-charts, try a 10x10 grid. Also known as a 'waffle chart'. It’s an easy approach to percentages that’s easier for readers to gauge by eye than the angles in a pie wedge.

There’s nothing complicated about creating this. It is just a table, and you fill the cells with colour to match your number. Then enter the percentage and any description text that needs to go with it.

You can arrange it in various ways:

You can also use multiple colours if you have different categories to show:

To save you time, here is a template you can download with a few different pre-built grids for you to copy. Just be careful if you re-size them: keep the small square cells square - that is, set their width and height to the same size.

Take it further

If you are looking for something other than squares, here are two suggestions. You can use the gradient tip in this article to fill the squares with circles. Or use an icon as the fill instead, especially if what you are representing is something tangible, like people.

Both of these are included in the download.