Scatter Graph with Times

[attaknow]

I work for a fire department and I am trying to create graph which shows response times to a city. The data that I have is the date, response time in seconds and response time in minutes. I would like the date at the bottom and five minute increments on the left with a continuous line showing the graphed response times throughout the month.

I have gotten the dates at the bottom. At the Axis options for the time on the left I have put the following:

Bounds: Minimum - 0.000694444444444444 (1 minute) Maximum 0.013888889 (which is 1 min * 20minutes)

It shows 11 minutes on the left. Not sure why. I'm sure I have figured this wrong some how.

Additionally, when I select my data of the actual minutes, nothing shows up or I get a flat line at the bottom with some points like it is trying to document the response times.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[Jon Peltier]

Without knowing the goal of your chart, my choice of chart would be a bar chart with the data sorted by response times. Here are two examples:

I would recommend not plotting dates on the vertical axis. Plot dates in the conventional way, horizontally from earlier on the left to later on the right. This is what people understand, and changing it will cause confusion.

In addition, you should think hard before you sort dated values not by date. It's nice that they are sorted, but the dates out of order will also cause confusion.

 

[thisoldman]

I'll agree, I was so caught up with showing a variety of possible charts that I ignored that rule of thumb.

The criticism smarts—I caught almost exactly the same darn thing on a coworker's chart just two weeks ago.

 

[Jon Peltier]

I hope I wasn't too harsh.

 

[thisoldman]

Nah! I bounce.