There are so many ways to visualise data – so how do we
know which one to pick? In the link use the categories across the
top of the page to decide which data relationship is most important
in your story, then look at the different types of chart
within the category to form some initial ideas about what
might work best. This list is a useful starting point for making
informative and meaningful data visualisations.
What they are and what you can do with them
Nominal Pertaining to names; Named categories
Ordinal Numbers assigned to place groups and items in a certain order; Order
Interval Numeric, has no meaningful 0 point
Ratio Like interval data except it does have a meaningful 0 point
Qualitative Non-numeric data
Quantitative Numeric data and quantifiable
Discrete Counted
Continuous Measured
I found this lecture pod useful as I learnt about the types of data there are and what you can do with them. I also learnt how to distinguish these types of data between them all.
Jordan's Data Visualisation Blog 