The Spider visualization maps multiple series over a polar plane as overlaid polygons or blobs with shared centers. Each axis displays the value of a measure or pivoted measure from the data table and each series will be connected to form the shape. This visualization has a configuration option to plot negative values on a plot with an odd number of axes (measures). Another configuration option controls whether or not the plot is composed of interpolated blobs or sharp polygons. By default, this visualization will plot each series over a single range, but there is an option to allow each axis to be an independent range.

A Spider visualization is particularly valuable for use cases where it’s important to compare multivariate series at the same time. For example, this competitive analysis article has some good content related to digital marketing. This visualization is also used to identify subtle differences in series with presumed similarity, as the Spider Plot makes outliers apparent and the general shape of the polygons can be compared.

The example below compares the polling average of candidates in the 2020 Democratic primary across different US states. The different configuration options for this visualization are also shown, with a stylistic change demonstration.

This visualization accepts either a dimension with at least three measures or at least three measures pivoted by a dimension.