Scatter charts in general are intended to show the relationships among the numeric values in several data series or between some groups of numbers as one series of XY coordinates. A scatter chart uses two-dimensional coordinate system and has one set of numerical values along the vertical axis and another one is spread along the horizontal axis. Those values are combined into single data points. Scatters are usually used for comparing some values in statistics, science, engineering, etc. The specific feature of Scatter charts is an ability to have several points belonging to one value on the horizontal scale.
It’s wise to use Scatter when you need the horizontal axis somehow transformed, e.g. if there are a lot of values among the x-axis spread, or for showing a mathematical function or distribution of events in time.
This chart shows us the distribution of periods in time when system was interrupted. There are two series: Marker (or Scatter) one shows the distribution itself and the Line one represents the average (mean) values. The duration of those interruptions (in minutes) are spread along the x-axis, while the vertical axis holds the durations of periods between those interruptions. There is no legend enabled, but interactivity settings are a bit different from default. Hovering is being made of “radius” type: there is a “hovering” circle of some defined radius that surrounds the cursor, and when you come next to the point you want to hover, all points which are around will be hovered as well. When a point is hovered, its marker becomes bigger and of yellow color in case of Marker series, and the same bigger but in blue in case of Line. Tooltips are enabled; they are shown when a point is hovered. When we hover any point of the Marker series, the tooltip shows the waiting time of an interruption and its duration in minutes. Tooltips of the Line series show “x” and “y” values. Tooltips of both Line and Marker series have the “x”, or the “Interruption duration” value as headers.