Charts are powerful analysis tools, which throughout many available series, options and elements help evaluate and measure highly complex data. However, there are cases where less is more, and easily approachable information comes first. In such cases minimalist charts often referred to as Key Performance Indicators, are a great choice. They are built differently; most elements like axes, gridlines, ticks and labels are hidden to make sure that the user receives only the most crucial information. Usually, they consist of a simple trend indicator and a value that summarizes the performance of a company or a certain asset.
To build a minimalist chart, we should start with disabling some extra elements, that are enabled by default:
Axes
Title
Legend
Credits
At this point our chart should look somewhat like this, making a solid foundation for a minimalist chart. Next, we add some information about the data that we want to present. It can be done in multiple ways, for example using Highcharts API, a SVGRenderer tool, annotations or an HTML element. In this case, I make use of Highcharts title and subtitle: https://jsfiddle.net/BlackLabel/7m8jxLa1/
The basic elements of our minimalist chart are ready. Now we can proceed to style. We need to decide if we want to style our chart using available API options, Cascading Style Sheets or something in between. This article is focused more on Highcharts based solutions, but the showcase section includes some HTML/CSS examples.
We start with reducing the chart area and aligning its elements. Then we apply colors to the background and text, along with a bunch of other options, making sure that the chart will look appealing to the user. We also add some more details that can be useful, some finishing touches, and finally, the minimalist chart is ready: https://jsfiddle.net/BlackLabel/18oxt59w/
Showcase: