Sparked by this tweet:
My guideline:
- Columns to show trends over time. The shape mimics that of a line chart, you don’t need much space for the column labels (usually years, or months)
- Columns for breakdowns. More horizontal space for complicated labels, and a stacked column is a more natural format than stacked bars.
- Bars to rank things. The shape mimics a “top 10” top to bottom list, and you can make more space for labels that usually describe things
In this case: bars are better than columns.