Timeline are the best way to display information over time. The simple linear structure actually makes them ideal for making the complex information interesting, simple to follow as well as digestible. Whereas timelines have been traditionally used for visualizing the historical information, but they can also be used for more! They are useful anytime that you wish to display the series of events, including:
- Communicate project milestones or deliverables
- Show your project evolution
- Outline an origin story of the influential person
- Schedule or plan for the big events
- Organize the work experience in resume
- And more
Tips to Create Your Own Timeline
Are you looking for ways to make your own timeline? What your timeline has to depict? Each timeline must have the title identifying a project or events that it illustrates. You can place the fitting title on the top of your page.
- Make a timeline – Determine what time segment you would like to illustrate. For the projects, check out when work will start and when it should be completed. Make the horizontal bar or line in a center of your page. Place its start & end dates at every end of a line from left – right.
- Missing time – Suppose there is the period of time without any activity, you may skip the segment in a timeline or you can add zigzag line for denoting the time gap.
- Decide the scale of timeline – This is based on the complete period of time depicted, so divide your timeline in equal and reasonable sections by using the small vertical line and label each of them accordingly. For instance, if a timeline covers one year you might want to divide this in months, then a day can be divided in hours, and century in decades.
- Think of visuals – You can use pictures to illustrate the task or event on a timeline. This will add clarity as well as increase visual appeal of the timeline.
- Add events – You can place small points or circles along its line wherever any event happens or task completed. After that attach the vertical line or extend this from a dot up and down that depends on how much crowded your page is, you can write event in the box at an end of a line. Suppose timeline is crowded, you may try using the angled lines or arrows with different lengths instead. The overcrowded timeline might indicate that scale of a timeline is very small.