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Guideline Catalog

Browse visualization guideline records with sections, labels, and references.

781 records

Page 23 of 33

  1. Use a bar chart instead of a pie chart for part comparisons

    For part-to-whole comparison, use a common-scale bar chart on quantitative shares to improve judgment fidelity and mitigate angle-based comparison errors for readers making visual estimates.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:empirical
    • chart:bar:use
    • chart:pie-donut:avoid
    • quality:fidelity
    • +2

  2. Use a bar chart instead of a pie chart for ranking part sizes

    For compare tasks, prefer bar charts over pie charts on part-to-whole quantitative categories to improve fidelity and mitigate angle-based ranking mistakes for readers making visual percentage judgments.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • chart:bar:use
    • chart:pie-donut:avoid
    • +3

  3. Use a bar chart instead of a pie chart for subgroup comparisons

    For compare tasks in grouped quantitative displays, use bar charts on subgroup values to improve fidelity and mitigate proportion-reading bias for general audiences.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • chart:bar:use
    • chart:pie-donut:avoid
    • +3

  4. Use a bar chart instead of a pie chart to compare share sizes

    For comparing shares within a single total, use a bar chart instead of a pie chart to improve readability and mitigate hard-to-see small differences for readers.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:heuristic
    • task:compare
    • chart:bar:use
    • chart:pie-donut:avoid
    • +3

  5. Use a bar chart when the task is to compare nearby graphical elements

    For nearby magnitude comparison on aligned values, use a bar chart instead of a line chart to improve readability and mitigate misreading of local differences for readers interpreting standard charts.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • chart:bar:use
    • chart:line:avoid
    • +2

  6. Use a bar graph to show detailed relationships among data points

    For detailed inspection of relationships among quantitative points, prefer a bar chart on ordered quantitative displays to improve insight and mitigate over-smoothing of point-by-point differences for viewers who need specifics.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:empirical
    • task:relate
    • chart:bar:use
    • chart:line:avoid
    • +3

  7. Use a bar or column chart to show the latest poll snapshot

    For comparison at a single timepoint, use a bar chart instead of a line chart on latest poll estimates to improve readability and mitigate unnecessary time framing for readers who need the newest values.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:heuristic
    • task:compare
    • time:timepoint
    • chart:bar:use
    • +3

  8. Use a Cartesian scatterplot for the relationship between two quantitative variables

    For showing the relationship between paired quantitative values, use a Cartesian scatterplot on paired-value data to maximize insight and mitigate relationship-hiding paired-bar displays for readers looking for form and nonlinearity.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:empirical
    • task:relate
    • chart:scatter:use
    • chart:bar:avoid
    • +3

  9. Use a categorical hue scale for categories without intrinsic order

    For comparing unordered groups, use color hues on categorical data to improve fidelity and mitigate false ordering for readers distinguishing categories.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • data:categorical
    • quality:fidelity
    • lever:encoding
    • +1

  10. Use a choropleth for values attached to administrative regions

    For showing geospatial values by administrative region, prefer a choropleth over a symbol map to improve fidelity and mitigate treating region data as exact locations for map readers.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:heuristic
    • chart:choropleth:use
    • chart:map:avoid
    • data:geospatial
    • +2

  11. Use a choropleth map to show regional vote patterns

    For regional comparison across districts, use a choropleth map instead of a bar chart on geospatial vote results to improve insight and mitigate non-spatial summaries for readers who need to see where support is concentrated.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:heuristic
    • task:distribute
    • chart:choropleth:use
    • chart:bar:avoid
    • +3

  12. Use a classed color scale for ordinal data

    For displays of ordinal values, use a classed color scale on charts or maps that encode value with color to improve fidelity and mitigate false intermediate states for readers interpreting ordered categories.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • data:ordinal
    • quality:fidelity
    • lever:encoding

  13. Use a classed color scale to show predefined statistical brackets

    For lookup tasks on quantitative choropleth maps, use a classed color scale to improve insight and mitigate missed threshold membership for readers checking whether areas fall into predefined ranges.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • task:retrieve
    • chart:choropleth
    • data:quantitative
    • +3

  14. Use a classed color scale with few classes when readers need value ranges

    For exact or near-exact lookup on quantitative choropleth maps, use a classed color scale with few classes to improve readability and mitigate uncertain value estimates for readers who cannot rely on interaction.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • task:retrieve
    • chart:choropleth
    • data:quantitative
    • +3

  15. Use a color-encoded field instead of a line chart for aggregate time-range comparison

    For aggregate comparison in ordered time, prefer a color-encoded field over a line chart on single-series temporal displays to improve accuracy and address detail-by-detail reading for viewers making overview judgments.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • time:ordered-time
    • chart:heatmap:use
    • +3

  16. Use a colorblind-safe color palette

    For visual reading of charts that encode information with color, use a colorblind-safe palette on the chart's color encoding to improve accessibility and mitigate indistinguishable color categories for readers with color vision deficiencies.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:accessibility
    • quality:accessibility:use
    • lever:encoding
    • aesthetic:color:use
    • +2

  17. Use a column chart for only a few time points

    For showing ordered-time data with only a few time points, prefer a column chart over a line chart to improve readability and address sparse point-in-time comparisons for general audiences.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:heuristic
    • task:trend
    • time:ordered-time
    • chart:bar:use
    • +3

  18. Use a common denominator for compared risk ratios

    For exact comparison of treatment risk reductions, use a common denominator on numerical risk summaries to improve fidelity and mitigate denominator neglect for audiences with low numeracy.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • quality:fidelity
    • lever:text-annotation
    • +2

  19. Use a continuous color scale for nuanced neighbor comparison

    For overview comparison of nearby regional values, prefer a continuous color scale over discrete steps on a choropleth to improve fidelity and mitigate lost nuance when neighboring values fall into the same class for readers who can use tooltips.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • chart:choropleth
    • quality:fidelity
    • lever:encoding
    • +3

  20. Use a continuous uncertainty encoding for new-study estimates

    For estimating replication uncertainty for a new reported experiment, prefer a continuous encoding on interactive uncertainty displays to improve fidelity and address misestimation from small discrete-outcome views for statistically novice readers.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • scope:single-result
    • lever:encoding
    • operator:uncertainty
    • +2

  21. Use a description task for dense BubbleView studies

    For small-sample crowdsourced importance measurement, use a description task on dense static visuals to improve fidelity and mitigate diffuse click patterns in remote BubbleView studies.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • density:dense
    • quality:fidelity
    • lever:interaction-access

  22. Use a diverging chroma-varying palette for gradient comparison on high-frequency continuous maps

    For gradient comparison on high-spatial-frequency continuous maps, prefer a diverging chroma-varying palette on a color-encoded map to improve judgment accuracy and mitigate missed local gradient differences for viewers comparing spatial change.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • chart:map
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • +2

  23. Use a diverging color gradient when values split around a meaningful midpoint

    For communicating values around a meaningful midpoint, use a diverging color gradient on the chosen chart to improve fidelity and mitigate hidden direction around the center for readers comparing both sides of the middle.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • data:quantitative
    • quality:fidelity
    • lever:encoding
    • +1

  24. Use a diverging color scale to make within-range differences more visible

    For difference reading in quantitative color-encoded charts, use a diverging color scale on data with a midpoint to improve insight and address compressed visual differences within a full-range sequential ramp for readers comparing nearby values.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • task:compare
    • data:quantitative
    • quality:insight
    • +3