Catalog

Guideline Catalog

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

781 records

Page 4 of 33

  1. Animate the transition between paired series for biggest-delta comparison

    For item-to-item comparison of change between two matched series during brief inspection, use an animated transition in a single chart to improve fidelity and mitigate missed large changes for rapid visual judgments.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • lever:interaction-access
    • +2

  2. Annotate forecast and inference boundaries explicitly

    For explanatory narrative visualization that includes forecasts or inferential limits, use text annotation on chart regions or captions to improve trust and mitigate overconfident reading for readers interpreting uncertain values.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • quality:trust:use
    • lever:text-annotation
    • operator:uncertainty
    • +2

  3. Annotate function graphs with the structural cue needed for exploration

    For relate tasks on non-temporal quantitative function graphs, use text annotation on line charts to improve insight and mitigate unguided trial-and-error exploration for users lacking the key graph-to-expression relation.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:relate
    • chart:line
    • data:quantitative
    • +4

  4. Annotate key observations directly on the view

    For narrative explanation of dense charts or maps, use direct annotations on the current view to maximize insight and address missed comparisons for readers who are unlikely to infer the main pattern on their own.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • density:dense
    • quality:insight:use
    • lever:text-annotation
    • +2

  5. Annotate poll trend charts with relevant events

    For explanation over ordered time, use event annotations on poll trend charts to improve insight and address unexplained rises or declines for readers following a campaign.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • task:trend
    • time:ordered-time
    • chart:line
    • +3

  6. Annotate representative tracks with size and intensity

    For risk judgments from uncertain geospatial paths over ordered time, use size and intensity annotations on representative track displays to improve fidelity and mitigate overfocus on the center path for viewers with low domain knowledge.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • time:ordered-time
    • data:geospatial
    • measure:multi
    • +3

  7. Annotate the direction of time on connected scatterplots

    For trend communication in ordered-time paired series, use explicit time-direction annotation on connected scatterplots to prevent ambiguous sequence reading and mitigate backward interpretations for novice readers.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • time:ordered-time
    • chart:scatter
    • quality:fidelity
    • +3

  8. Annotate the point or range that needs extra explanation

    For explanatory charts, use annotations on the specific point or range that supports the claim to improve insight and mitigate unexplained changes for readers when the chart alone cannot answer why.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • quality:insight:use
    • lever:text-annotation
    • communication:context
    • +2

  9. Apply the correct minimum contrast threshold to each chart element

    For visual reading of charts, use element-specific contrast thresholds on chart text and geometries against adjacent backgrounds to improve accessibility and mitigate low-contrast reading failures for viewers with low vision.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:accessibility
    • quality:accessibility
    • lever:encoding
    • channel:color-lightness:use
    • +2

  10. Arrange connected-scatterplot axes so time flows left to right

    For trend communication in ordered-time paired series, use left-to-right axis ordering on connected scatterplots to improve readability and mitigate time-reversal mistakes for novice readers.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:trend
    • time:ordered-time
    • chart:scatter
    • +3

  11. Arrange dense categorical color keys in grids or groups

    For lookup in dense categorical color keys, use a grid or grouped layout on legends with many or long category labels to improve readability and mitigate overwhelming item runs for readers scanning the visualization.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • data:categorical
    • quality:readability
    • lever:layout-structure
    • +3

  12. Arrange highlighted figures as a contiguous block for fast proportion reading

    For first-glance part-whole reading under brief viewing, prefer contiguous block arrangement on icon-array graphics to improve fidelity and mitigate overestimation and highly variable estimates for mixed-numeracy public audiences.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:retrieve
    • scope:single-result
    • operator:part-whole
    • +3

  13. Arrange related marks together and give them a shared visual identity

    For grouped comparison tasks, use layout structure and shared color on grouped charts to improve readability and mitigate hard-to-see group membership for readers scanning many categories.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • scope:grouped-result
    • quality:readability:use
    • +3

  14. Arrange sequential panels in a single row

    For relate tasks in multi-measure temporal panels, use a single-row layout on small-multiple line charts to improve sequential readability and mitigate unclear reading order for readers being guided through a deliberate story.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • task:relate
    • chart:line
    • structure:small-multiples
    • +3

  15. Assign a closed shape to the focal class in cluttered scatterplots

    For target-focused reading in dense single-view scatterplots, prefer closed-shape symbols for the focal category on heterogeneous plots to improve speed and accuracy and mitigate missed or delayed target discrimination for viewers tracking one class among distractors.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • chart:scatter
    • data:categorical
    • density:dense
    • +3

  16. Assign categorical symbols so perceptual differences match group differences

    For cluster-oriented reading of categorical group relations, use distance-preserving shape or color assignments on categorical encodings to improve fidelity and mitigate arbitrary similarity cues for viewers interpreting how groups relate.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:cluster
    • data:categorical
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • +2

  17. Assign discrete encodings to preserve data-space distances

    For grouped categorical encoding with known pairwise relations, use perceptual-distance-preserving assignment on discrete color or shape palettes to improve fidelity and mitigate arbitrary category mapping for viewers relating groups.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:relate
    • scope:grouped-result
    • quality:fidelity
    • +1

  18. Assign semantically resonant hues to categorical values

    For repeated category comparison tasks, prefer semantically-resonant hue assignments on bar charts with color-coded categories to improve readability and mitigate slower identification from default ordered palettes for readers doing quick chart readouts.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • chart:bar
    • quality:readability
    • +3

  19. Assign the higher-contrast color to the group you need to bring back into focus

    For binary gender comparisons with unequal group prominence, use higher-contrast color assignment on paired series to improve readability and mitigate the dominant group's visual advantage for readers scanning the chart.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • task:compare
    • quality:readability:use
    • lever:encoding
    • +3

  20. Assign the most important measure to the most accurate channel

    For multi-measure quantitative displays, prefer higher-accuracy encodings on the most important measures to improve fidelity and mitigate channel-allocation mistakes for viewers reading prioritized information.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • data:quantitative
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • lever:encoding
    • +3

  21. Avoid a diverging colormap when readers must compare values across the midpoint

    For comparison tasks that judge closeness on ordered quantitative color scales, avoid a diverging colormap on scalar color encodings to improve fidelity and mitigate false grouping across the neutral midpoint for viewers reading relative distance.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • data:quantitative
    • quality:fidelity
    • +3

  22. Avoid animated individual draws for high-variance mean estimation

    For exact mean retrieval on a single uncertain quantitative variable, avoid animated individual draws on univariate uncertainty displays to improve mean-estimate fidelity and mitigate integration error for readers judging high-variance distributions.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:retrieve
    • quality:fidelity
    • lever:interaction-access
    • +4

  23. Avoid area-size encoding for negative values

    For quantitative reading with signed values, avoid area encoding on charts with sized marks to improve fidelity and mitigate larger-means-more misreadings for readers.

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

  24. Avoid aspect-ratio distortion in line charts

    For trend reading over ordered time, avoid aspect-ratio distortion on line charts to prevent message exaggeration or understatement and mitigate misreading of rate of change for chart readers.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:trend
    • time:ordered-time
    • chart:line
    • +2