Catalog

Guideline Catalog

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

781 records

Page 6 of 33

  1. Avoid staggered start times when viewers must track moving points accurately

    For visual tracking during ordered-time transitions, avoid staggered motion pacing on dense dot-based views to prevent tracking errors and mitigate target-distractor swaps for analysts.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:relate
    • time:ordered-time
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • +3

  2. Avoid static supporting data tables

    For low-level data access in chart views with a supporting table, avoid a static table on tabular data to improve accessibility and address inflexible data access for users who need to consume the information in different ways.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:accessibility
    • chart:table
    • data:tabular
    • quality:accessibility
    • +1

  3. Avoid stereotypical pink and blue for gender categories

    For comparisons between gender categories, avoid stereotypical pink-and-blue color encoding on categorical series to prevent stereotype reinforcement and address message conflicts for readers who decode gender from color alone.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • quality:trust:use
    • lever:encoding
    • group-cardinality:binary
    • +3

  4. Avoid stereotypical skin-tone hues for racial categories

    For non-temporal comparison of racial, ethnic, or world-region groups, avoid stereotypical skin-tone category colors on categorical chart and map palettes to prevent disrespectful interpretation and mitigate reinforcement of racial stereotypes for readers of people-focused graphics.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • data:categorical
    • quality:trust
    • lever:encoding
    • +3

  5. Avoid summarizing an uncertain prediction with one textual interval

    For repeated uncertainty decisions with changing stakes, avoid single-interval text on predictive displays to prevent decision quality from depending on one chosen interval and address inflexible risk communication for non-expert users.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • chart:text:avoid
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • lever:text-annotation
    • +2

  6. Avoid thin font weights in chart text

    For labels, annotations, and titles in charts, avoid thin font weights on chart text to improve readability and mitigate faint-looking small text for readers viewing web visualizations.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • quality:readability
    • lever:text-annotation
    • aesthetic:style:avoid
    • +1

  7. Avoid threshold labels during exact numeric association estimation

    For exact association estimation from scatterplots, avoid threshold labels in on-screen instructions to prevent anchoring and mitigate repeated guesses at category cutoffs for viewers entering numeric judgments.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:relate
    • chart:scatter
    • quality:fidelity
    • +3

  8. Avoid truncating the value axis in bar charts

    For magnitude comparison, avoid truncating the value axis on bar charts to prevent message exaggeration and mitigate overstatement of differences for chart readers.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • chart:bar
    • data:quantitative
    • +3

  9. Avoid truncating the y-axis when neutral effect size matters

    For compare or trend judgments, avoid y-axis truncation on quantitative charts to improve fidelity and mitigate exaggerated effect-size judgments for viewers making overview assessments.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • data:quantitative
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • lever:scale-order
    • +2

  10. Avoid very dark colormap regions on white backgrounds

    For comparison tasks on quantitative color scales, avoid very low-luminance colors on white-background charts to improve fidelity and mitigate misjudgment of dark shades for viewers comparing nearby values.

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

  11. Avoid very light point colors when shape differences must be recognized

    For shape recognition, avoid very light point colors on white-background scatterplots to prevent missed shape differences and address low point-to-background contrast for viewers distinguishing categories.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • chart:scatter
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • +3

  12. Balance white space around interval marks

    For visual reading of interval charts, prefer balanced white space in mark spacing and chart padding on interval-based chart layouts to improve accessibility and mitigate thin marks, oversized gaps, and crowded structure for readers interpreting chart structure visually.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:accessibility
    • quality:accessibility
    • lever:layout-structure
    • polish:spacing
    • +1

  13. Break continuous animated explanations into learner-controlled segments

    For fast-paced explanatory viewing, use learner-controlled segmentation on animated explanations to improve insight and mitigate unfinished organizing and integrating for viewers processing conceptually complex material.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • quality:insight
    • lever:interaction-access
    • temporal-pattern:dynamic

  14. Break long color-key labels onto separate lines

    For lookup in categorical color keys, use multi-line label formatting on legends with labels that cannot be shortened to improve readability and mitigate cramped wrapping for readers scanning long category names.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • data:categorical
    • quality:readability
    • lever:text-annotation
    • +3

  15. Break short bars into a few stacked items

    For exact recall of small quantities, use stacked discrete items on bar-like quantitative charts to improve memory fidelity and mitigate loss from relying on a single stretched length for viewers reading values up to about five.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:retrieve
    • chart:bar
    • quality:fidelity
    • +2

  16. Calibrate hue spacing to bar thickness and elongation

    For color-difference reading in static charts, use hue spacing calibrated to bar thickness and elongation on bar charts to improve fidelity and mitigate overly conservative palette choices for viewers reading web-based visualizations.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • chart:bar
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • lever:encoding
    • +2

  17. Calibrate hue spacing to line thickness

    For color-difference reading in static charts, use hue spacing calibrated to line thickness on line charts to improve fidelity and mitigate point-based underuse of available color range for viewers reading web-based visualizations.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • chart:line
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • lever:encoding
    • +2

  18. Calibrate size encodings across different point shapes

    For point-to-point size comparison, prefer calibrated size encodings on scatterplots that use different point shapes to improve fidelity and mitigate apparent-size bias for viewers comparing multivariate points.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compare
    • chart:scatter
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • +3

  19. Change one data dimension at a time between consecutive visualizations

    For linear slideshow-style narrative sequencing, use low-change adjacent transitions on multi-view visualization presentations to improve readability and mitigate cognitively costly slide-to-slide jumps for audiences following a guided presentation.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • task:compose
    • structure:multi-view
    • quality:readability
    • +1

  20. Check text contrast before placing text on colored backgrounds

    For labels or annotations placed on colored areas, use a contrast check on text and background colors to improve accessibility and mitigate unreadable text for viewers reading labels on color fills.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:heuristic
    • quality:accessibility
    • lever:encoding
    • component:label:use
    • +1

  21. Choose a scatterplot over parallel coordinates for general bivariate correlation reading

    For relate tasks on bivariate quantitative data, prefer a scatterplot over parallel coordinates to improve fidelity and address inconsistent correlation reading across positive and negative relationships for broad-use correlation displays.

    • purpose:select
    • basis:empirical
    • task:relate
    • chart:scatter:use
    • chart:parallel:avoid
    • +4

  22. Choose annotations by linguistic relevance to the input article

    For contextual reading over ordered time, use linguistically relevant text annotation on stock line charts to improve insight and address off-topic callouts for readers seeking background around the current article.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • time:ordered-time
    • chart:line
    • lever:text-annotation
    • +3

  23. Choose annotations from visually salient time points

    For explaining visible movement over ordered time, use visual-saliency-based text annotation on stock line charts to improve insight and mitigate callouts that miss peaks, troughs, and sharp changes for readers interpreting company performance.

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

  24. Choose categorical hues with distinct common color names

    For aggregate color comparisons, prefer hue categories with distinct common color names on nominal color encodings to improve fidelity and address confusion between neighboring named hues for readers identifying categories by color.

    • purpose:refine
    • basis:empirical
    • data:categorical
    • quality:fidelity:use
    • lever:encoding
    • +2