What’s Inside

A compact reference mapping question types to effective visual encodings:

Question Type Best Encodings
Comparison Bar charts, dot plots, slope graphs
Distribution Histograms, density plots, box plots
Relationship Scatter plots, connected scatter, bubble charts
Composition Stacked bars, treemaps, waffle charts
Change over time Line charts, area charts, sparklines

Plus guidance on when to break the rules and why.

Cognitive Principle

Information Architecture — The human visual system processes different encodings at different speeds. Position is fastest, then length, then angle, then area. This crib sheet helps you match your question to encodings that leverage fast perception channels.

When to Use

Keep this next to your desk when designing dashboards or exploratory visualizations. Before reaching for your default chart type, check if there’s a better encoding for your specific question.

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