48 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
48 lines
2.4 KiB
Markdown
# Chart Selection
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## Task-to-chart mapping
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| Communication task | Preferred forms | Notes |
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|---|---|---|
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| Benchmark comparison | grouped scatter, bar, companion table | use table when exact values matter most |
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| Ablation | grouped comparison, dumbbell, compact table | keep the dimension count small |
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| Calibration / evaluation | calibration, ROC, PR, Bland–Altman | choose what matches the evaluation claim |
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| Distribution | box, violin, raincloud, histogram, density, ECDF, QQ | choose by whether shape or exact quantiles matter |
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| Relationship | scatter, bubble, contour2d, hexbin | use hexbin/contour2d when overplotting is severe |
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| Trend | line, area | line is usually the safer default |
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| Diagnostic effect size | forest plot, volcano | match domain and inference style |
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| Set/composition | UpSet, stacked ratio, donut, radial hierarchy | avoid decorative complexity unless it helps interpretation |
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| Exact benchmark appendix | publication table | default to `pubtab` |
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## Use X instead of Y
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- Use **grouped scatter** or a **table** instead of a dense grouped bar when exact per-group values matter.
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- Use **line** instead of bar for ordered progression over time or scale.
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- Use **UpSet** instead of Venn-style thinking once the set count grows.
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- Use **forest plot** instead of overloaded textual effect summaries.
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- Use **table** instead of radar when precision and comparability matter more than shape.
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- Use **hexbin** or **contour2d** instead of raw scatter when point overlap hides structure.
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- Use **ECDF** when comparing cumulative distributions clearly is more important than showing a smoothed KDE.
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## Anti-patterns
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Avoid:
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- pie/donut for exact quantitative comparison unless the composition story is primary and category count is small,
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- radar for many categories or when axes are not semantically comparable,
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- 3D effects,
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- decorative color ramps without semantic purpose,
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- overly dense legends that repeat axis information,
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- mixed chart types that make the evidence harder to read,
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- turning every result into a figure when a publication table would be cleaner.
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## Selection heuristic
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Ask in order:
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1. What claim is the reader supposed to take away?
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2. Does the reader need pattern perception or exact value lookup?
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3. Are the groups ordered, categorical, repeated, hierarchical, or overlapping?
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4. Is the result single-panel or likely part of a multi-panel figure?
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5. Would a figure-only answer hide important exact values that should live in a table?
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