A Framework for Axis Breaks in Charts

dc.contributor.authorThorsøe, Rasmusen_US
dc.contributor.authorLocher, Peteren_US
dc.contributor.authorRathish, Harithen_US
dc.contributor.authorSchulz, Hans-Jörgen_US
dc.contributor.editorLinsen, Larsen_US
dc.contributor.editorThies, Justusen_US
dc.date.accessioned2024-09-09T05:26:45Z
dc.date.available2024-09-09T05:26:45Z
dc.date.issued2024
dc.description.abstractAxis breaks are used in charts, for example, to reduce whitespace, to accommodate outliers, or to show data at different scales. Proposed in the 1980s, axis breaks have not gotten much attention since then in terms of what characterizes ''good'' breaks, how many of them to introduce, and where to best place them? To answer these questions, we propose a five-step framework that specifies (1) the number of breaks, (2) their position, (3) the scaling of the resulting subaxes, (4) the ''niceness'' of the breaks, and (5) the formatting of the breaks. To apply this framework, we introduce a new metric, called skew, to quantify how unevenly distributed points are along an axis. Skew is then used as a cost function to formulate the search for optimal axis breaks as a clustering problem, which we solve by applying a dynamic k-means algorithm. We apply our framework specifically to Parallel Coordinate Plots and compare our algorithmic solution to established methods like percentile breaks and Jenks natural breaks. An interactive testbed to try our framework as well as its source code are made freely available.en_US
dc.description.sectionheadersInformation Visualization
dc.description.seriesinformationVision, Modeling, and Visualization
dc.identifier.doi10.2312/vmv.20241198
dc.identifier.isbn978-3-03868-247-9
dc.identifier.pages8 pages
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.2312/vmv.20241198
dc.identifier.urihttps://diglib.eg.org/handle/10.2312/vmv20241198
dc.publisherThe Eurographics Associationen_US
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International License
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectCCS Concepts: Human-centered computing → Visualization techniques; Information visualization
dc.subjectHuman centered computing → Visualization techniques
dc.subjectInformation visualization
dc.titleA Framework for Axis Breaks in Chartsen_US
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