Guidelines

Use When

• Representing information compared against other information, such as with a point-in-time Return Chart.

• Representing information compared against itself over time, such as with quarterly returns.

Don′t Use When

• Representing trend. Instead, use a Line chart or a Time-Series Line chart.
• Comparing data with a long x-axis labels. Instead, use a Horizontal Bar chart.
• Comparing proportions that total to 100%. Instead, use a Donut chart.

Visual Language

• Never use colors other than those defined in the visualization palette.
• Always use the relevant color orders and meanings from the visualization palette.
• When there is the possibility of negative values within a chart, use vertical grey bands to align bars with their corresponding x-axis labels.

Legend

• At container widths of 600px or less, the legend will move to the top of the chart.
• When the legend is at the top and contains more items than fit in the available space, the full legend is accessible within a Popover triggered by an Icon-Only Button.

• The Popover containing the full legend includes logic to prevent it from overlapping the chart unless there is no space available to the right of, or above, the data visualization.

Responsiveness

• At container sizes of 600px or less, the internal padding between elements tightens.

Editorial

• Use the “Abbreviated” Y-Axis Label ,y1abbreviation, for things like currency abbreviations or other short labels, up to a maximum of 10 characters. Anything longer than that should use the “Full” Y-Axis Label, y1AxisLabel.
• Include single characters, such as a “$”, at the beginning of the maximum Y-axis value. However, a “%” sign after the value should be moved to the “Abbreviated” Y-Axis label, y1abbreviation, to avoid offsetting the alignment of the Y-Axis text.
• Strive for short, succinct axis labels and legend items that clearly describe the data.
• Include the unit or increment in axis labels.

Code Reference

Necessary code documentation can be found in the MBC repository.