Shape It Up: An Empirically Grounded Approach for Designing Shape Palettes

TL;DR

This paper empirically evaluates 39 shapes for use in multi-class scatterplot palettes, developing a model and tool to optimize shape selection based on perceptual efficiency and task performance.

Contribution

It introduces a data-driven model and design tool for selecting effective shape palettes in visualizations, addressing the lack of general guidelines and the complexity of shape perception.

Findings

Shape effectiveness varies significantly across pairs.

Certain shapes improve perceptual accuracy and efficiency.

Classical shape features do not predict perceptual performance.

Abstract

Shape is commonly used to distinguish between categories in multi-class scatterplots. However, existing guidelines for choosing effective shape palettes rely largely on intuition and do not consider how these needs may change as the number of categories increases. Although shapes can be a finite number compared to colors, they can not be represented by a numerical space, making it difficult to propose a general guideline for shape choices or shed light on the design heuristics of designer-crafted shape palettes. This paper presents a series of four experiments evaluating the efficiency of 39 shapes across three tasks -- relative mean judgment tasks, expert choices, and data correlation estimation. Given how complex and tangled results are, rather than relying on conventional features for modeling, we built a model and introduced a corresponding design tool that offers recommendations for shape encodings. The perceptual effectiveness of shapes significantly varies across specific pairs, and certain shapes may enhance perceptual efficiency and accuracy. However, how performance varies does not map well to classical features of shape such as angles, fill, or convex hull. We developed a model based on pairwise relations between shapes measured in our experiments and the number of shapes required to intelligently recommend shape palettes for a given design. This tool provides designers with agency over shape selection while incorporating empirical elements of perceptual performance captured in our study. Our model advances the understanding of shape perception in visualization contexts and provides practical design guidelines for advanced shape usage in visualization design that optimize perceptual efficiency.