Why is Color important in Tableau Dashboard Designs?
DashboardWorx
Data analytics consulting. Building an advanced data analytics toolkit for Tableau and PowerBI users.
Colours are a powerful tool for conveying meaning.
Some people have underlying psychological connections. The colour red, for example, is frequently connected with strength, love, and rage. Blue might indicate coolness, calmness, or logic, depending on the situation. Colours are an efficient medium for transmitting meaning.
Diverse tones of a basic shade can convey dramatically different meanings and feelings.
When two or more colours are blended, they can significantly impact one another. They might be complementary or contrast each other.
Colour establishes the tone and conveys a message for the underlying visual display in data visualization. It gives off a distinct vibe and can transform a simple display into an emotional story.
Colour is undoubtedly the most essential of all the design elements of data visualization – headlines, analyses, comparisons, and so on. Colour also communicates to your audience in a variety of ways.
Highlights the most important aspects of your message.
The lack of colour can often draw attention to itself.
To ensure that data points are visible and do not detract from the significant findings, we need to usually keep all contextual data in shades of grey.
Using only one or two colours in this way allows you to link specific critical metrics to specific colours, making it easier for your audience to recognize these signs.
?Improve data visualization by using colours
You just can’t splatter colour everywhere since you can wind up distracting viewers rather than generating the emotions you want. Colour must be used with precision to convey your message.
Using the same colours for everything is dull and uninspiring, but it also causes viewers to become confused. Colour may help you highlight the most critical components of your message and make complex graphs easier to understand.
If you compare two data sets, use contrasting hues like blue and orange to simplify the data and help users grasp the overall picture. Grey can help highlight colours stand out more when used for less critical chart elements.
According to Steve Baldwin, a graphic designer at AssignmentGeek, he employs contrasting colours to draw attention to his data. For example, in a bar graph, if he wishes to highlight a piece of data, he will make it blazing red in a sea of grey.
If viewers can't read the data, use a broad spectrum of colours. Even if you utilize light colours like grey, you want to ensure that users can read your data on their screens. It is essential for text because the smaller it is, the greater the contrast between it and the background must be readable.
Backgrounds should be kept to a minimum of solid colours. Small lines should have a great contrast in hue or brightness to make them stand out. It's essential to test a presentation on a projector before giving it because the colours may appear to be quite different from those on your laptop screen or phone.
If you have variables that you repeat across several data sets, you should utilize the same colours as often as feasible. Viewers are more likely to relate if there is a sense of constancy.
Gradients are a wonderful technique to compare and contrast data while still appearing natural to visitors. Light colours should represent low values, and darker colours should represent high values if a gradient shows a scale from low to high. For the audience, this is natural.
The use of colours that aren't linked can make data more difficult to read. If you're not sure how to use gradients but want to give it a shot, the ColorBrewer palettes are an excellent place to start.
Be careful with colours - choose a few and stick to them
Applying colour to various visualization elements allows you to create a more compelling story that emotionally connects your audience and rapidly attracts their attention.
Colours that are well-chosen shorten the time it takes for your viewers to offer knowledge and help them understand your message more quickly and readily. It takes experience to get it right; therefore, I suggest you experiment with different colour combinations in your visualizations and evaluate whether they effectively express your message.
Sensible colour choice
According to Neil Patel, 52 per cent of the time, poor colour selections and other poor design choices cause users to flee from a website and never return. Colours have the same effect on data visualization; therefore, picking the appropriate ones is crucial. Choosing colours is influenced by various elements, including aesthetics, testing, and science.
You must know who they are, what they care about, and how the colours you choose will affect them. Colour, for example, has distinct meanings in different civilizations.
Derek Morgan, a writer for EssayShark reviews, was startled to learn how yellow is perceived differently in different countries. Yellow is connected with courage in Japan, although it can have vulgar connotations in some sections of China.
Age, race, socioeconomic status, religion, and gender impact colour perception differently. It's crucial to learn about your target audience's cultural associations with each colour.
Certain shades are better suited to specific sectors than others. Colours can sometimes feel off because they don't meet our expectations.
For example, we don't expect to see financial organizations employing bright yellow or orange. We also don't expect to see these shades used by landscaping companies. Financial organizations frequently use the colour blue to convey stability and authority, which are qualities that clients demand from those who handle their money. Green is frequently connected with nature and the environment, but red is excellent for a dating service.
?Choosing what seems beautiful to you isn't enough for effectively using colour. Shades should never be chosen because they are trendy or cool or because they are the colours you always prefer.
It would be best to choose them with care, considering the meaning behind them, your target demographic, and what is appropriate for your business. The importance of choosing the proper colours for your data visualization cannot be underestimated.
Hence, we suggest you try out the tableau dashboard that offers a variety of shades to choose from! Take a close look at your designs to check if they effectively convey your message.