ColorWise

Chapter 9. Common Pitfalls of Color Use in Data Storytelling

In addition to the cultural pitfalls that are mentioned in the last chapter, there are other obstacles and hazards you can encounter when dealing with color in data visualization. In this chapter, we’ll go over some of the common problems that occur when you use data in storytelling as a cautionary tale to keep you from repeating the mistakes of the past.

Encoding Too Much Information or Irrelevant Information

A mistake we’ve talked about in this book is encoding too much information or irrelevant information. Color has its uses, but it is not necessary to use it for everything. Say you want to show how rapidly a specific region of the United States has grown popularity wise in the last 25 years. You could break up a map of the country into its various regions and use a different color on each, except that this would mean at least four to six different colors all on the same graphic, which would really distract your audience and give them way too much to look at.

A more palatable choice would be to highlight the region in question in a bright color and leave the rest of the country gray or in muted tones. You only want to showcase the positive impact of one part of the country, why give attention to the rest as well? There are simply too many different colors and too many that have a lot of similarity to one another. We need to use color to enhance figures and make them easier to read, not to muddle the data ...