Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Color: Highly Associative and Emotional
Color is generally connected with mood and emotions, especially hue has strong
effects on associations. This is because experiences of everyday life are connected
to sensory impressions. A popular example are the connotations of red and green:
While red is used to issue a warning, green is assigned a positive semantic (Fischer
2012
). Blue and yellow do not have any comparable effects and are less stimulating
than red and green (Goldstein et al.
2008
). A study on the effects of color schemes
on the estimation of nuisance in maps did not show any effects of blue and green
schemes in contrast to schemes in warm colors (Weninger
2013
). Only vivid
schemes with hue-steps lead to higher estimations.
For online maps, as they are accessible from all over the world, it is advisable to
consider the cultural aspect of color too. The color for mourning, for example, is
black in European countries and white in India.
In psychology effects of color have been studied in depth, nevertheless the
consideration of the emotional and affective components in cartography is a recent
research area. The
Society of British Cartographers
highlighted the importance of
emotion in one of five principles for good map design as early as 1996: “Engage the
emotion to engage the understanding” (Jones
2010
, p. 150). Griffin and McQuoid
(
2012
) and Klettner et al. (
2013
) have elaborated on emotion and Fabrikant
et al. (
2012
) present a framework to study emotional responses on map design,
under consideration of different color schemes. In the proposed framework associ-
ations, connotations, and emotions are seen as crucial aspects of sound map design.
(Situational) Color Vision Deficiencies
Color vision deficiencies (CVDs) and their practical consequences are well known
to the scientific cartographic community. As indicated in
ColorBrewer
not all
schemes are suitable for people with color vision deficiencies. Programs such as
Adobe Illustrator
,
Photoshop
, and
Color Oracle
(Jenny and Kelso
2007
) have a
special proof mode. Nevertheless practical examples show that it is still not general
knowledge that especially red and green should not be used in combination because
4 % of users have difficulties to distinguish these two colors or are not able to do so
at all. Men are much more likely to be affected because of heredity, 8 % have to live
with it (L¨bbe
2012
).
Strictly speaking CVDs are not a perceptual issue but a physiological one,
because they are caused by a misfunction of one cone-type and therefore one of
the three primary colors—red, green, or blue—cannot be perceived leading to
protanopia, deuteranopia, or tritanopia. However, Schumann and M¨ ller (
2000
,
p. 97) claims that deviations from “normal” color vision are quite common and lead
to problems distinguishing colors. Besides people that have been diagnosed with
CVD, inherited or caused by a disease, color vision deficiencies can also occur if
cone photolabile pigments show anomalies which results in a deformed spectral
