Conceiving and Reasoning Visualization Design Options - Data Visualization: A Successful Design Process - page 97

If you have more than twelve categories you may need to find ways of combining
classifications to avoid this issue. You'll see this in effect on images such as the many
subway maps around the cities of the world. As more extended lines and routes
emerge, there are fewer remaining distinct color options that will help to emphasize,
indicate, and separate these new markings.
There are also many definitions about the emotional or cultural significances
behind color representation. It is naturally advantageous to exploit universal visual
languages, but only when they are definitely universal! You need to be sensitive
to the potential differing perceptions of color meaning across the regions of world.
For most colors there is contradictory association and so referring to a resource
such as Color Meanings by Culture ( http://www.globalization-group.com/edge/
resources/color-meanings-by-culture ) will represent time well spent.
To bring the data layer to the fore
In addition to the representation of data, we also look to employ color to help create
visual depth and a sense of hierarchy in our designs. In the first chapter, we saw the
demonstration of color and imagery being at fault for the lack of clarity in the diagram
showing the placement and outcome of penalties taken by a selected footballer.
The clutter that can occur between background presentation and the foreground
data representation makes it a real challenge to efficiently establish a sense of visual
hierarchy. The brain and the eyes otherwise have to work especially hard to draw
any insight.
What we are trying to establish is a clear sense of the most important signals brought
to the foreground and the less important contextual or decorative elements pushed
into the background.
We saw this effect successfully demonstrated by our proposed solution for the
Olympics demonstration in the previous chapter. Here, the main focus surrounding
the narrative of China and Germany's transition over time was achieved by
promoting their series of values strongly into the foreground through color. The rest
of the value series for the remaining countries, as well as the chart apparatus, were
relegated subtly into background but were still visible and available for reference.