Chart anatomy
Explore the bar chart as an example
The structure of a chart or graph consists of various parts, known as chart anatomy. These elements are crucial in comprehending and analyzing the data displayed in the chart. An illustration of a simple chart component with bars is provided below:
Line chart
An illustration of a complex chart called a line chart, which is a type of time series chart variation, is provided below:
Color
Sequential colors
Sequential palettes use a single color in various saturations or in a gradient. Representing continuous data using one color helps viewers quickly grasp that they're looking at increases or decreases in a single metric, such as unemployment or infection rates over time.
Sequential Blue Classed
Sequential Blue Unclassed
Keep your audience in mind. Humans perceive colors with higher contrast or visual weight as more important. Assign the darker colors in your sequence to what you want your audience to perceive as more important and lighter colors to less important values or ranges.
Depending on what you want to communicate, dark values can also be seen as 'bad' when placed in contrast to lighter values. This makes reading your visualization ‘at a glance’ especially easy for an audience.
Categorical colors
Qualitative or categorical palettes have each color distinct from the others. This type of palette is ideal for visualizations displaying categorical values such as status, priority, and department.
Complimentary Palette (more hues fewer shades)
Analogous Palette (fewer hues more shades)
Semantic colors
You may be inclined to use favorite color combinations like traffic light colors: red, yellow and green. These colors have universal meaning and are easy to understand. However, they can also be easy to misinterpret if used badly, so be mindful to use them only if they serve your audience and your communication.
Traffic light colors are also notorious for being hard to read for people with color difficiencies, specifically red-green color blindness (Deuteranopia), which can roughly equate to nearly 12% of your audience. Instead of a semantic palette, consider a sequential scale or attaching meaning to categorical colors to make your dashboard or visualization unique while still telling an effective story.