Thirteenth Thing: Visualising Data

Visualising information with colour can help our target audience make sense of research data or information. Colour can draw attention to key details and encode dimensions of the data. The great thing about using visual channels to communicate research is that we can reach diverse audiences, especially when designed to cross language or vocabulary barriers – Amanda Belton and Usha Nattala take you through how to visualise your research in today’s Thing.

Different ways of visualising research with colour

One simple step can be to create a colour dictionary for your graphs, infographics, maps and conceptual model diagrams. Rachel Diprose and team used colour encoding for the themes in their case studies and these colours were consistent across the research website and their other publications. If you have an image already that fits with your intent, Adobe’s online tool will give you an appealing colour palette that you can screenshot or download. A screenshot is simple and if your favourite design tool has an ‘eyedropper’ function you can use it to ensure the colours are consistent across your figures. Keeping to a consistent colour palette is more than aesthetics, it builds a mental map in our audiences’ minds that helps find information when scanning so viewers can fit new information into an existing mental model, reducing the cognitive load.