Scholarly record

SPATIAL DATA VISUALIZATION: THE APPROPRIATE USE OF COLOURS

Alena Vondrakova, Andrea Hohnova

Abstract

Colours have a unique position among all the principles of map design and visualisation of spatial data. Colours are a part of map language, and they carry the information value. Also, colours are used for creating the hierarchy of map elements by distinguishing the important from the unimportant. Furthermore, colours are a part of the whole graphic design of any visualisation of spatial data. There is a huge number of papers focusing the theoretical basis of colour use in cartography and spatial data visualisation, but widely useful tools for map authors are still missing. The colour is yet a very significant contribution to the cartographic style and perception of maps user. We distinguish between two basic types of colours used in maps: sequential colour schemes for the presentation of quantitative data and colour palettes for the presentation of qualitative data. Many professionals and non-professionals in cartography create a lot of various maps every day with the use of certain representation methods for several elements. Some methods are based on the colour use, so the fact, that colours are often used incorrectly in maps, is a significant problem. One of the frequent mistakes is the use of diverging colour schemes for convergent values, lowering colour intensity or impossibility to distinguish the colours. The contribution is focused on the presentation of the proper use of colours in the spatial data visualisation. There is defined the influence to the map-user perception, linkage to the map styles and there is presented the new tool to proper selection of colours during the map creation. Presented research seeks to explain the appropriate use of colours in spatial data visualisation, focusing the map styles and modern trends in cartographic design. There were created sequential colour schemes and qualitative colour schemes that correspond to cartographic standards and rules, adjusted for people with colour vision deficiency and the indication of suitable colour schemes for particular types of colour vision deficiency. Presented colour schemes are verified by using the on-line questionnaire and eye-tracking technology. All proposed colour schemes are available via on-line web page called Create colour map scales by cartographic styles, made by the first author of this paper. The user of this website can freely use proposed colour schemes for their work. It all aims to widely use presented colour schemes for map creation and hence the number of mistakes in maps will lower.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.5593/sgem2017/23/s11.082

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