More than meets the Eye: Color in Qualitative Data Design
In 2015, a photograph of a dress went viral as debate sparked and raged about whether the dress was blue/black or white/gold. Remember that? Here’s the original photo:
What color is the dress?!
Photo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_dress
Here’s the interesting part of this whole story: The dress is actually blue and black, NOT white and gold.
In 2023, a twitter user tweeted an image of the same dress halfway in the sunlight and half in the shade, showing the two variants discussed in the initial internet debate.
Photo: https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/the-dress-what-color-is-this-dress
So why did so many people around the world see the dress in white/gold?
The answer: Our optic nerve.
Color is influenced by how our brain processes light waves and - in the case of the famous dress - how the brain interprets color may also be affected by the light waves that the device the photograph is viewed on may be putting out.
So what is color?
According to Pantone USA, Color is defined as the aspect of things that is caused by differing qualities of light being reflected or emitted by them. To see color, you have to have light. When light shines on an object some colors bounce off the object and others are absorbed by it. Our eyes only see the colors that are bounced off or reflected.
Historically, color theory refers to the body of knowledge describing the behavior of colors, namely in color mixing, color contrast effects, color harmony, color schemes and color symbolism. Color theory dates back at least as far as Aristotle's treatise "On Colors".
The first person to discover the link between color and light was Sir Isaac Newton, when in 1666 he passed a beam of light through a prism. As we have continued to study and learn more about color, humans have learned that there is more to color than what meets the eye. Color can affect how we feel. Color can be symbolic. Color is fluid and changes depending on what other colors it is near and/or the type of light be shone on it. And no one person sees color the same as another.
So why should this matter to qualitative researchers?
Because understanding color psychology is crucial when designing data (or really anything in general). However, to understand color psychology, we must first have a basic understanding of color theory. Starting with…
The Color Wheel!
The color wheel might be one of my absolute favorite examples of qualitative data of all time. In general, color is not considered something that can easily be measured. What’s great about the color wheel is that can make the concept of color easy to grasp and understand.
Look at the color wheel below. What does it tell us?
1) There are three primary colors: Red, Yellow, Blue.
Primary colors are fundamental color and can't be achieved by mixing other colors.
2) There are three secondary colors (made from combining 2 of the 3 primary colors): Violet, Orange, Green.
3) When you combine a Primary color with a Secondary color, you can get 6 Tertiary Colors: Blue-Violet, Blue-Green, Yellow-Green, Yellow-Orange, Red-Orange, Red-Violet
Photo: https://gharpedia.com/blog/understanding-the-color-wheel/
We can not only mix colors to create new colors (i.e. color science), but we can pair colors together in a variety of ways to create a COLOR SCHEME.
Ok, what is color scheme?
Essentially, it is selecting colors to set a specific tone/mood and/or to create a harmonious, aesthetically pleasing composition.
There are many color schemes. The most common are often monochromatic, analogous, complimentary, split complimentary, triadic, and tetradic.
Ok Karen – you may be asking - what do those words even mean? What do these color schemes even look like?
Don’t worry! We’ll go through them one by one and you have this nifty chart below (courtesy of The Spruce) to help guide you.
Photo: https://www.thespruce.com/easy-color-schemes-from-color-wheel-797784
1) Monochromatic: A monochromatic color scheme primarily consists of different shades, tints, and tones of a single color, using variations of that one color to create a harmonious image.
2) Complimentary: Complementary color schemes use colors opposite to each other on the color wheel, such as red and green, yellow and purple, or orange and blue. This scheme creates a vibrant and contrasting effect by making use of the stark differences between these opposing colors.
3) Analogous: An analogous color scheme uses colors that are next to each other on the color wheel and creates a unified look since the colors are closely related and share similar undertones.
4) Triadic: Refers to using three colors evenly spaced apart on the color wheel. When you place a triangle on the color wheel, the three colors that come together at each point produce the triadic color scheme.
5) Split Complimentary: A split-complementary scheme uses a base color and two colors adjacent to its complement on the color wheel.
6) Tetradic: Refers to a combination of four colors, consisting of a base color and three colors that are 90 degrees, 180 degrees, and 270 degrees apart from the base color, respectively
If you take nothing else from this blog post…
…I hope you’ve grasped a basic understanding how to create color schemes.
As researchers working with qualitative data, the color schemes we work with are often limited by the colors our clients have chosen. Understanding the color scheme that clients use for their branding, enables us researchers to mirror the tone of the organization’s brand identity, change the tone of the research if needed, as well as simply create a visually interesting and easy to understand report.
So now that we have a grasp on the fundamentals of color and building color schemes, I want to turn our focus to how researchers working with qualitative data can utilize color psychology.
What is color psychology?
Have I got your attention? As qualitative researchers, we know and love our human psychology/anthropology/ sociology, etc. But are you aware of color psychology?
Have you ever been “green with envy”, “felt blue”, or “seen red”?
According to WebMD, color psychology is the study of the connections between you and color. Color Psychology studies and examines the connection of colors to emotions and behaviors, reveals how color plays a role in mood, and – quite crucially for businesses – informs key decisions such as brand identity, logos, and product packaging.
In a landmark study from the Association for Psychological Science (published in 2020), where emotional associations of colors in 4,598 participants from 30 nations speaking 22 native languages were tested, it was discovered that color-emotion associations are pretty ubiquitous. In fact, these are the most commonly associated emotions from the survey:
Obviously, different colors can have different meanings to different people and groups of people. This just gives us an idea of the most universally common emotions that different colors can evoke. This also does not take into account cultural associations of different colors (i.e. black = death, white = purity, blue = trustworthy, green=environment, etc.) that can also impact the feeling/emotion that a color evokes.
Why should we, as researchers, care about how people relate color to emotion?
Because we can use color psychology – even when we are working with someone else’s chosen color scheme – to engage our stakeholders.
Color as a Storytelling Tool
Here’s the meat and potatoes:
As qualitative researchers armed with a basic understanding of color theory, color themes, and color psychology, we can enhance our qualitative insights by using color to:
1) Enhance Meaning and Clarity: We can assign different colors to different themes/categories of our qualitative data, create visual hierarchies, or even visually represent a spectrum of emotional responses.
2) Evoke Emotional Responses: While we can strategically use color to highlight key insights, we can also use color to evoke specific moods to our audiences/stakeholders, encouraging a deeper - almost subconscious - and experiential connection to your qualitative data.
3) Create Visual Cohesion and Consistency: This is where knowledge of color themes can be incredibly powerful. Once you have decided on a color theme (or are stuck using someone else’s color theme), you can ensure that your data design and visualization has a unified look and feel, without having to rely on default color settings. Consistency in color usage not only improves reporting aesthetics but also helps viewers navigate the data more easily.
4) Guide the Viewer’s Attention and Focus: Speaking of navigating data…smart use of color can help guide your viewers/stakeholders through the narrative of your qualitative data. You can draw their attention to key insights, highlight trends, even have them zero in on the mood/emotions expressed by respondents in your study.
CONCLUSION
Color is a powerful tool to have in your visual design thinking arsenal as a qualitative researcher. Beyond its aesthetic quality, color can be cleverly used to guide data narratives, evoke emotion, and enhance the meaning of qualitative data. Understanding color theory, color themes, and color psychology can empower qualitative researchers to craft visually cohesive data narratives that resonate with stakeholders, have an impact, and encourage action.
References:
"What Is Color? The History and Science of Color." Pantone USA. Pantone, Accessed April 22, 2024. https://www.pantone.com/articles/color-fundamentals/what-is-color
"What Is Color in Art? Color Theory, Examples, Definition." Https://Yourartpath.Com/. Your Art Path, June 14, 2023. https://yourartpath.com/what-is-color-in-art
Nicola, Stephanie , and Poonam Sachdev, MD . "What Is Color Psychology?" WebMD.Com. WebMD, April 27, 2022. https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/what-is-color-psychology
Jonauskaite, Domicele , Ahmad Abu-Akel, Nele Dael, Daniel Oberfeld, and Ahmed M. Abdel-Khalek. "Universal Patterns in Color-Emotion Associations Are Further Shaped by Linguistic and Geographic Proximity." Psychological Science 31, no. 10 (2020): 1245-1260. Accessed April 22, 2024. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797620948810. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/344171453_Universal_Patterns_in_Color-Emotion_Associations_Are_Further_Shaped_by_Linguistic_and_Geographic_Proximity
