contributed articles

DOI: 10.1145/2818993

Business dashboards that overuse or misuse
colors cause cognitive overload for users
who then take longer to make decisions.
BY PALASH BERA

BUSINESS DASHBOARDS HELP users visually identify trends, patterns, and anomalies in order to make effective decisions. 1 Dashboards often use a variety of colors to differentiate and identify objects. 2 Although using colors might improve visualization, overuse or misuse can distract users and adversely affect decision making. This article tests this effect with the help of eye-tracking technology.

The bar charts in Figure 1 reflect sales of office-supply
products. The bars in the left-hand chart are uniform
in color, and the relative height is the only salient
information source. However, the chart
on the right uses a different color for
each bar, and the variation in both
height and color could be perceived as
different information. As a general prin-
ciple, color variation should reflect value
variation. 9 Use of colors can needlessly
attract viewers’ attention, causing them
to search for meaning that is not there. 3

Each dashboard in Figure 2 shows the profits by market size for geographic regions, as well as by products. Although the two dashboards are exactly the same in terms of content, they differ in the way color is used in the bars. The dashboard in the upper panel uses a blue palette that varies from zero saturation (white) to 100% saturation (deep blue), whereas the dashboard in the lower panel uses a palette that starts at 100% saturation (red), decreases to zero saturation in the middle of the scale, and then increases back to 100% saturation but in a green hue.

Contrasting colors attract viewers’ attention. If the contrasting colors are not related to a viewer’s task, then their use creates distraction; for example, the lower panel in Figure 2 uses two contrasting colors—dark red for less profit, dark green for higher profit. A distraction occurs if the task the viewer is performing does not focus on high or low profit; for example, if the task is to identify what product (such as coffee or tea) has the smallest difference in profit between major and small markets, then the task requires focusing on only the bottom part of the lower panel. However, contrasting colors force the viewer to also look at the contrasting areas, including the top part

How Colors

in Business Dashboards Affect Users’ Decision Making

key insights

 

˽ Overuse or misuse of colors in business dashboards can distract users and have adverse effects on decision making.

˽ Studying these effects with eye-tracking technology shows colors do not per se lead to poorer decision performance but rather to longer time to make decisions.

˽ This research thus suggests dashboard developers avoid the indiscriminate use of colors in business dashboards.