[Esip-viz] Research on Color in Data Visualization

[Robert Simmon]

I mentioned last week on the visualization telecon that the rainbow 
palette was one of the most common mistakes in data visualization. Here 
are some references that explain the issue. "Data visualization: the end 
of the rainbow," discusses the basics of color perception and how they 
relate to data visualization (color images are here: 
http://www.research.ibm.com/dx/proceedings/pravda/truevis.htm). "Seeing 
satellite data" describes how non-experts view data visualization. Color 
Brewer describes different color tables for sequential, diverging, and 
qualitative data, along with a selection of appropriate palettes. If 
anyone's interested I have more resources.

Rogowitz, B.E.; Treinish, L.A., (1998, December). Data visualization: 
the end of the rainbow. /Spectrum, IEEE/ , 35, 12, 52-59.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/6.736450

Phipps, M., Rowe, S. (2010, May). Seeing satellite data. /Public 
Understanding of Science/, 19, 3, 311-321.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0963662508098684

Brewer, Cynthia. (2010). Color Brewer. Accessed November 15, 2010.
http://colorbrewer2.org/


-- 
Robert Simmon . NASA Earth Observatory 
<http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/> . (301) 614-6201
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