The Influence of Affectively Congruent Color Assignment in Categorical Map Interpretation
Open Access
- Author:
- Anderson, Cary Leonard
- Graduate Program:
- Geography
- Degree:
- Master of Science
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- July 06, 2018
- Committee Members:
- Anthony C Robinson, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Cynthia Ann Brewer, Committee Member
Alan Maceachren, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Map Design
Emotion
Congruence
Map Context
Cartography
Affective Design - Abstract:
- Cheerful yellow, calming blue: colors often have emotional connotations. Map data contexts, similarly, are often emotive in nature—either inherently (e.g., climate change, mortality maps), or by design, such as in visual storytelling. Recent work in data visualization has shown that small, perceptually-distinct color palettes—such as those used in categorical mapping—often carry significant affective connotations (Bartram et al., 2017). Though significant research has assessed the role of color in map interpretation with regards to visual perception (e.g., Brewer et al., 1997), little is known about how the affective qualities of color interact with those of data context in map design. We define an affectively congruent color scheme as one that shares similar affective qualities with the topic, theme, or data content of the map to which it is applied. Here, we present the results of a crowdsourced study on the influence of affectively congruent versus incongruent color schemes on categorical map interpretation. We report both objective (pattern detection; area comparison) and subjective (affective quality; appropriateness; preference) measures of map-reader response. The results of this work demonstrate that affectively-congruent colors amplify map-topic affect, affective incongruence confuses map readers, and that affective-congruence is particularly preferred by readers when mapping positive data topics. In closing, we propose future research directions for balancing color congruence with other factors such as visual discriminability and offer preliminary design recommendations for synthesizing color and affective context in thematic map design.