Allison Kennedy talks color in Power BI:
Being a good data storyteller means using all the tools at your disposal. This includes color. It is important to note that I’m not advocating the use of color only in your reports – you need to ensure that there is another method to discern what’s going on with the data for those in your audience who might be colorblind. But that doesn’t mean we can’t play around with color and use it to add meaning to our reports.
Most people I know would agree that GREEN means ‘Good’ and RED means ‘Bad’. But colors can be very personal. For example, my favorite color is BLUE and it was also the color I chose for my math notebooks throughout school. (Yes, math was my favorite subject – I guess it’s no surprise I ended up in a career that works so much with data.)
In addition to personal meaning of colors, there can also be cultural meanings around individual colors, and that can shape how individuals view a given color. Grace Fussell has one of my favorite articles on the topic.