How To Make The Background Black In Tableau

Nathan Adams | Senior Data Visualisation Engineer in London

Working within the Data Visualisation Centre of Excellence at Expedia Group, we are constantly innovating and researching current trends and new ideas. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak at London Tiny Tableau Talks and showcase some of my enquiry. This event is one of many in the thriving visualisation customs and focuses on lightning talks where attendees can choice up summit tips, tricks and best practices.

I saw this equally a keen run a risk to connect with the external visualisation community, to network with others and to share some of my most contempo findings. For this talk I decided to discuss the growing trend of 'nighttime style' in engineering applications such as laptops and mobile phones and explore the benefits, considerations and apply cases inside information visualisation.

This was my first time speaking at an manufacture outcome of this scale and to exist honest I approached it with mixed feelings – strong excitement only also nervousness. I really enjoy that we can participate in such events every bit part of my total-time job at Expedia Group. The most rewarding thing was that the presentation itself went smoothly, which provoked interesting questions and some attendees budgeted me to swoop deeper into the subject matter over drinks.

This was more than just an heady occasion at an external event which I believe is worth sharing, so if yous are interested in learning near night backgrounds and its application in data visualisation, then proceed reading!

What is Dark Mode?

Technology companies such every bit Google, Microsoft and Apple are now allowing their uses to toggle to a dark manner, a adequacy that tin switch electronic devices to a darker screen variation. This trend exploded in 2019 with Whatsapp being the most recent awarding to allow users to toggle.

Night mode isn't nevertheless a new concept and tin be traced back to the times when computers were start congenital. Although not by design or pick, the early personal estimator had a dark groundwork with greenish text. It was only later on technology advanced when users started to encounter light backgrounds on screens.

Despite becoming a trend over various platforms, dark mode has received some scepticism. The claims information technology reduces eye strain and fatigue, helps you sleep at night and keeps you focused have now been questioned by scientists and UX researchers online. Some specialists even advise that dark fashion may potentially be damaging or harmful to your eyes. Subsequently all, studies accept ended that the human brain is hard-wired to favour nighttime images on top of a bright background and can be traced back to pre-historic times, so the claimed benefits of dark groundwork have a right to exist questioned.

Researching this posted an interesting question: "Is there space for nighttime fashion in data visualisations?"

Dark Mode in Data Visualisation

A cardinal argue which criticises the use of dark backgrounds in visualisation is its conflict with one of the core visualisation principles: 'Optimise the data:ink ratio'. This principle is divers as using the least amount of ink possible to display data, and that every bit of ink on the page should take meaning. One could contend that having a nighttime background is a hell of a lot of ink for non so much data! However, I argue that this principle does not utilise to the background ink of a visualisation, only because charts can seamlessly menstruation into the page due to transparency which tin can clearly exist seen in existing examples (see paradigm beneath).

Although the earth of information visualisation and dark backgrounds has non been extensively studied nonetheless, there is some evidence to extrapolate on the topic from existing UX and spider web inquiry.

Low-calorie-free conditions – Dark fashion is often referred to as night manner, then nosotros can safely say (and the enquiry likewise suggests) that in low-low-cal weather a dark background may be a good selection. Some practical examples include hospital monitors, satellite navigation and airline cockpits.

Total-screen – When displaying a visualisation on a total screen or larger display, a dark background can exist a proficient option as information technology fills the entire space. Conversely, if the visualisation is not extended to full screen, the surrounding elements may be distracting to the audience. Furthermore, if the quality of the projector/screen that will display the visual is unknown, then using a night background could be a safer selection.

Storytelling – Information technology can be beneficial to utilise colour when telling a story as this can assist and reinforce psychological connotations and evoke emotions. Red for example, is often associated with both love and anger. This suggests that the choice of background colour can prepare the scene to deliver certain story/message with stronger impact. Additionally, the apply of colour could besides better reflect brand'southward colour pallet or attach to brand guidelines.

Faster decision making(?) – Salesforce conducted a study whereby participants were tested on a serial of graphs and charts on both light and nighttime backgrounds. They discovered that the participants displayed faster decision making and could more than accurately interpret charts in the dark variant. This suggests that dark backgrounds could be benign and efficient for end-user purposes.

All of the above suggest good reasons to use dark background in visualisations of data with business purposes but of course more research needs to exist conducted to confirm these theories.

Allow me think about it!

If you are starting to think almost using dark backgrounds in visualisation, at that place are some considerations to take into account.

Text heavy – If a visualisation has a lot of text, or perchance you are building an infographic with more text than data, and so a nighttime groundwork may not be the best selection. Scientific studies accept concluded that the brain reads text better when exposed to positive polarity (i.e., dark text on light background). Using negative polarity could hinder reading functioning and ultimately strain the reader'south optics.

Pure black – Information technology is important to recognise that most dark modes institute on electronic devices are not actually 100% black. This is because pure black tin be hard to wait at for a long fourth dimension and using a dark grayness or charcoal is easier on the user's eyes. With milder nighttime backgrounds, one could use a wider range of color to express acme and depth equally it is easier to see shadows on greys.

Accessibility – Information technology is always of import to continue accessibility in listen, ensuring the contrast ratio is appropriate between the foreground and the background colour for the user. There is a great online tool past WebAim (https://webaim.org/resource/contrastchecker/) which allows users to but input hex codes and go a clearly calculated contrast ratio compliant with accessibility standards.

Handouts – Although before I mentioned that background doesn't necessarily associate with ink on a page when discussing the information:ink ratio, your printer certainly volition, and will use a lot of it! If you need to print for a coming together, then you best to utilise a low-cal background (or at to the lowest degree print a light version).

So, should we turn the lights out?

That depends! A visualisation expert will examination the weather condition and ask themselves some design questions such as: 'Will my visualisation be printed?'; 'What story am I trying to tell?' and 'Volition it exist displayed on full screen mode?'. Dark backgrounds accept been found to exist both beneficial and harmful, dependent on the delivery conditions.

Allow our users decide? If Android and Apple tree allow their uses to toggle, and so it may exist worth including toggles on visualisations. This way users would be able to switch based to their preference and their conditions. This may ultimately increase the value that visualisation brings to users and change the perception of static dashboard/report to a responsive production or application with true UX value.

Nighttime mode certainly is a trendy fad, but I do believe it has real-life benefits to various utilise cases and users. Nonetheless, aesthetically speaking a dark background with a clever colour pallet can look very sleek, and having the choice based on preferences and needs would be great for the stop users.

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