Creating mood in your SAS Visual Analytics reports

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When used well, color can enhance your data story.

Color can also enhance the overall visual style of a report or dashboard. By understanding the relationships between colors, you can create a persuasive visual style that advances your data story and creates a mood. Below are some examples of the same report using different visualization colors and background colors to create an atmosphere. These reports create this mood by blending different palettes, sometimes using out of the box report themes shipped with SAS Visual Analytics, sometimes using custom hex values.

Creating a mood:

Creating a mood starts with understanding your content and anticipating the type of visual style which best represents what your audience is viewing. For the sake of this demonstration, the content of the report page is kept the same, articulating how various style alterations can create a different atmosphere for your report.

Things to keep in mind:

Don't go overboard with color choices. Creating a mood sometimes starts with a single color, or a very subtle background color choice, as shown in the examples below.
Use simple palettes. The more simple, the better! If you want to create a mood using one single color (similar to the example below using the color purple) use tools online which lighten and darken a hex value. Using a monochromatic palette is both easy on the eyes and creates a very professional look.
Look online! There are several examples of great color combinations which are paired together to create a certain mood. Using these color values, you find online can help create the same effect in your reports.

Take a look at the examples below, included are the color values used to make these reports.

Example One:

This report uses a more contemporary, vibrant color palette.

The color white for the background gives a fresh, clean look.

Example Two:

This report example utilizes a very monochromatic palette while remaining very professional.

The very subtle off white background is just enough to create the mood of this entire report, giving it a very editorial look.

Example Three:

This report uses purple in a very dynamic way, creating an almost cybersecurity mood with the deep tones contrasting with the more vibrant visualizations.

The deeper purple used for the background in this palette allows the more vibrant purple tones to draw attention.

Example Four:

This report example uses a traditional High Contrast color palette, commonly used for low vision users.

The candy colors against the black background keep this report looking very professional and modern.