I presented a talk entitled Applications of Color in Tableau Dashboards at the Greater Vancouver Tableau User Group (VanTUG) on 23 Sep 2026. Here are the open learning resources for the presentation, including the YouTube video recording, demo workbook, slide deck, and many more. May these resources help you create a more performative dashboard!
Kevin Wee (me)
Follow my social media accounts, where I passionately share innovative DataViz designs from other practitioners and me. Feel free to ask questions about my presentation content (or discuss any DataViz matters).
Learning Resources
- YouTube video recording (TBD)
- Demo workbook (Tableau Public, 10 use cases, downloadable)
- Slide deck (Figma)
- Colorblindly (Chrome app, free to download)
- Adobe Color Wheel
- Adobe Color Contrast Checker
- Coolors Palette Generator
- Contextual (Color) Legends & Their Applications (downloadable workbook)
- Color Palettes for Tableau (downloadable tps file)
by Jacob Olsufka
Use Cases
- Survey Response Analysis Dashboard (Categorical palette)
- US Higher Ed Institutes w/ Data Analytics Program (Highlighting palette)
- Nutrition Values of Dim Sum Dishes (Multi-hue sequential + highlighting palette)
- Talk Data to Me (Multi-hue sequential + highlighting palettes)
More Reading
- Chart Chat 51: Color in Data Viz with Lisa Charlotte Muth (video)
- A detailed guide to colors in data vis style guides
by Lisa Charlotte Muth, Datawrapper - How we designed the new color palettes in Tableau 10
by Maureen Stone - Building color palettes in your data visualization style guides
by Maxene Graze and Jonathan Schwabish - Economist’s style guide
- Urban Institute’s style guide
- Munsell’s color system (3D)
Thank You
Iโd like to sincerely thank the following people and institutions for the success of my presentation:
- Iris Sun for the talk invitation
- Brian Moore for teaching me how to use the Custom Color Palette Generator function in Tableau Desktop