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Ability to change KPI colors to accomodate colorblindness

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Meagan on 23 Apr 2016 05:01:08

Currently the KPI visual shows red/green with the same color intensity. These colors are the worst choices for those who are colorblind, since red and green colorblindness is the most common. It would be great to be able to change the color or at least the color intensity so it is easier to identify red and green when you have a colorblind audience.

Administrator on 26 Aug 2016 00:07:09

With the August release of Power BI Desktop, you can now control the colors in your KPI visual. To learn more, check out our latest blog post: https://powerbi.microsoft.com/en-us/blog/power-bi-desktop-august-feature-summary/#kpi

Comments (7)
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Roy Gal on 05 Jul 2020 22:25:30

RE: Ability to change KPI colors to accomodate colorblindness

Hi Meagan,
Nice to meet you.
I am very happy to hear that you are interested in Power BI’s KPI.
As Nick Caldwell and Miljan Braticevic have commented before, accessibility is very important to Microsoft and we are working hard on features to enhance it.
As for Power BI’s KPI, we are prioritizing an option to allow users to define the “good” and “not good” colors of KPI’s when creating them.
This feature is high up in our backlog and we expect it to be available in the near future – stay tuned to Power BI’s release blogs to be informed.

As for all accessibility features – Microsoft is placing a great deal of effort in creating accessibility tools to support all of our customer’s needs.
I would recommend considering using Windows 10 accessibility features – that allow, amongst other things, high contrast modes to allow easier differentiation between colors.
You can read more about Windows accessibility features (https://www.microsoft.com/enable/products/windows10/)
These settings will change the way your browser, Power BI in general and KPIs specifically are viewed and might help with this issue.
Mobile platforms also allow similar capabilities.

I hope this address your concerns and I thank you for the feedbacks!
Roy

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Meagan on 05 Jul 2020 22:25:02

RE: Ability to change KPI colors to accomodate colorblindness

I would love to get an update on when this is coming. Maybe the July release? Miljan Braticevic’s comment on my blog post (https://datasavvy.wordpress.com/2016/04/22/colorblind-awareness-and-power-bi-kpis/) seemed to indicate it should be soon, but this idea is still marked as planned, not in progress.

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Tom Day on 05 Jul 2020 22:22:11

RE: Ability to change KPI colors to accomodate colorblindness

Thanks so much! So many sites are unaware that color intensity means everything to those of us (big numbers) with color blindness--and it begins with the tools developers use. And now with Powerbi enabling a huge new cadre of "developers" it's great to hear it's in the queue.

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Scott Stauffer on 05 Jul 2020 22:20:13

RE: Ability to change KPI colors to accomodate colorblindness

'Nick, thanks for recognizing and responding to this idea. Great to hear that is close to the top of the backlog.

I'm just concerned that you are online on a Saturday afternoon! I hope you are enjoying life and family too! ;)

@SQLSocialite

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Scott Stauffer on 05 Jul 2020 22:20:11

RE: Ability to change KPI colors to accomodate colorblindness

I do have colleagues with severe colour blindness and undoubtedly some clients that I am unaware of having some degree of CVD.

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Meagan on 05 Jul 2020 22:20:10

RE: Ability to change KPI colors to accomodate colorblindness

Also, I realize that the KPI boxes have check marks and text to help identify if the state is good or bad, but losing the color cue removes my ability to take advantage of preattentive processing. A colorblind user would have to focus on the small check mark (if it is green) and the text underneath rather than being able to quickly scan and know the status.

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Meagan on 05 Jul 2020 22:20:07

RE: Ability to change KPI colors to accomodate colorblindness

https://youtu.be/4Cms3BA_Am4 This is what the KPI boxes look like to a color blind person.