An R package that creates colourblind friendly themes.
| Ian Flores | Sabrina Tse | Hayley Boyce |
|---|
ColourblindR, deployed in March 2019, is a brand new theme package implemented for ggplot2 to optimize graphs into a format interpretable by people with colourblindness. Colourblindness, also known as colour vision deficiency, is a condition that affects individuals how they perceive colours visually. According to colourblindawareness.org, colourblindness affects 1 in every 12 men and 1 in every 200 women globally. The package is inspired by the fact that people without knowledge about this condition don't know how to make their graphs accesible. Our objective is to enhance data visualization by implementing proper colours so that the graphs are perceived correctly by all readers as intended.
Scope
At this stage, ColourblindR will focus on developing settings for the three most prevalent colourblind perspectives - protanopia, deuteranopes and tritanopes (see Appendix for more information on the types of colourblindness).
theme_deutera():- This function implements a theme that makes plots accessible to people with deuteranopia. It modifies the colour of geometric objects (points, lines, etc) and the layout of the plot.
theme_prota()- This function implements a theme that makes plots accessible to people with protanopia. It modifies the colour of geometric objects (points, lines, etc) and the layout of the plot.
theme_trita()- This function implements a theme that makes plots accessible to people with tritanopia. It modifies the colour of geometric objects (points, lines, etc) and the layout of the plot.
To start using ColourblindR, the installation guidelines are as followed:
- Ensure devtools is installed. If not, open the console and input the following to install devtools from CRAN.:
install.packages("devtools")
- Load
devtoolsby inputting the following in the console:
library(devtools)
- Install
ColourblindRpackage by inputting the following into the R console:
devtools::install_github("hfboyce/ColourblindR")
For all functions it is necessary to import both ColourblindR and ggplot2
library(ColourblindR)
library(ggplot2)
Input:
colour_type: either "fill" or "colour" or "color" (both colour/color do the same thing)
Output:
A visualization with a deuteranopia friendly colour palette and theme.
Examples:
ggplot(data=iris, aes(x = Petal.Length)) + geom_density(aes(fill=Species), colour = NA, alpha= .7) + theme_deutera("fill")
ggplot(data=iris, aes(x=Sepal.Length, y=Sepal.Width, color=Species)) + geom_smooth(method="lm", size = 3, se = FALSE) + theme_deutera("colour")
Input:
colour_type: either "fill" or "colour" or "color" (both colour/color do the same thing)
Output:
A visualization with a protanopia friendly colour palette and theme.
Examples:
ggplot(data=iris, aes(x = Sepal.Length, y = Sepal.Width)) + geom_point(aes(color=Species), size =5) + theme_prota("colour")
ggplot(data=iris, aes(x = Sepal.Width)) + geom_histogram(aes(fill=Species), bins =15) + theme_prota("fill")
Input:
colour_type: either "fill" or "colour" or "color" (both colour/color do the same thing)
Output:
A visualization with a tritanopia friendly colour palette and theme.
Examples:
ggplot(data=iris, aes(x=Species, y=Sepal.Length)) + geom_boxplot(aes(fill=Species)) + theme_trita("fill")
ggplot(data=iris, aes(x = Sepal.Width)) + geom_density(aes(colour=Species), size = 2.4 ) + theme_trita("colour")
_Check out the package vignette for more information and a complete demonstration in Rstudio_by entering the following:
vignette("colourblindr")for viewing inside Rstudio viewer
or
browseVignettes(package="ColourblindR")for viewing in a browser
As we are committed to support open source, we provide the complete ColourblindR Control Flow Diagram for users who are interested in the backend workflow.
Branch Coverage Testing
In total, 28 paths were identified for our initial manual testing. We pass all 28 tests and a screenshot in the img file named tests_results.png is available for your convinience.
ColourblindR, a package similar to the well known viridis package takes a meaningful place in the R universe attempting to service the colourblind population. Unlike viridis which offers colour maps and palettes, ColourblindR will attempt to offer users a visually inclusive theme with geometric objects and layout. In addition to the viridis package there are ggplot packages called colorblind_pal and dichromat_pal that offers an eight colour palette to accommodate all users. ColourblindR hopes to give users not just different palettes, but a new theme (similar to how theme_bw or theme_classic contributes to ggplot) that will enhance the full data visualization, not just produce a palette. Lastly, ColourblindR will customise each graph specifically to each variant of colourblind conditions, a feature we have yet to see in the R ecosystem.
Protanopia
Protanopes are more likely to confuse:-
- Black with many shades of red
- Dark brown with dark green, dark orange and dark red
- Some blues with some reds, purples and dark pinks
- Mid-greens with some oranges
Deuteranopes
Deuteranopes are more likely to confuse:-
- Mid-reds with mid-greens
- Blue-greens with grey and mid-pinks
- Bright greens with yellows
- Pale pinks with light grey
- Mid-reds with mid-brown
- Light blues with lilac
Tritanopes
The most common colour confusions for tritanopes are light blues with greys, dark purples with black, mid-greens with blues and oranges with reds.
source:http://www.colourblindawareness.org/colour-blindness/types-of-colour-blindness/