Briefle words · Data & charts
Color as the only visual means
An accessibility failure (WCAG 1.4.1) where information is conveyed only through color, with no text, icon or pattern backup.
Say it to an AI
Horizontal bar chart of 5xx rate per service with a dashed reference line (target line) at the 1% SLO. Flag breaches with redundant encoding: red fill plus a '▲ over SLO' text tag beside the value, so the status never depends on color as the only visual means.
How an expert would brief the stronger version of “Error rate by service”.
See it
Try it as a puzzle →Reliability panel on the on-call dashboard of an online grocery platform.
Why: In B, nothing but the fill of the search, payments and reports bars says they broke the 1% limit.
Related words
Room 5 · Color & emphasis
Learn “Color as the only visual means” in a five-minute lesson