Briefle words · UI design
Highlight color
Also called focus + context
Showing the series that matters in a strong color and pushing the others back in grey for context.
Say it to an AI
Weekly active users by platform over six months. Use a takeaway title ("Web passed Android in July"), direct labeling at the end of each line instead of a legend, and a highlight color on Web only, with iOS and Android in grey. Keep the data-ink ratio high: three faint gridlines, no point markers.
How an expert would brief the stronger version of “Active users chart”.
See it
Try it as a puzzle →Growth chart on a product analytics dashboard for a note-taking app.
Why: A draws Web in 3px blue #2563EB and iOS and Android in light grey. B gives all three lines equally saturated colors.
More ways experts use it
Bar chart of 2026 donations per campaign in calendar order, with the value on each bar. Use a highlight color on Harvest appeal only and keep the other five bars in light grey for context; a categorical palette is wrong here because the chart is about one campaign.
Campaign donations chart · Data & chartsQuarterly NPS line chart, eight quarters, our score against the industry median. Treat the median as a context series: thinner, grey, grey end label. Keep the highlight color for our line only, with direct labels at the line ends and the takeaway title that we passed the median in Q4 2025.
NPS vs. industry chart · Data & charts
Related words
Room 1 · Essentials
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