When is a graph "down" ?

Having different colours for up and down statistics is common and nothing new.

It makes it simple to see if a graph is "going in the right direction" and is why all Envisage graphs are two toned. Black if the statistic is heading "up" in a better direction and red if the statistic is heading "down". We chose black and red for many reasons, one of which is that red/green colour blind people can see the difference between black and red.

But this poses a problem. What do you do with a statistic that is exactly the same as the previous period? Should it be black or should it be red?

We believe it should be red. And here is why:

When a statistic is exactly the same as last week, it does not show new growth or expansion. Imagine if your income was the same every month for the rest of your life. In a decade or so, you would be very poor! The fact is that society is always expanding and prices increasing and for you just to stay alive, you need to keep expanding too.

This is why in Envisage, a statistic that was the same as it was the period before will show up as "red" indicating it was "down" compared to the previous week.