The big reason to stop coloring maps

From Let’s Tesselate: Hexagons For Tile Grid Maps by Danny DeBelius of the npr visuals team:

As the saying goes, nothing is certain in this life but death, taxes and requests for geographic data to be represented on a map.
For area data, the choropleth map is a tried and true visualization technique, but not without significant dangers depending on the nature of the data and map areas represented. Clarity of mapped state-level data, for instance, is frequently complicated by the reality that most states in the western U.S. carry far more visual weight than the northeastern states.