Get In Their Heads, Pt. 1 – Color Me Perfect

In this multi-part series, we are going to be talking about a few ways we as interface designers can get into our audience’s heads. These parts will not be in any particular order; rather, they will be a collection of ideas that you can refer to both as a face-value list and as an in-depth consideration.
For the first part of this series, we will be talking about color. What is color, and why is it important? One dictionary definition of color is as follows:

the property possessed by an object of producing different sensations on the eye as a result of the way the object reflects or emits light : “the lights flickered and changed color.”

But below this singular definition, we can find out many other things about the word color. For instance, it is quite often used to describe a feeling or a personal characteristic. So, if there is a definitive concept of color that is beyond the literal scientific representation of light, why?
Psychological tests have proven that color has an effect on feeling. Unfortunately, this is less scientific than experimental. But the history of the experimental side of color has been strong enough that certain colors have an almost archetypal connection with certain feelings. For instance, the color blue is almost universally connected with sadness, water, and coldness. Red, on the other hand, is universally connected with passion, love, hotness, and fire. These are a few of the characteristics that are connected to these colors. Beyond this, there are many other considerations with even these two colors. For instance, how bright is the color? How saturated is the color? What does this all mean?

Unfortunately, we cannot claim that we know exactly what the effects of each color are on every person. For instance, the colors red and blue may have their psychological meanings, but if they are combined together with white, those in the United States would probably connect the colors with however they feel about the country and political system. These kinds of considerations must be made if we are going to be successful interface designers. Consider your audience! Where are they from? What do they do on a day to day basis? What color combinations might they associate with other things?
Another great example of an important color consideration in cultural context is the color green, particularly in the United States and Europe. This color has been used quite often in commercial media recently because of its connection to environmental activism. “Going Green” is a very popular business decision as well as a friendly move for environmentally conscious companies. British Petroleum has recognized this connection, and touted it through their own logo, which was already designed to be on a green scale.

So what can we do to use color to our advantage?

Consider your audience, as we have said before. This is the first step to understanding how to get into their heads. What do they like? What do they see daily? And, most importantly for this article, how will certain colors affect them both emotionally and cognitively? Also, consider why they are using your particular interface. Are they there to quickly move through a project or task, or are they there for enjoyment? Are they communicating with a company, or are they chatting with their friends?
Okay, so you know how you want to make them feel. Now, how can you accomplish this task? Let’s look at a few colors, and their traditional, archetypal characteristics.

Primary Colors

Blue – Sadness, coldness, water, freshness, trust, reliability

Red – passion, love, hotness, urgency, pain, flightiness

Yellow – caution, jealousy

It is important to note, also, that primary colors are used by companies who are trying to move their customers to quick action. Consider fast food restaurants. While these are not necessarily web interfaces, they can be considered interactive with our daily lives as we pass them on the streets. Most fast food restaurants have primary (or close to primary) colors that make up their main logo and color scheme.

Secondary colors

Green – growth, time, earth, movement, jealousy
Note: Have you ever heard the term “green room”? A green room is a holding place for performers where they rest before performing. Traditionally, the walls are painted a muted green.
Purple – Royalty, wealth, rarity, class, feminism
Orange – Similar to yellow; caution, warmth, energy, and sometimes light

Of course, primary and secondary are not the only options for color combinations. Tertiary colors also exists; in fact, there are literally endless color possibilities, and each color has its own effect on your user. Beyond simple red, yellow, and blue properties, there are other properties that exist for colors.

Hue, Saturation, Lightness?

These are the main components of any given color. However, these terms are often confused. Let’s look at the meanings of each.

Hue: the gradation of the color. This is limited only to the property of red, yellow, and blue within the color. It has nothing to do with how bright or how dark the color is!

Saturation:This is the amount of color, in comparison with a grayscale. If there is no saturation (also known as “desaturated”), the color is reduced only to its lightness or darkness (this means there is no hue associated, either).

Lightness: Here we will also supplement the meaning of darkness. Lightness and darkness refer to the amount of black or white in a particular color. This is often confused with saturation.

Our job today isn’t necessarily to go through and explain every possible color and its possible hidden effects. What we are here to do is jumpstart your thoughts. There are many sites that can help you understand color even further, and we will post more content on the usage of color with more examples here. This is just to introduce you to the concepts. For the sake of brevity, (well… maybe not brevity…) we will conclude here.

Any thoughts? Comments? Please share with us!