09 colors

www.dadda.it roberto@dadda.it Excellence in usability 1st semester 2021-2022 1
ERGONOMICS APPLIED TO THE DESIGN OF USABLE WEB
PAGES AND APPS
Roberto DADDA and Paolo NEGRI

Colors
fundamentals of theory

Refraction of light when
changing medium of
trasnmission
4

Refraction and reflection

The angle of refraction changes with color

Prism

Electromagnetic spectrum
The electromagnetic spectrum is the range of all possible frequencies of electromagnetic radiation.

B&W
Black
total absorption
White
no absorption

Mixing colors
vs
Mixing lights

Mixing lights
1

Mixing pigments

Pointillism
Pissarro 1830 - 1903

Georges Seurat (1859-1891), “La Parade de Cirque”

Mixing colors

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1749 - 1832
http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/50572

Colours
wheel

Red, yellow and orange
WARM

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec 1864 - 1901

Blue, green, violet
COLD

Vincent van Gogh 1853 - 1890

Black, white, grey
NEUTRAL
Georgia O'Keeffe 1887 - 1926

Analogous, Adiacent
Fusion
effect

Influence
Violet is a mix of blue cyan (cold) and magenta red (warm)
Near warm looks cold. Near cold looks worm

Monet 1840-1926

Definition of a color
Hue
Saturation
Lightness
(Luminosity)

Colours
practical interfaces design implications

Contrast - minimum 3:1

Consider short term memory limitations

Facts
• New visitors decide in less than 90 seconds if the
page is interesting
• 60-90%1 of the assessment is based on colors
alone!
3
4
1 Different for different type of pages

The Power Of Colours

Colors are important!

RED
• Power
• Importance
• Youth
• Allarm

RED
• Feeling of warmth.
• Most powerful of
all colours.
• Not use too much.
• Get attention
- Sell products
- Specific message,
- Focus

ORANGE
• Friendliness
• Energy
• Uniqueness
4
0

YELLOW
• Happines
• Enthusiasm
• Antiquity
4
2

GREEN
• Grow
• Harmony
• Renewall
4
4

Green
• The feeling of relaxing and
fresh.
• Represents:
- Health
- Life
- Rebirth and
- Nature/ environment
- Growth
• Warm and inviting
• Associated with money and
wealth.

Green
• Often used in:
- Organic shop
- Healthy food
- Agricultural
Company
- Recycle item

BLUE
• Calm
• Reliability
• Openes
4
7

Blue
• The most favorite
color of people
• A feeling of :
- Calm and serenity.
• Establishes trust
and secure.
• Colour of
communication.

Blue
• Light blue - fantasy.
• Dark blue - authority and power.
• Mostly used in:
- Medical, and
- Financial industries.

Well togheter
• Analogous
• Compound
• Triadic
5
2

Getting sales by colours

92.6 percent said that
they put most
importance on visual
factors when
purchasing products.
Why Important?

Consumers make a
subconscious decision
about a product, person
or service in 90 seconds
or less.
- by The Institute for Color Research

Why Important?
• Colour can:
- send a positive or negative message,
- encourage sales, and
- calm a crowd.
• Specific colours
- creating brand relevance and
- motivating purchases.

Red
• Often used in:
- Clearance sales
- Fast food chains
- Excitement and
danger
• Also used by big
company:
- Coca-cola
- Air Asia

How Does It Work?

How colours affect your sales
• Choosing the right colour.
- Understand your target audience
- Type of products or services.
• Use colour to tell story.
- An environment using colour to
represent some concept.
• Comfort and calm customers.

How colours affect after sale
• Get shoppers attention again to
certain products
• Build brand recognition
- The color of the Logo used.
• Not overpower your products
- Highlight the product.
- Not using too many colors.

Example
Before
Now

In practice
•Duriana changed:
- corporate logo,
- colors (from orange to blue 1st image to 2nd
image )
•Sales improved after they change their website
colour.
•Base on some color study:
- Blue is the most favourable colour.
- Orange is the least favourite.

Color effects are not standard!
Gender, demographics, cultural

65

Changes
with
sex
and
culture

Palette

Tools
https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel/ http://paletton.com/

Usability
Roberto DADDA
roberto@dadda.it
www.dadda.it
Skype, Facebook e Twitter robertodadda

09 colors

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