Color Guidelines

• Use color conservatively.
  • It may make it harder understand.
  • More color is more information.
          i.e., the user tries to find the reason for it.
  • use soft colors unless you wish to highlight something.
  • use the same color unless color differences indicate differences in the data.
  • use a single, neutral background color.

• Limit the number of colors.
  • up to 4 on one display (7 total)

• Recognize the power of color as a coding technique
  • It speeds recognition if differences clear & known
  • e.g., new/old, good/bad, dead/alive
  • conventions/standards (wires; water)
  • metaphor with nature: leaves

• Reinforce common expectations about color.
  • stop/go, hot/cold, forest/water

• Ensure that color coding supports the task.
  • profit/loss

• Design for monochrome first
  • use color to enhance
  • layout is primary

• Use color to help in formatting.
  • e.g., physically close but different fields

• Be consistent in color coding.
  • use a standard, and apply throughout system

• Be alert to problems with common pairings
  • need good contrast
  • some pairs hard to focus on together (saturated red & blue)
  • some colors clash
  • triggers color confusion (color blindness)(e.g., red/green)
  • use redundant encoding (e.g., color & shape)

• Use color changes to indicate status changes
  • attention getting (green changing to red)
  • augment with position/shape/texture/font

• Use color in graphic displays for greater information density.
  • another dimension
  • better than shading

• Beware of the loss of resolution with color displays.
  • may be harder to read text

• Poor color use may be worse than no color.