When coming up with a new digital solution (desktop, mobile, app, whatever it may be) or any design concept,

Due to the Halo Effect — our tendency to make rapid judgements about someone or something just by our first impression, even if biased — , when a user first faces a digital solution, they’ll immediately judge it by what they first see, and if the colour isn't appealing to them they’ll create a negative perception, which might not even be purposely made, which will impact their relation and interaction with it.

The User’s perception of colour

When deciding on what colours to use, it’s imperial to understand who the user is: who are the type of people and target audience that will interact with your design?

Age and Gender

Knowing your user is important because people favour colours differently, not only due to personal preference but also because of inherent characteristics like age and gender. Per example, different genders prefer different colours, and the same goes with different age groups — what is more appealing to young people will not be the same as with older generations.

Culture

The same thing can be perceived differently in various countries and this is due to the fact that things (colours, icons, images, …) have dissimilar meanings interculturally.

Accessibility

While making a product, choosing pretty colours that look good is always important, but you have to keep in mind that not everyone sees colour the same way. There are people with vision problems such as colour blindness (of different types) that don’t see the same way.

Making websites accessible is crucially indispensable to reaching a wider audience and also to not deprive people of using products, because of their impairments.

Colour Contrast

This aspect plays a big part in the importance of accessibility when it comes to choosing colours. One of the biggest imparities of being colour blind makes colours of low contrast blend together, making it hard to distinguish elements.

Per example, if a button with text has low contrast it might be illegible or if an icon has low contrast with a background it might not be seen by the user.

Colour Association

For people who see colours regularly, it’s easier to associate red to error and green to valid. However, for people who don’t see colours the same way, it’s harder to make this association.

To solve this issue there are two solutions:

• Labels — using text to label any colour coded messages is a way to fix this problem so that people know exactly what they’re seeing or what the website is telling them.

• Icons — icons are also a good way to talk to the users because of their meanings that are understood the same way, despite their colour.

Consistency

A colour palette in a website should be chosen not only for its appeal but also because of things like brand association and what voice you want the design to have.

Throughout the decision process of design, and in a digital solution nonetheless, it’s important to be coherent and consistent with the colours that are used for buttons, call to actions, icons, abled and disabled actions. This way, by using the same colour patterns, the user is engaged and doesn't get lost.

Colour Meanings

One thing that plays a large roll on how people perceive things (when it comes to colour) is the meaning that each colour has and the emotions that they evoke. Emotions and colour are deeply psychologically linked.

Each colour induces a different feeling:

• Red — Excitement, energy, passion, power, danger;

• Blue — Tranquility, harmony, unity, trust, truth, confidence, security, loyalty;

• Green — nature, healthy, good luck, renewal, youth, spring, generosity, jealousy;

• Yellow — joy, happiness, optimism, imagination, hope, sunshine, summer, gold, philosophy, cowardice and friendship;

• Pink — love and romance, caring, tenderness, acceptance, calm;

• Purple — Royalty, nobility, spirituality, mystery, wisdom, cruelty, honour, arrogance;

• Black — Power, sophistication, formality, elegance, wealth, mystery, fear, evil, depth, style, sadness, anonymity, mourning, death (Western cultures);

• White — purity, birth, simplicity, peace, innocence, youth, winter, good, marriage (Western cultures), death (Eastern cultures), clinical.

当提出新的数字解决方案(台式机，移动设备，应用程序，无论可能是什么)或任何设计概念时，

由于光环效应 -我们的倾向，使对某人，只是我们的第一印象的东西Swift的判断，即使偏置- ，当用户第一次面临着数字化解决方案，他们会立即被他们首先看到的评判它，而如果颜色对他们没有吸引力，他们会产生负面的看法 ，甚至可能不是故意制造的，这会影响他们的关系和互动。

用户对颜色的感知

在决定使用哪种颜色时， 了解用户是至关重要的 ：谁是将与您的设计交互的人群类型和目标受众？

年龄与性别

了解您的用户很重要，因为人们偏爱不同的颜色，这不仅是由于个人喜好，而且还因为年龄和性别等固有特征 。 例如， 不同的性别喜欢不同的颜色，不同的年龄段也是如此-年轻人更具吸引力的地方将不同于老年人。

文化

在不同的国家，同一事物的理解可能有所不同，这是由于以下事实：事物(颜色，图标，图像等)在跨文化意义上具有不同的含义 。

辅助功能

在制作产品时，选择看起来不错的漂亮色彩始终很重要， 但是必须记住， 并不是每个人都能以相同的方式看到色彩 。 有些人的视力问题(例如色盲)(不同类型)会以不同的方式出现。

要使网站更易于访问对于更广泛的受众至关重要，并且因为存在障碍，因此不能剥夺人们使用产品的能力。

色彩对比

在选择颜色时， 这方面对可访问性的重要性起着很大的作用 。 色盲的最大缺点之一是使低对比度的颜色融合在一起，从而使元素难以区分 。

例如， 如果带有文本的按钮对比度较低，则可能难以辨认，或者如果图标与背景的对比度较低，则用户可能看不到它。

颜色协会

对于经常看到颜色的人来说，将红色与错误相关联，将绿色与有效相关联会比较容易。 但是，对于那些看不见颜色的人来说，建立这种关联变得更加困难。

要解决此问题，有两种解决方案：

• 标签 -使用文本为所有带有颜色编码的邮件添加标签是解决此问题的一种方法，从而使人们可以准确地知道他们所看到的内容或网站在告诉他们什么。

• 图标 -图标也是一种与用户交谈的好方法，因为尽管颜色，但它们的含义可以用相同的方式理解。

一致性

网站的调色板不仅要选择其吸引力 ，还应考虑品牌联想和您希望设计具有什么样的声音等因素。

在整个设计决策过程中，以及在数字解决方案中， 保持连贯一致是很重要的 以及用于按钮，号召性用语，图标，已启用和已禁用操作的颜色。 这样，通过使用相同的颜色模式，用户可以参与并且不会迷路。

颜色含义

影响人们对事物的看法(涉及颜色)的一件事是每种颜色所具有的意义以及他们所唤起的情感 。 情绪和肤色在心理上有着深远的联系。

每种颜色都会产生不同的感觉：

• 红色 -兴奋，活力，激情，力量，危险；

• 蓝色 -宁静，和谐，团结，信任，真相，信心，安全，忠诚；

• 绿色 -自然，健康，好运，更新，青春，春天，慷慨，嫉妒；

• 黄色 -喜悦，幸福，乐观，想象力，希望，阳光，夏天，金色，哲学，怯ward和友谊；

• 粉红 -爱与浪漫，关怀，温柔，接纳，沉着；

• 紫色 -皇室，贵族，灵性，神秘，智慧，残酷，荣誉，傲慢；

• 黑色 -力量，老练，形式，优雅，财富，神秘，恐惧，邪恶，深度，风格，悲伤，匿名，哀悼，死亡(西方文化)；

• 白色 -纯度，出生，简单，和平，纯真，青春，冬天，美好，婚姻(西方文化)，死亡(东方文化)，临床。

Overall, choosing colours in design is always essential. And when making a design with a user in mind you should take into consideration a lot more things than just its visual appeal. Different users will always have a different background and characteristics that impact their relationship with this key characteristic.

总体而言，在设计中选择颜色始终至关重要。 而且，在设计时要考虑到用户，您应该考虑的不仅是外观上的吸引力。 不同的用户将始终具有不同的背景和特征，从而影响他们与此关键特征的关系。

补充阅读 (Complementary reading)

• The Role of Color in UX;

  颜色在UX中的作用 ;

• How Color Impacts UX;

  颜色如何影响UX ;

• Color Theory: Brief Guide For Designers;

  色彩理论：设计师简要指南 ；

• Colors and emotions: how colors make you feel;

  颜色和情感：颜色如何使您有感觉 ；

• Impact of color on design;

  颜色对设计的影响 ;

• Why Color Matters.

  为什么颜色很重要 。