The Power of Colors in UX Design
Colors are crucial for the user experience. They play a huge part in human perception and emotion as nearly a century of color psychology research has shown. With new possibilities for human-machine-interfaces in many industries, the importance of color design that makes peoples lives better extends beyond the screen of smartphones.
Never underestimate the power of colors. When Facebook introduced notification symbols, they were blue, matching the color scheme of the social network. Yet “no one used it” as Tristan Harris, whistleblower and technology ethicist, noted about the notification color choice of Facebook according to Cal Newport in his book “Digital Minimalism”. That changed drastically once it was changed from blue to red. The red notifications play a big part in why most people nowadays look at their smartphone first thing in the morning.
Colors are one of the most powerful designs tools — and have been for a long time. The reflection of light we see and interpret influences our perception and our emotions. Psychiatrist C.G. Jung, born in 1875, was one of the pioneers in studying the psychology of color in the 20th century that has led to many exciting scientific findings since then.
Colors carry expectations
A brown M&M tastes more chocolaty than an identical M&M that is colored green, as researchers at the University of Oxford found out. Even placebo pills are more effective depending on their color. Red or yellow pills for example “are associated with a stimulant effect, while blue and green are related to a tranquillising effect”, as researchers of the University of Amsterdam noted. Colors carry expectations, this applies to UX design as well.
Google learned that when they changed the color of text links in search results to black in 2016. Changing the traditional blue of hyperlinks created quite a disruption although only a few people actually know why hyperlinks are blue. Yet they have been blue for so long, people expect them to be blue. In human-machine-interfaces of cars, colors nudge the driver’s attention. You see a yellow warning sign if there is a minor problem and a red warning sign if there is a severe problem.
Color design can reduce the stress of screen time
In recent years, colors have become increasingly important in the design of the user experience of human-machine interfaces. Not only to draw the attention of users, but also to improve the overall experience. Many screens reduce the amount of blue light in the evening to make it easier for people to fall asleep. For this reason, dark mode is also becoming increasingly popular.
Accessibility is becoming increasingly important, too. And the contrast of the color palette is an important factor in this. Colored light designed to create different moods is making its way into living rooms and cars more often. Colors by themselves offer the possibility of making the lives of people who deal with screens on a daily basis a little easier and better by reducing negative effects of too much screen time.
Why many industries struggle to develop better HMIs
Much of this may sound trivial as your smartphone probably has all those functions now, but the digital transformation is sweeping through many industries and companies that have little experience in designing state-of-the-art human-machine-interfaces. For the most part, people interact with machines at their workplace in the same way they have for the past 20 years. That is about to change. The importance of intuitive design for human-machine-interfaces is reaching into every industry far beyond the screen of your personal smartphone.
However, the challenge in many industries is to bring software experts and creatives together in the design process instead of working sequentially due to complexity. Design software like Incari Studio enables teams to develop complex human-machine-interfaces that meet highest industrial standards and regulations with the constant input of creatives. This saves time and money for a better result.
Design changes in a few clicks instead of several weeks
Changing colors is a perfect example: In the automotive industry, the process of changing the color of a notification icon on the HMI of a car, as Facebook has done, would probably have taken several weeks following established methods of traditional car manufacturers: The design department develops an initial sketch, software experts apply the drawings technically. For every small change and iteration, the product jumps back to the design department, a new idea is created and then must be realized again by the software specialists — for the prototype and for the finished vehicle. Testing on the fly is impossible. With modern software development methods, design changes only take a few clicks and are instantly visible in the car.
Human-machine-Interfaces in every part of our lives will drastically change in the next couple of years. Colors are an important part of it. Colors can affect our perceptions and emotions; they can help to reduce stress and they can guide our attention to the information that is most relevant in certain situations. Whoever wants to design the next generations of HMIs should never underestimate the power of colors — and use them, to make people’s lives better.
Good design should make people’s lives easier — at Incari we are convinced of this. We are a Berlin-based software provider that creates the HMI development platform Incari Studio. We create the required tools and technologies necessary for developing future-based HMI systems in various industries. InterFaces is a platform to explore what such systems can or will look like at some point in the future. Follow us on Twitter: Incari_HMI, Follow us on Instagram: Incari_HMI, Follow us on LinkedIn: Incari HMI Development.
