There’s much to learn on the internet about UX theory, but the tips below are 100% the result of hard-earned experience… a.k.a. painful moments. I’ve screwed up a lot, in the last twenty years, and these are some of the ways I’ve found to stop screwing up. Enjoy learning from my mistakes!
Four truths about design:
It’s actually not that hard, and you’re not half as clever as you think.
1. Color is meaningless
The users don’t understand your color-coding. Green might mean “good” to you, but to someone else, on a different screen, it might mean “unreadable,” or “goose shit,” or “Saigon — Shit — I’m still only in Saigon…”
Each person sees each color in a completely personal way, if at all. They like some colors, and hate some others, and it’s pretty much unpredictable. You can’t win.
Color is not verbal or rational. It’s contextual and emotional. It’s powerful, not meaningful.
The only things you can communicate with color are:
Any color: this thing has a color.
A different color: this thing is not the same as the other thing.
