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A red ball = unread message. A black ball = read message.
That's a perfect example of using colors that make sense. Red stands out, which is a good way of getting attention, saying "Hey, read me!" Black for the second color works great too.
Now, say that the colors were red and green. Well, then it would be much better to use red for the read messages (pun intended... which is another reason why it makes sense), and green for any new messages.
Unfortunately I very often see Web developers who miss the point. They use colors that are wrong for what they want to do.
One person said to me once, regarding a recent project I was involved in: "Can't we make the text for our catalog red and bold so it will stand out a little bit more?"
Hmm... What does red and bold usually mean? "Warning!"
Use colors that people are used to... That's why it works best with dark text on a light background. If people are used to something, the learning curve is much shorter. That's why blue links are easy to find.
Don't ever underline and "bluify" a word unless it's a link! It gets confusing, it doesn't make sense.
Blue also does this by being a safe and comfortable color. Sky and water are blue. Some studies also show that blue light projected on skin helps relaxation while red light will cause stress.
But the pitfall we have is that not all cultures will see colors how we do. Color is very important and should be used wisely for conveying information.
not all cultures will see colors how we do
That is a very important point!
I'm glad you brought that up, since too many designers also rely on color as the only way of conveying information. If someone is colorblind (or prints the information out) the information may be lost.
High contrast colors are good choices. So are different shapes and forms.
A good rule for usability is to have more than one way to do something. Using written communication with visual communication makes for a stronger design.
Or, bold text for unread messages and normal for read messages...
I like that. I like it A LOT.
However, (and you knew it was coming...) what about completely blind or VERY visually impaired?
I prefer not to rely on visual clues at all. Use them of course but back them up in some way that would make sense if the page was being read by software.
Nitpicking? - Clearly, but I think it's important nonetheless ;)
<added>It appears Korkus and I think alike on this!</added>
Nick
[edited by: Nick_W at 5:14 pm (utc) on May 4, 2003]
Red & green? Yes, those of us with 'normal' colorvision are very familiar---but not so those individuals (8% give or take) with varying colorvision impairments.
In general, a UI should never rely on colour as the only indicator of something - there should always be a textual back-up.
<snap> :)
what about completely blind or VERY visually impaired?
hehe, yeah, I knew it was coming ;)
Well, something like this would work:
R ¦ Name¦ Message title ¦ Date and time
N ¦ Name¦ Message title ¦ Date and time
¦ Name¦ Message title ¦ Date and time
¦ Name¦ Message title ¦ Date and time
Then, of course, you need a "legend":
N = New message
R = You replied to this message
= Read, but not replied
...or something like that
I'm completely colour blind and see shades not colours, as long as the colours used are not very close in shade everything is ok, for example some shades of green and gold are hard to see the difference.
That is the only limitation of being colour blind, I see all the variation of colours but just the differences are not so vivid, sometimes I need to look closer. I've never come across a site that I've had any problem with the colours or distinguishing links, unless of course I just never noticed them!
unless of course I just never noticed them!
LOL Yeah, choosing high contrast color schemes is a good idea. (And, NO, we're not talking the UGLYYYYYY color themes that come with Windows!)
