Did you know that colours play a vital role in the way a living being perceives information? Colours are not just a topic in fine-arts but they are a science in itself. Don’t worry, I am not going to get into the physics of a prism converting the white light into a rainbow. But if you are interested in it, please read dispersion of light by prisms in your spare time. It is really interesting.
Anyways, coming back to the topic. Colours are so important when it comes to delivering information that just changing the hue or saturation value can invoke a completely different feeling. If you are wondering how a petty thing like colour makes a big difference, ask yourself — why does the colour white represent peace or surrender?
A specific colour in one culture can mean something completely different in another. For example, in general, the solid colour red (Hex value: FF0000, RGB value: 255,0,0) represents fire, violence, warfare, love and passion. But the same red also represents prosperity and happiness in China. In some countries, the colour red is worn by brides on their wedding days while in South Africa, red represents mourning. In the ‘western’ countries, the colour red represents luxury and elegance. Think about it the next time you walk on the ‘red’ carpet?
I know, I know, you might be thinking why is this guy so obsessed with colours? It is because the colours you choose in your user interface designs raise different emotions and feelings in the audience. In fact — and I apologise once again for referring to the colour red — it is found that red raises blood pressure and respiration rate and also increases human metabolism.
One tool that I have been constantly using to decide colours and shades for all my projects is Coolors.
This is a free and intuitive tool to generate colour combinations. You can lock some colours and move them around to see how they match with other colours in the palette. There are many contributors to this tool who have already generated some cool colour combinations. You can simply use them if you’d like to save time.
I hope you liked this article and please leave a comment with your interesting experiences with colours.