【 Color Guide 】 What do you know about the pros and cons of using bright colors in UI design?

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The right use of color is a skill every designer should have, especially illustrators and UI designers. With the increasing popularity of flat Design and Material Design, the importance of color theory knowledge has become more and more obvious!

Bright colors and gradients can be found in the interfaces of many digital products, from fun and entertainment apps to business apps and websites. However, there is still a lot of debate about the impact of bright colors on the user experience. This article analyzed and summarized the pros and cons of using bright colors in the UI.

Advantages of using bright colors in the UI

1. Increase readability and legibility

In our previous article, we looked at the factors that influence the choice of color scheme. Readability and readability are the basic factors designers consider for color applications. It is important to note that readability represents how easily people can read text content, and readability determines how quickly users can distinguish between specific fonts and letters.

Bright colors provide a high enough contrast for the interface and also help improve readability and readability. The layout elements become visible because of the contrast. But high-contrast colors may not always work. If the contrast between the text content and the background color is too strong, it will be difficult for the user to read or browse the text. This is why it is recommended that designers create a mild contrast and only use high-contrast colors when highlighting certain elements.

2. Optimize navigation and enhance intuitive interactions

Visual hierarchy is the core element of all digital products to establish clear navigation and intuitive interaction systems. UI components are typically organized in such a way that the brain can distinguish objects based on physical differences in the product, including color.

How to distinguish color hierarchies? This is determined by the user’s thinking. For example, red and orange are generally considered bold colors, while white and cream-like colors are considered weak colors. Bright colors are easy to catch users’ attention, so designers often use them as a means of emphasis or contrast. How to apply visual hierarchy properly? A common use is to apply a color to multiple elements to show some connection between them. Set the buy buttons to red in the UI so that people can find them visually when they need them.

3. Improve brand recognition

The human brain responds strongly to bold colors, so bright color combinations are more likely to catch users’ attention. Colorful UI designs often stand out from the crowd. However, it should be noted that the choice of color is to some extent based on the preferences of the target audience and market research.

If a company uses a uniform bright color for its Logo, merchandise, website, this is a good way to maximize the brand to some extent. In this way, designers enhance brand recognition with highly consistent visualizations.

Convey mood and atmosphere

In order to convey the right information and call users to the desired actions, designers need to know how color affects our emotions and behavior. Our brains respond differently to different colors, but we often miss them. According to a study called color Psychology, when our eyes perceive a color, the brain sends signals to the endocrine system that release hormones responsible for mood changes.

Choosing the right color helps create the right atmosphere to convey the right message to the user, putting the user in the right mood and guiding them to the desired action. For example, if a designer creates a user interface related to nature or gardening, the main colors of the interface are likely to be green and blue. The use of color creates a sense of association with the product or service.

5. Create a stylish look and style

Bright colors and gradients play an important role in UI design. Now, you can see more of these trendy styles in different types of digital products, and the stiff business style is gone.

Bright colors and gradient colors in the user interface can bring users a strong sense of modern technology and freshness. What’s more, mobile apps or websites, often designed with the latest trends in mind, tend to look attractive and, despite the competition, can still beat them.

Second, the disadvantages of using bright colors in the UI

1. Bright colors are hard to match

For designers who rely only on intuition and beauty to match colors, they tend to make a lot of silly mistakes. A basic knowledge of how to apply and match colors is essential if you want to create satisfying visual works.

The brighter the colors applied in the UI, the harder it is to match. In order to make users feel satisfied and comfortable, designers try to achieve some balance in the UI design. Color harmony is about the arrangement of colors in the design that is most attractive and effective for the user’s perception. A harmonious color combination helps make a good first impression on a website or application. Color theory defines several basic color schemes for your reference!

Monochrome, monochrome color matching is based on a color, the selection of its different shades for color combination.

Similar colors. This color scheme applies to colors adjacent to each other on the color wheel.

Complementary colors, which are color combinations placed opposite each other on the color wheel, are designed to produce high contrast of colors.

Split complementary colors. This color scheme works like complementary colors, but with more colors. For example, if you choose blue, matching colors involves combining two other colors (yellow and red) that are adjacent to their opposite colors (orange).

Ternary colors, which are based on three different colors equally spaced on a color wheel. The pros recommend using one color as the main hue and two other colors for brightening.

Two complementary colors. This color scheme uses two pairs of complementary colors. If you connect the positions of the four colors on the color wheel, a rectangle will be formed.

2. Losing the character of the product

Bold colors are a tool for creating character and style in the UI, but they can also be the cause of loss of character. Using too many bright colors in a single visual composition runs the risk of losing the character of the interface because they can lead to too much color clutter.

This is why it is recommended that designers use a 6:3:1 ratio when applying color. The largest portion should be the dominant color of the design, with one-third of the color being secondary and the smallest portion used to help create the color of the character. This ratio allows the user to gradually perceive all visual elements and is therefore considered the most appropriate.

3. Bright colors are not for all user groups

User research is one of the core stages of digital product creation. First, designers need to define and analyze the target audience to understand their expectations for the site or application. Secondly, age, gender, culture and other factors may affect the preferences of potential users. For example, children generally like yellow; But when they became adults, yellow became less attractive. In addition, both men and women generally prefer cool colors such as blue, green and other shades. But unlike women, men generally prefer colorless colors, including white, black and gray.

The same goes for bright colors, which require defining and analyzing the target audience. Even if you’re creating a UI design for an entertainment app, you need to consider the specifics of your target audience. Middle-aged people tend to prefer lightweight user interfaces, and they may not like bold colors on the screen because it distracts them.

4. Bright colors can be too obtrusive on a phone screen

As mentioned above, bright colors create strong contrast, help highlight important user interface elements, and provide ideal readability and readability. However, using too much color contrast can lead to some silly mistakes, especially in limited space such as mobile interfaces.

On a small screen like this, ambient light and bright fonts can make users’ eyes feel uncomfortable. This is why UI designers need to be careful when applying bright colors to mobile device interfaces. Only by setting the contrast between colors properly can users feel comfortable reading text on mobile phones.

Color is undoubtedly a double-edged sword in the hands of designers, it has its own advantages and disadvantages. If you can use it effectively, you can find a color solution suitable for product design.

Originally written by Alina Arhipova

Original address: tubikstudio.com/bright-colo…

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