Why “good/bad” design guides aren’t always good for: Color Theory
Design is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
Something you can find on Instagram or design blogs across the web are examples of the “right” and “wrong” way to design. They’re typically identified with a red “x” and a green check-mark. While, yes, there are tested and proven patterns that often perform better than others, it can still be overly simplistic to tell product designers (especially young designers) “here’s the only correct way to layout a form, a card, use color or typography” etcetera.
Design is not a one-size-fits-all solution.
I’ve collected some examples of this, but have redacted the identifying account info out of respect for the content creators.
“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” — Henry Ford
Natural vs unnatural color
I came across this Instagram post (below) talking about why designers should only use certain colors found in nature in their designs vs bright colors which seem “unnatural” to people. There is truth to the natural attraction people have toward colors found in nature, but it’s not as simple as that.
A study from Psychology Today discusses how people in test marketing gravitate toward bright vibrant colors. Color can be an especially powerful design tool for both your brand and guiding customer behavior.
Think about a Doritos bag or pack of Skittles. Those colors have been tested and are chosen with precise intent to influence our choice in various ways.
How about some of the most popular apps like Instagram’s gradient, Snapchat’s vibrant yellow or even TikTok’s teal/magenta pseudo 3D glasses colors? Snapchat made the decision to amp up their brand yellow to have their icon standout among other muted tone icons.
Don’t get stuck in a color box
Spotify is another example of a company whose brand is full of vibrant and often intentionally sharp contrasting colors.
So the actual right/wrong is to avoid natural colors and instead use only vibrant colors? Nope! Again, this is about your brand and what you want to communicate to your customers. There are just as many examples of natural earthy tones like Venmo, Amazon or Dropbox for example.
No, you do not have to use specific colors for specific industries
I’ll preface with agreeing that different colors and temperatures can communicate all sorts of subtle and psychological cues. But telling designers which colors to use for types of industries is problematic. Here’s another post I found telling designers the “correct” colors to use for financial apps.
Imagine you’re creating a new financial app and need to stand out. You do an audit of the competition and discover every app is branded with some variation of blue. Are you going to create yet another blue branded app? Not if you want to stand out.
What about green being associated with money (in the US)? What if blue is simply a departure from your brand color like with TurboTax’s red identity? We want customers to associate a color with our product, not necessarily our industry as a whole.
Real world colors are good in theory, but not always in reality
These four slides from an Instagram post discuss using colors from the real world for products that mimic real world experiences. This can be very true in some contexts. Hello Fresh, for example, uses bright green to signal healthy fresh foods.
This example (below) is telling designers how to choose a color for their products. It suggests choosing colors from the real world which reflect the nature of the product you’re designing.
Netflix uses red because movie theater seats are red, right? This may or may not be how Netflix arrived at their branding. But interestingly the theater seats in my city are black and dark green, so should my new streaming app use red or black or green? Not everyone’s real world environments are the same.
Content creators might better serve their audience by describing different ways designers “can” choose color vs the only way designers “should” choose color.
Other streaming apps’ color spectrum
Looking at Netflix competitors, we discover a diverse spectrum of color.
Imagine if each streaming service used red because that’s what their theaters look like?
Sharing knowledge with the design community
Spreading knowledge about design is important. It helps us designers grow. Where we need to be cautious is when we using absolutist language surrounding “right way / wrong way” design solutions. Design is a complex and evolving practice which means we continually learn about what is working well, but also consider where and when we need to bend the rules.
A better approach for content creators is to discuss why certain design approaches were successful for their product vs applying a universal truth across all products and patterns.
Thank you for reading, friends!
