Colour coding looks great. It’s a flashy way of saying ‘I’m usable’.
It reminds us of design classics, like the London Underground map. It makes us think of the kind of organised offices that we’d like to have one day.
The trouble is, that to outsiders, colour coding has no meaning.
Members of your inner circle understand it. Your enemies and casual passers by are left bewildered and dismayed.
That’s why I generally don’t recommend colour coding. It’s usually unfriendly and inefficient.
Setting up the code takes a lot of effort. Maintaining the code takes more effort. The code often clashes with branding and visual styling. And pretty soon people run out of colours.
There are exceptions
But Yo Sushi’s colour coded bowls are a great idea - because the code is rather simple, and everyone is motivated to learn.
Different colours correspond to different prices - a very simple idea. Since prices are either high, low or somewhere in the middle there’s not much to remember.
Customers are motivated to learn because they’re going to have to pay for all this lovely food. And they’ve lots of practice at leaning the code as food trundles past on a conveyor belt.
It didn’t take me long to learn that orange was going to be more expensive than light blue - just look at the portions. And the rare glimpse of a silver bowl in the distance was enough to tell me that something pretty special was on its way.
Staff are even more motivated to learn because it’s their job to get the bills right. And six colour codes are easier to learn than thirty items from a menu.
So what about user interfaces?
Most user interfaces don’t rely much on colour codes - they use text labels instead. The only times colour coding makes sense is when people’s motivation is high (their money, jobs or health is at stake) and they are repeatedly exposed to the code.
Of course, I’m not arguing for a monochrome world or saying that colour plays no role. But for most people, most of the time, learning a code isn’t worth the effort. Especially when they can just read what’s written on the button.
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About the author
Giles Colborne
Giles is a managing director at cxpartners. He has worked extensively with loads of big clients and does talks on the subject of usability and design all over the world. He’s a Nintendo obsessive and loves a game of Zelda. email Giles
One response
I wonder how well this system works for colourblind users? If you can’t tell the difference between the colours, how do you know in advance how much you’ll be paying for your dinner? Vischeck (www.vischeck.com) is a great way of simulating colourblindness - simply upload a jpeg and see what a colourblind user might see. Using this method, it appears that Yo! Sushi may have a problem with several of their bowl colours appearing the same. So what could they do about it? One rule of thumb is to ensure that information isn’t only displayed using colour. The bowls could be different shapes, different sizes or perhaps have an embossed pattern, number or letter. Do this and up to 10% of Yo! Sushi’s male users will have a better idea of their bill…