Color Reference: Where do you get your ideas?

Question

I am the only dev in a very small IT shop and as such I have no one to turn to when it comes to the look of my applications. I am left to my own devices as to what looks good with what and what matches what.

This got me wondering, where do other programmers get their color ideas?

Am I the only programmer who likes all of his apps in grayscale?

What are some sites, books, apps, tips and tricks to giving your custom built application some vibrance and life that end users MIGHT actually appreciate?

Answer 1

If you are programming for some platform it is better to follow that particular platform's guidelines. (And not to alter system colors without a reason)

If you are programming for the web you might appreciate following a theme from some major web-application, such as gmail.

Answer 2

Contrast is one of those things that can make or break the design of a site. Some colors don't go well together. Red text on a green background, for example, may seem like it'd be a high contrast and easy to read combination, but it's not. And it's ugly. At the same time, you have to be careful with colors of the same hue as well. Light gray text is hard to read on a white background (that one is a little more obvious).

This page talks a little about contrast ratios and provides a good tool to check for it: http://snook.ca/technical/colour_contrast/colour.html

They mention that you should shoot for a contrast ratio of 4.5:1 with small text. Any less than that and you risk the possibility of users having trouble reading your site.

There's another tip I can give. Whenever you're choosing 2 colors to go next to eachother, pick a boring color that lacks saturation (white, gray, black, or a really dull color) and then pair that up with a color packed with lots of saturation (blue, orange, red, green, etc). In general, this will look better than trying to put two exciting colors next to eachother in the same design (unless you're designing a comic book site).

And then this site has a cool gallery where you might find some inspiration and good color combinations: http://www.cwd.dk/

But I'll tell you that my methods have changed drastically since I first started out. A little creativity is good, but I now place more importance on usability than anything. I try to keep every design I do simple and usable... kinda like Stackoverflow. I only mention that because my focus on usability tends to influence my design decisions.

A couple of my favorite sites on usability and optimization are http://www.useit.com/ and http://www.websiteoptimization.com/

Answer 3

I suggest Adobe's Kuler. You can bring in an image, like a logo, and have it suggest a set of 5 colors that work well together. Lots of different options. Also lets you save your palettes. You can then browse through other people's color combinations.

Answer 4

I too prefer my apps in greyscale, although a hint of colour doesn't hurt. For example, meta.stackoverflow.com looks kinda weird to me after spending a lot of time on stackoverflow. If you're looking for just colour ideas, I'd check out these sites for colour suggestions:

http://www.colourlovers.com/

http://kuler.adobe.com/

For typeography: http://webtypography.net/

Maybe also pick up some good design books? (I like this one http://www.amazon.com/Designer-Grid-Lucienne-Roberts/dp/2880466784)

Answer 5

I take you have some users. I suggest asking them what they would like in colors.

Aside from that, to deliver data effectively you have to keep visual clutter to a minimum. Gray is a time-tested agent for helping with that.

I see from your comment that gray is despised. Well, you could spell it "grey" -- British-isms are are classic chic. Seriously, you need to go for three pastels in this situation.

Answer 6

Ask your users. Just that. Just ask them, and take their advice. They're the ones who'll have to be staring at the color scheme for hours or days on end; take their advice.

Update: I'm not suggesting that you give your users the complete range of options; the way this usually works is with a small group of users, generate a few styles of the site that seem reasonable, and ask the small group to pick the one they like the best. That way, there's a coherent look to things, but you still get user input from your end users.

Answer 7

Personnally, I'm a big fan of UI Frameworks like DevExpress which implements skin technology. So, the user has the possibility to switch to his favorite look. For us, it is just five lines of code and our users are always satisfied to have this option. Vista, Office 2003, Office 2007 are just a small set of different options offered to our customers.

Answer 8

I have used this one in the past:

http://colorschemedesigner.com/

I would recommend turning on the tooltips (go to 'About & Help' > 'Show Tooltips') so you can see the descriptions of the different types of color schemes offered when you hover over them.

Answer 9

Give your users the most bizarre bling colour scheme (like a combination of purple, green, glaring red, pink) and you will be assured of a deluge of suggestions from your users.

Even though your colours are bizarre, you have to ensure that the pages are still technically usable but aesthetically unbearable. Ensure the words and widgets are visible so that lettering should use darker colours like crimson, blue or dark grey on light coloured backgrounds. Pastel the background so that they won't impede the user's sight.

If you wish to defend the reputation for your taste of colours, place a "Contact web master" link which leads to a disclaimer saying your colour scheme is deliberate because you are forcing users to design and submit and vote on a colour scheme. Why not write a cheap lil' web app to facilitate the voting too?

Answer 10

I would say stick to what you're comfortable with and make them grayscale but just add hints and accents of colour.

Adobe Kuler is a good tool for which colours to use.

Answer 11

Stick with greyscale, and use colours only when they can have some meaning. E.g., use bright red for negative dollar amounts, blue for email addresses, bold black text on a yellow background for phone numbers, etc. This sort of thing really helps users find their way around your app, especially when there is alot of information.

Answer 12

Have a look at AVIVADirectory.com

"The Canonical List of Online Color Resources for Designers (updated periodically with neat stuff)"

Just a massive list of links and resources about pretty colours.
And lets just agree to disagree on the 'u' in colour, ok ; )

Also, a +1 for colorschemedesigner.com mentioned earlier by John Rasch

Answer 13

I asked some friends on the Internet who pretty much represent the userbase for my apps. The general consensus is that certain shades of blue and cyan are nice. Not entirely unlike the default in MSN Messenger 8.5. I then used that to colorize what started as grayscale.

That's where I get my ideas.