Lesson 3
Color Theory
Color can make or break a design! Color can enhance and draw attention to specific areas, it can bring cohesiveness to disparate areas of a design, or it can also cause chaos and confusion if not used properly. This lesson will teach the basics of color theory, offer some best practices, and touch on accessibility issues to keep in mind when designing with color. You will come away with some color combinations, guidelines for accessibility, and resources. The below items are due by the end of the week.
WATCH
Optional: Watch this video if you're ready to hear about why the primaries you thought were real are all based on a lie.... I see where she's coming from, but this may be more advanced than you're ready for... so watch at your own risk and you can make your own conclusion.
YOUR TURN
Your first assignment this week is to connect what you learned in this lesson by finding one example of a website that uses color well and one example of a website that does NOT use color well. Email examples to your instructor along with a brief paragraph for each example detailing why the example uses color well or not - due by the end of the week.
In summary, it's not easy to throw colors on the page and be successful without some practice or at least some good resources. An instructional designer must keep many factors in mind when choosing colors because colors, along with visuals, can communicate the message and tone of the training. Colors have subconscious meanings to certain cultures, so we must always be aware of our audience. For example, when designing for international audiences, it's important to be aware of any cultural taboos for color. Did you see how using red for a Nigerian audience can be aggressive? Or if you're designing for a corporate audience, you must be aware of their brand colors and use appropriately. For certain companies red could represent their major competitor and therefore should never be used in any design. When considering the audience, it's more important to have good readability and contrast rather than a trending color scheme. Accessibility is also a major consideration. Any ID work for the US government must be accessible and 508 compliant.
Below are links to additional resources you may find helpful in your journey toward good color usage.
RESOURCES
YOUR TURN
Your TEST due by the end of this week will be to create a PowerPoint (or Google Slides) deck of your choosing that exemplifies good use of color throughout. Must be at least 6 slides including:
-
Title slide
-
4 content slides with visual
-
Resources/Conclusion slide
The following will be the criteria for grading:
-
Good contrast and readability for all text
-
Colors are unified in some way (color scheme works)
-
Colors and visuals agree (visuals appear to match with the color scheme)
-
Colors fit the mood and tone of the messaging
-
Awareness of possible accessibility concerns