Sometimes the ‘ivory tower thinking’ of my own usability profession amazes me. HFI are a very serious, very formal and by all accounts very good process and methodology driven company, so what has driven them to a World Usability Day Color Survey?
“Color is one of the most important non-verbal forms of communication. Appropriate use of color greatly impacts user experience. We are conducting a short survey to understand color associations for different kinds of Web sites.”
Indeed. But is this real world stuff? The Wharton School of Business has done some very interesting and complex research on color. But this seems a tad simplistic. Wouldn’t it be silly if all banks had blue logos, and all news (and electronics) was red!
How would HSBC, for example, feel if the Usability Lab results came back that the HSBC shade of logo red just wasn’t thought to be associated with banking, but was seen by users to be much more indicative of beauty and personal grooming? Would that lead to HSBC to change its logo? Or convince the HSBC board to consider a new corporate future as a L’Oreal competitor?
(…with apologies to HSBC)
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I think you have a right to be sorely disappointed in the survey.
I too was surprised by its simplicity, though maybe it’s because of my Internationalisation / Localisation background (over and above mere “awareness” there are cultures out there other than my own).
Initially reticent that the title read “World Usability Day” and noticing there appeared to be no indication of locality or culture segregation (one example alone is that the colour “red” has significant differences in meaning throughout the world), well, I went ahead and completed the survey.
This in itself was difficult though, as instead of imagining what colour I associate with a particular topic, I found myself wondering what were the primary colours of websites I’d used recently in those topic areas. Additionally, for “Government” I think I chose “white” trying to think of a colour independent of party or affiliation.
Once I’d completed the survey, the “results” presented needed to be placed in context, but they weren’t. I mean, to complete the survey I had to provide some fundamental demographics such as age and locality, but the “results” didn’t appear to have any association. For example, I wondered if the “Electronics” topic was coloured “red” because people in my locality (UK) have been associating dabs.com with Electronics?
Perhaps the “copy of the results of today’s World Usability Day color survey” that I’ve signed up for will explain a little more, but I must agree with you. The survey is weak.
Comment by spotts — November 30, 2005 @ 11:16 am