In our modern digital environment, capturing and maintaining learners’ attention is challenging. By using color strategically, instructional designers (IDs) and technical writers (TWs) can highlight crucial information, enhance engagement, and ensure content is accessible to all learners. Let’s explore how a thoughtful color palette profoundly impacts the effectiveness of your content.
Fast facts
Here are a few statistics about the importance of color:
- We read color ads up to 42 percent more often than the same ads in black and white.
- Color can improve learning by 55 to 79 percent, comprehension by 73 percent.
- Tests indicate that black and white images may keep one’s interest for less than two-thirds of a second, but color images may hold attention for two seconds, or longer.
- One company used color to highlight key information on their invoices, resulting in receiving customer payments an average of 14 days earlier.
Using the color wheel
The color wheel can be your greatest tool. Understanding the basics of the color wheel is crucial for creating and applying colors that will not only help users learn information, but also retain it. A standard color wheel includes primary, secondary, and tertiary colors, each offering various possibilities for contrast and emphasis. By using colors strategically, such as warm tones for attention and cool tones for calm, you can create a learning environment that is both visually appealing and functionally effective.
How can color transform your content?
Beautiful color palettes can attract learners to content, but it’s about more than pretty colors. Choosing the right colors can also help users learn quickly, retain more knowledge, and easily find information.
- Object identification. Our brains easily identify objects that are related to real life. For example, a purple horse may temporarily confuse your brain because it doesn’t exist in nature. Instead, use purple to highlight something else and use a more natural color (tan, white, brown) for the horse.
- Content organization. Create a sense of uniformity by repeating a pattern of a few select colors. Repeat the size and color of headings and body text throughout your course or document. Once you establish a pattern or standard design in your training, add a few accent colors for key information.
- Quick visual search. Our brains understand color-coded information quickly, even when learning about difficult topics. This is especially true when we use colors that already mean something to us. For example, using red, green, and yellow for stop/bad, go/good, caution/risky, respectively.
- Symbolism. Use color to convey strong emotions and feelings. For example, if you want a course to be fun, use vibrant colors, such as red, orange, and pink. Documentation about the environment may use more natural tones, such as brown, green, and blue.
- Improve usability. What content do you want to stand out for usability purposes? Perhaps your call-to-action buttons blend in too much and you need to change them to a color that grabs the learner’s attention while removing that color from other content.
- Emphasis. What content is the most important for the user to learn? For this information, use a color that you use nowhere else. The learner will notice that something is different and that they need to pay attention.
What do your colors convey?
Each color evokes feelings and conveys emotion, making your color palette key to helping users learn. Experiment with the color wheel by changing the hue and intensity of colors.
- Warm colors. Yellow, red, and orange draw attention to content as they are more stimulating than other colors. Red can bring attention to important information, but don’t overuse it as it can also feel aggressive. Orange tends to make content look more exciting, and yellow provoked memory.
- Cool colors. Do your learners need to feel at ease while learning a complex topic? Use cooler colors like blues and purples, which tend to have a calming effect.
- Black and white. White gives eyes a break and helps learners avoid frustration. Black text is usually the easiest to read and using black for an image border helps convey its importance.
Remember: color symbolism isn’t the same in all cultures. For example, red is often associated with luck and prosperity in Asia. In other cultures, red represents love, passion, and often danger. As always, audience consideration is imperative when creating content.
Color and accessibility
While complementary colors (those across the color wheel from each other) like red and green or blue and yellow are often used for contrast, they can be challenging for color-blind users. While color strategy is usually helpful in creating effective content, avoid relying only on color to indicate vital information by including symbols and/or text. For example, underline link text in addition to making it blue. Remember, color is a tool that supports the content. Don’t let color distract from the information. Ensure your designs meet the latest Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) by using a contrast checker, such as WebAIM, AccessibleWeb, or Coolors.
Design Tips
- Consistency is key. Choose a primary color palette and use it consistently throughout your course or document. This will help create a cohesive and professional look.
- Balance aesthetics with functionality. Never compromise functionality for aesthetics. Ensure your palette supports easy readability and navigation, limiting colors for the sake of clarity and simplicity. Contrast and readability are essential.
- Stay current. Ensure your content is visually contemporary and modern. Avoid overly trendy designs that may quickly become outdated or detract from the content.
- Highlight key information. Use brighter or contrasting colors to draw attention to key concepts or other essential information. This not only helps the content stand out, but also aids in retention.
- Don’t overdo it! It’s tempting to use several colors, especially when color-coding. However, using too many colors at once can overwhelm your audience and minimize the colors’ effect. While “too many colors” is somewhat subjective, creating an impactful palette is easier with fewer colors. Try using three to five, with one or two main colors, a neutral or two, and one or two accents.
- Use emotional engagement. Use colors to evoke specific emotions that align with your learning objectives. Want to inspire change? Try using an energizing warm color scheme. Focusing on relaxation? Use soothing cool colors. Is the topic sensitive or serious? Use muted tones or a monochromatic palette for a respectful tone.
- Start with neutrals. When creating your design, first use a neutral-only color palette in shades and tints of grey or brown. This will help ensure the shapes and text have enough contrast before you add color.
- Want a softer look? Using complementary colors ensures contrast, but sometimes you might want something a bit less drastic. Try a color to the left or right of the direct complementary color. For example, instead of using orange to contrast with blue, choose a yellow-orange or a red-orange.
- Emphasize important information. Placing light text on a dark background or dark text on a light background is an effective design tactic that draws the eye of your reader. Make sure the text is still readable and do not be afraid to use the white or negative space on the page. When you leave deliberate space readers can rest their eyes and better absorb the text.
- Trust your instincts. If you finish your design and something about it seems “off,” change it. A superior design is easy on the eyes, but a distracting one will be obvious to you. Remember, each design choice should be deliberate and should help continue the narrative of your story and emphasize valuable information.
Final Thoughts
The strategic use of color in training materials is a powerful tool that enhances learning, improves engagement, and ensures accessibility. By understanding and applying the principles of the color wheel, IDs and TWs can create visually appealing and effective content. Thoughtful color choices can highlight key information, evoke the right emotions, and help learners retain and comprehend material better. Balancing aesthetics with functionality, considering cultural color symbolism, and ensuring accessibility for all users are critical components of successful design. By consistently applying these principles, you can transform your materials into engaging, impactful, and memorable learning experiences.
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Resources
Hillier, Lizzy. “How brands use colour psychology to reinforce their identities.” Econsultancy. 5/30/18. Accessed 5/13/24. https://econsultancy.com/how-brands-use-colour-psychology-to-reinforce-their-identities/
Morton, Jill. “Why Color Matters.” Colorcom. Accessed 4/13/24. https://www.colorcom.com/research/why-color-matters
Nehra, Mahipal. “How Colors Impact And Transform eLearning.” eLearning Industry. 10/24/20. Accessed 5/13/24. https://elearningindustry.com/how-colors-impact-and-transform-elearning
Tulsiani, Ravinder. “Be colour wise — best practices for using colour psychology in e-learning design.” Training Journal. 2/3/24. Accessed 5/13/24. https://www.trainingjournal.com/2024/content-type/features/be-colour-wise-best-practices-for-using-colour-psychology-in-e-learning-design/
