Comments on: Don’t Be A #f00! Get the Red Out!

By: ctult

ctult — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 15:00:02 +0000

I use purple backgrounds and question mark icons, because, based on color psychology(Google it), I figured out that purple means confusion, and sends the user a subconscious message, making them think the computer is confused.

http://psychology.about.com/od/sensationandperception/a/colorpsych.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_psychology

By: Hidayat Sagita

Hidayat Sagita — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:41:51 +0000

@david: How about shaking the input with unexpected value like mac login and adding “soft red” outer glow when user submitting form rather than putting a yellow box?

By: Jop Berkhout

Jop Berkhout — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:37:50 +0000

Come to think of it, our error handling is in red as well. Nonetheless, I totally agree with what you’re saying. We are going to improve it from now on. Good suggestion!

By: Paul de Vries

Paul de Vries — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:37:32 +0000

Thanks for the eye-opener!
I used to use red all the time,
but I totally agree and will switch to yellow!

p.s. I do agree that you should not use table’s for a form (to many codes, different discussion through)

By: Paul de Vries

Paul de Vries — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 14:34:46 +0000

Thanks for the eye-opener!
I used to use red all the time,
but I totally agree and will switch to yellow!

By: Anthony Ettinger

Anthony Ettinger — Thu, 01 May 2008 19:58:13 +0000

great suggestions.

By: Crozin

Crozin — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:38:39 +0000

I also hold with Martin Sarsini. Most of people associate some colors with some things.
Green color is “soft & nice” – I use it when I want to tell user something like: “taht’s good”, “successful”.
Yellow color is like “Ooops! You’ve done something wrong”
Red color focuses your attention on itself but I use it when I want to inform the user about some error that was generated by script – not by user (eg. script’s trying to send an email, but SMTP server is filled)

And as Rafael Masoni said: Red color is good, but in the right place.

By: david

david — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:28:54 +0000

@Rob, Rafael, and Dave: I guess, and I may be a rare breed here, but if a user misses a form field, I feel responsible for not guiding them well enough — thus, it’s an error on my part, not there’s. Of course, there’s people out there that try to screw with forms and I could care less about them.

@Rafael: Don’t be a table-hater! They still have their place! As far as improvements, the example was simply to illustrate the point of the article.

@Dave: Great name. The “warning” icon should be helpful to the visually impaired/colorblind.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 01 May 2008 18:21:55 +0000

I agree with previous commenters: red means “didn’t work” or “can’t proceed” or “error”, yellow means “may not have worked as expected” or “warning”, and green means “worked correctly” or “keep going”.

That said, I’m entertained that Phil suggested accessibility improvements for your code but didn’t tease you about not mentioning accessibility concerns for this article’s solution. Don’t forget users who are colorblind or otherwise visually impaired!

By: Rafael Masoni

Rafael Masoni — Thu, 01 May 2008 16:17:24 +0000

As Martin Sarsini said, look at the traffic lights. People already have some meanings associated to colors. Drastically changing that would be the same as horizontal scrollbars and other unusual navigation. These kind of things require people to learn how to use your website, and I don’t think that’s cool.
Well, but, as everybody said, I think your examples are nice as an alternative for specific cases – as warnings, not critical errors that prevent users from completing the request.
I don’t think red shouldn’t be used, it just got to be used right and pleasantly.
PS: And as Phil Thompson said, the form example needs some improvements and table annihilation :P