CONTRIBUTOR: Shahjahan Alhassan - 13th Oct 2001

Colours? Hmmm, why make an issue over colours? After all, as long as a product looks good who cares! Colours are taken for granted by many people, and are often treated as an after thought even by those who develop and manufacture products themselves.

"Many people involved in colour specification throughout the manufacturing process of a product admit that they have no - or very little - colour sense."
(Russell, 1991, 15)

"Colour is tremendously undervalued as a subliminal communication tool, and the client is often wary of new colours because of lack of understanding."
(Russell, 1991, 21)

But what does this really have to do with the system designer? Stage 6 of SSADM 'Physical Design' is where this issue really comes into play, usually there is no real need to consider it beforehand since the system designer is only concerned with the internal and conceptual workings of the system. Unless of course, colour plays a major part in the system being developed e.g. Desk top publishing systems, graphic design, etc. The largest area needing attention to colour being the Human Computer Interface (HCI), more specifically the screen display. The end users are the ones who will be greatly affected by the colour choice made. They are the ones who will be using the system most of the time, therefore their input is vital to the success of the system and the reputation of the designer.

This report is aimed at giving system designers a greater depth of understanding in the area of colour implementation, how it influences us, and the common problems associated with the use of colour.