From our poll last week on LinkedIn, we found that people did not really consider color important. However, color is an important aspect for all types of communication. For documents, it lets the user know when an action could injury them or break a component. In digital realms, color will make us feel and experience memories from our past. Color is a powerful tool when communicating with an end user and can determine their thought process going into a document or using a tool. Just think of the last time you worked with a product with awful color choices; your opinion is negative from the onset and will reflect in the usage of the product.
Color is something that technical communicators often have to consider when creating documentation. Here are just a few considerations from the start:
Company branding
508 Compliance
Which colors for warning, caution, and note
Costs associated for printing (if applicable)
Bandwidth and resolution if a digital product
Tone and feel to relay to the user
How much color to use as to not distract
A miscue on any of the above bullets could fail a project before going to the customer, or even worse, fail once the customer uses the end product. A company that takes color considerations seriously is none other than Apple. Here is a good site for their breakdown of color usage:
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/ios/visual-design/color/
A lot of tips from this site could be directly applied to the technical communicator, especially with more deliverables being created in the digital/mobile realm.
How does your company handle color in their products? Is color considered from the beginning or left as an end thought? Let us know in the comments.