November 7, 2010
The popularity of blue
Looking back at my portfolio, one thing that is very noticeable is that I mainly use the color blue. To be frank, I like to work with blue because it plays nicely with my favorite color: yellow-orange, but also, many clients ask for blue and I think it is a common color in many other interface designs as well.
Associations with Blue
Colors have various traditional associations and it is widely known that blue is associated with words such as calmness, cool, smart, progressive, trustworthy, peace, clean, and so on. While these associations are important to consider when creating color palettes for graphics, there is an another reason why blue tends to be the popular color in interfaces.
Human Perception of Blue
Blue is difficult to see. Not that we need more effort to discern whether a color is blue but blue is harder to notice compared to other colors. To simply outline why, photoreceptors that react to blue are:
1. Not located in the center but located in the periphery part of the retina.
2. They are significantly less in numbers compared to other receptors.
3. The minimum intensity level of blue required for the photoreceptor to respond is comparably higher than other colors like yellow.
As a result, when blue is used, the design naturally fades into the background and makes the content easier to read. The best way to make the contents of an interface as noticeable as possible, of course, would be to use b&w since they have extremely contrasting luminance values.
But with blue, designers can use colors in their designs while taking great advantage of our cognitive limits. No wonder blue is popular.