[IxDA Discuss] use of color in a web app

[Allison Beckwith]

I work for a small development shop and we are currently working on a  
web app whose primary users will be homeowners and interior  
designers. Our client has hired a design company to develop the  
company branding and visual design for the site. Our team has handled  
everything else, including interaction design (though, none of us are  
trained in this). I have run into some trouble regarding colors.

The primary colors on the design comps are red, grey, and black. The  
designers have used red for a number of things:
* links (though some links are grey) - some underlined, some not -  
also used to indicate an active tab
* highlighted text - You are logged in as allison (for example)
* background color for the mini-dashboard section in the persistent  
navigation
* icons - sometimes next to links, sometimes not
* buttons

My concern is that red is often associated with active or visited  
links, and error messages. It is this last one that concerns me the  
most. I am worried that warnings and error messages (hopefully there  
will be very few) will blend into the page unless we choose a  
different color.

The examples that I have been sent to (to show me that people do, in  
fact, use red links) are for content heavy sites, not highly  
interactive sites. The general response I get from both the client  
and the designers is (a) red is part of the brand, (2) the red links  
don't bother *them*, and (3) they don't want to introduce additional  
colors into the scheme.

Anyhow, I am just wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this. Can  
red work in this situation? Am I being too picky? And the bigger  
question seems to be, what are the best practices for choosing color  
for a web app?

Thank you,

Allison


-- 
Allison Beckwith
Co-Founder & Creative Director

PLANET ARGON, LLC
Ruby on Rails Development, Consulting & Hosting

www.planetargon.com

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