One of the interesting subjects to discuss would be “Color Themes”. Take any software application (web or desktop or mobile), and you can find there is room for cosmetics. Most of the software could be made “theme”-able irrespective of whether it adds value or not. For certain genre, themes are a must and for others, it is not that important. But if given, it would add some value. CRM is one such product domain which requires theme-able interface. Coz more than half of immobile CRM users spend most of their time interacting with the product. But for sales people who are on the move, it may not be necessary because they concentrate more on the information and UI response rather than the cosmetics.
Users who spend a lot of time require some eye pleasing color themes so that they don’t feel bored at the end of the hour (who prefers looking at a dull gray or senseless drab colors for the whole day?). And for theme designers, it is one of the mandatory job to come up with a crowd-pleasing color theme.Creating a theme that is liked by most (not everyone) users is a little tough job. It requires iterations to arrive at a proper color. Some themes which is praised by many, gets bombed by some. Why does those “some” dont like the theme? There could be many reasons. But one of the reasons I guess is .. color deficiency. Because for users having color deficiency,the theme may not look good. They might perceive the real color as a dull color leading to dis-liking of the theme. I don’t have solid data to backup this idea, but going through the feedback mails we receive, I guess color deficiency could be one factor which determines the success of a color theme. Of course, color deficiency is not the only factor which determines the success, other factors like people’s own taste for colors & taste for designs play important roles too. Personal preference is very subjective.
Taking all these factors into consideration, coming up with a successful color theme requires good number of iterations and patience. If a user doesn’t like your color theme, find out why. Pick up some safe and sensible colors and build your theme.
- Rajesh Sundaram
