A Tale of Red and Green

While tackling the issue of color in design is a vast subject, the question of color symbolism quickly comes to the surface. What message can a color convey? What does it represent? What value does it have, and so on?

One practical method entails assigning symbolism to individual colors, enabling their categorization, and facilitating seamless integration into interfaces, visual identities, and other experiences.

However tempting as it may seem, simply relying on color symbolism is, unfortunately, kind of bullshit. Let’s explore why color cannot be solely relied upon entirely.

Image from Serena Archetti’s article “The Meaning of Colors: How to use colors in your art”

Color is an idea

In a genuine sense, color is just a concept we’ve defined. Michel Pastoureau, a renowned author specializing in color, explains that color is, first and foremost, an idea. He backs this up with many studies showing that people born blind have the same color culture as sighted adults. So, when we say we like a color, we like what it represents, not the color itself. For example, red in Western culture is associated as a toxic, exciting, and powerful color. However, it is perceived more as a calm and soothing color in Japan. This makes it difficult to establish common principles for colors and ensure they convey the same message to everyone.

We’re not all equal when it comes to color

Who remembers the controversial discussion in 2015 about the color of this dress? Knowing the answer today, this debate reminds us that we don’t have the same perception of color. The world of colors is unique to each of us, depending on our experience, education, age, culture, and much more. All these factors influence our perception, and the color we observe will not be precisely the same as the person next to us. Once again, more is needed to define a common frame of reference for using colors universally.

The case of red and green

However, it’s interesting to note that red and green are two colors that have almost universal usage. In digital experiences, red generally indicates a destructive or negative action, while green is more likely to provide a confirmation or positive action. Even your not-so-digital-savvy grandmother can quickly understand what red and green buttons on an interface can represent: to accept or decline a call, to validate or refuse, and so on.

We can find the same logic just about everywhere else. Take the case of traffic lights. Almost everywhere in the world, it’s agreed that a red light signals us to stop and that we can proceed when it turns green. You don’t need to learn a specific culture to know this rule – it works everywhere.
So, is this a universal color symbolism that holds true? No, still not.

What science says

Perhaps it would be wiser to turn to science for an explanation. If we look at the wavelengths of the color spectrum that our eyes can perceive, we see that red and green have the longest frequency, particularly red. Therefore, it seems logical to have opted for this color for traffic lights and, in general, to attract our attention.

The effects of this color are not symbolic at this stage but physical. When we see red, the color appears closer, our heart rate quickens and our attention is immediately drawn to it. Since green is the opposite of red and has a long wavelength, it is logical to use it as a complement.

What about red and green brands?

Does this mean all red marks are negative and all green marks are positive? Obviously not; it’s a bit more complex than that. A brand’s choice of colors results from strategic decisions, targets, vision, and the storytelling it wishes to tell.

What’s rather interesting is how a brand uses one of these colors in its identity in conjunction with typical UI color patterns. Especially with brands that use red in particular–it’s interesting to consider how they manage to design interfaces without their brand red conflicting with errors, critical alerts, destructive actions, etc. Since red is often associated with danger in our interfaces, it can be tricky to reconcile your brand with these critical moments.

But what if the question wasn’t ultimately how to solve this problem but rather whether the use of red for error cases might not be the underlying problem?

Rethinking red

If color symbolism is meaningless, maybe it’s time to rethink our general use of red in our interfaces? Perhaps we even reconsider how we display errors and other critical moments for users. Some interfaces using red in their branding have had to adapt to the exercise and find workarounds.

Muji, for example, uses dashed borders on its fields to indicate errors to avoid clashing too much with the red of its brand. Beyond this color trick, it’s also an excellent accessibility practice. But there are indeed ways of going even further.

For example, Uniqlo decided to use a different color (i.e., yellow) to indicate errors, leaving red for their brand alone. And using red for this kind of error may not be appropriate. Generally speaking, filling in forms is never pleasant, and we don’t intentionally make mistakes. So there’s no need to assault us with a red message. Other colors can call our attention just as well.

But we can go even further and rethink the experience of these critical cases. Dropbox’s case is interesting because they use interstitial modals to confirm the action the user is taking. This allows them to altogether avoid red and retain their brand color even for destructive actions. Ultimately, the critical case is rethought through a pattern of experience and no longer relies simply on color. You have to wonder if this provides an even more successful result.

Going further

If you’re still not convinced that color symbolism is worthless and that we can’t trust colors, I recommend reading the works of Michel Pastoureau.

On one hand, it’s fascinating to read about the history of these colors and how their perception has been influenced by technology, politics, religion, and more. But on the other hand, it also makes you realize that colors are never the same from one era to the next, from one country to another, and that they are ultimately just a concept reflecting a particular culture, but not all cultures, unfortunately.

This article is a written version of a talk I presented in June 2023 at the Pixel Pioneers conference in Bristol, UK. Watch the replay now: