A Design Question For Professional Developers

[CaliKidd]

This is a subjective question, so please don't flame me. It is a serious query. I am going by the "there are no dumb questions" rule for newbies, so here it goes.

My question concerns the use of colors in form design, specifically the use of the .forecolor, .backcolor, .font, .bordercolor, and .picture properties.

Have you or someone you know ever designed applications for customers using colored forms?
If so, was the customer's reaction favorable, unfavorable or neutral?
Is the use of color considered (in the trade) to be unprofessional or cheesy?

I understand that using wild, loud colors or overdoing anything could be viewed as amateurish. I'm not going there. My question is more along the lines of using more conservative, business-like colors and themes. In a world of techies, is any artistic expression allowed?

The reason I ask is because it seems that almost every software package I've ever purchased or installed over the past 20 years uses the standard grey background and buttons with black text. I rarely ever see any deviation from that, so I didn't know if it was an "unwritten rule" in the programming and development biz... or if it was just a case of "that's the way it's always been done" from back in the Win 3.x (or earlier) days when the palette was 16 colors or less. Heck, even the old dial-up modem BBS's used to use more color on their screens!

 

[T. Valko]

This is a subjective question, so please don't flame me. It is a serious query. I am going by the "there are no dumb questions" rule for newbies, so here it goes.

My question concerns the use of colors in form design, specifically the use of the .forecolor, .backcolor, .font, .bordercolor, and .picture properties.

Have you or someone you know ever designed applications for customers using colored forms?
If so, was the customer's reaction favorable, unfavorable or neutral?
Is the use of color considered (in the trade) to be unprofessional or cheesy?

I understand that using wild, loud colors or overdoing anything could be viewed as amateurish. I'm not going there. My question is more along the lines of using more conservative, business-like colors and themes. In a world of techies, is any artistic expression allowed?

The reason I ask is because it seems that almost every software package I've ever purchased or installed over the past 20 years uses the standard grey background and buttons with black text. I rarely ever see any deviation from that, so I didn't know if it was an "unwritten rule" in the programming and development biz... or if it was just a case of "that's the way it's always been done" from back in the Win 3.x (or earlier) days when the palette was 16 colors or less. Heck, even the old dial-up modem BBS's used to use more color on their screens!

For what it's worth...

I can't stand a lot of color in applications I work with. I keep formatting and "aesthetics" to an absolute minimum.

Excel ain't no electroinc coloring book for adults!

 

[Smitty]

With User Forms I usually keep them simple. Nothing's worse then being attacked by 12 different colored buttons. Too much color can be distracting and takes away from a form's usual purpose, which is to help people be more efficient.

Dashboards, Splash Screens and things where you want to get a user's attention, well that's a different story.

 

[Asator]

You mean something like this?

http://img.labnol.org/di/excel_mosaic.png

 

[CaliKidd]

You mean something like this?

http://img.labnol.org/di/excel_mosaic.png

Haha, some people always find a novel way of using Excel. Must have been a lot of work, but what's up with Van Gogh's incredibly large ear? No wonder cut that ****** off.

 

[CaliKidd]

With User Forms I usually keep them simple. Nothing's worse then being attacked by 12 different colored buttons. Too much color can be distracting and takes away from a form's usual purpose, which is to help people be more efficient.

I agree, but I would argue some color can help direct the user's attention too.

Dashboards, Splash Screens and things where you want to get a user's attention, well that's a different story.

Technically, aren't they UserForms?

 

[CaliKidd]

I can't stand a lot of color in applications I work with. I keep formatting and "aesthetics" to an absolute minimum.

Excel ain't no electroinc coloring book for adults!

I understand, but is it because you find the colors distracting, childish, or do you just like seeing your work in black and white?

 

[Smitty]

I agree, but I would argue some color can help direct the user's attention too.

True, just not too much. I use enough to keep it from being boring, but engaging.

Technically, aren't they UserForms?

Technically, sure. I refer to User Forms as something where you are specifically directing user input, whereas Dashboards (even if they're somewhat interactive) and Splash Screens are primarily for display.

 

[T. Valko]

I understand, but is it because you find the colors distracting, childish, or do you just like seeing your work in black and white?

I find too much formatting to be distracting. Also, sometimes the color combinations are horrible.

You'll see plenty of examples here when people copy/paste from their files into posts.

When I open those threads I automatically run away!

 

[Norie]

CaliKidd

I think this is sort of subjective - you might use different approachs/formats for the 'subject' you are dealing with.

You might even be restricted to what colours, fonts etc you can use by 'corporate policy'.