Vibrant palettes for children
Three bolder palettes beside the current soft one, all on the same screen and the same five colour roles, so you can judge colour alone. Pick a palette to repaint the preview below. The solid yellow tile is still the only thing that says "do this now".
Hi Noah!
Today's trail
- Note Done
- Puzzle Now
- Practice Later
- Class Later
Sticker book
After an answer
- You got it
- Try again
- Here is a hint
What the evidence says, and what it does not
- NN/g watched children aged 3 to 12. A 3-year-old picked what to tap on the Nick Jr. app because its buttons were "large, colorful, and informative". That is one observation about buttons, not a colour study.
- A general summary on Wikipedia says children tend to prefer red, pink and blue, prefer cool to warm colours, and that preferences shift with age and with what colours they associate with things. I read only that summary, not the studies behind it.
- WCAG 1.4.1 says colour must not be the only way to show meaning. A difference in lightness of at least 3:1 counts as an extra cue. Every state here also has an icon or a word.
- I found no solid evidence that a more saturated interface improves learning or engagement. Vendor pages that call apps "joyful" are marketing, so I did not use them.
- Which palette do children aged 6 to 8 pick as their favourite, and does the choice change when they have to find the next thing to do?
- Does the louder Candy or Arcade palette make "what do I do now" harder to see than Playground, where one yellow tile stands out against bold neighbours?
- Do 9 to 11 year olds find Candy babyish and Arcade grown-up enough?
Limits: no children were involved. The preview is static apart from the demo trail step and the switches. The black and white check shows how the tiles read without colour, but it is not a colour-blindness simulation. The pale hero text on Arcade's hero is the closest to the limit (4.72:1 against the 4.5:1 needed for text; Playground and Candy are about 5.5:1). Arcade is also a dark theme, which was not considered for younger children.