Researching colour

Before deciding on which colours to play around with for my travel app, I looked up and thought about which colours most connote adventure, bravery, excitement and fun.

I went onto Psychologenie.com to find some more detailed information on the colours that I think most represent these things. These were the results:

Red in a Nut Shell
Stimulating, bravery, attention, excitement, speed, fast action, fire, dynamic, heat, eroticism, war, blood, lust, dream careers, vibrant, provoking, exciting, strength, attention

Red is stimulating and connotes bravery and excitement. I definitely think using such a bold colour in my app could be beneficial, however because of the more negative connotations that red holds, I may not use too much of it.

Orange in a Nut Shell
Energy, balance, warmth, enthusiasm, vibrant, expansive, flamboyant, justice, fascination demanding of attention. Red-oranges define sexual passion, desire, aggression. While darker shades of orange have the downside representing deceit, showoff, over-confidence. More lighter shades mean health, happiness, good manners and sophistication.

(Colormatters.com said this about orange: Orange symbolizes energy, vitality, cheer, excitement, adventure, warmth, and good health.)

When looking at the description of orange, the words that stood out most to me were enthusiasm, excitement and adventure. Because of this, I think orange will be one of the main colours that I’ll include across my travel app, and I’ll probably use it as the main colour for my app icon.

Yellow in a Nut Shell
Joy, happiness, logical, optimism, idealism, imagination, hope, sunshine, summer, gold, philosophy, creativity, practical, judge-mental, dishonesty, cowardice, betrayal, jealousy, covetousness, deceit, illness, hazard.  Yellow is the brightest color on the palette! And what does it say? Well, yellow is a warm color of sunshine and sun-kissed beaches. It is the color of happiness, mental clarity, optimism, cheerfulness, and energy. It is also a color that stimulates appetite, the brain, and memory, leading to confidence. It is proved that studying in yellow rooms enhances focus. Yellow is a practical color, it makes one more analytical, as it is mainly perceived by the brain, and a lot lesser by the heart.

Happiness, imagination and sunshine are things I want to be associated with my app as that’s mostly what people will be feeling/thinking when backpacking or considering going backpacking.

Green in a Nut Shell
Healing, abundance, safety, fertility, food, hope, resurrection, youth, hope, immortality, health, generosity, envy, quietude, compassion, renewal, moderation, nurturing, diplomacy, calm, misfortune, self-control.

Seeing as a lot of backpacking is done outdoors, I think I will try to incorporate green into my app prototype somehow. It also represents youth and, seeing as my target audience is students/young adults (18-25), I think green could tie in well here.

Testing out colour schemes in my icon

I started off by using simple hues of yellow and orange, but I thought it looked a little too plain and bland. There also was little to no contrast between these colours. I then decided to see what it would look like if I tried to incorporate some red to make it appear more bold and exciting.

After adding red, I wanted to see what it would look like if I added another colour. When I thought about this, I figured green was the best way to go, so for my third design, I made the handle of the backback green. I thought this would be subtle, but still jazz it up enough to make it a little more exciting.

After adding the green, I actually really liked how it looked with the red so I decided to completely rejig the colours to accommodate this.

I really like the outcome, however, I think the eyes don’t pop as much as they did in the third design, so I will probably be sticking to that one. It was still fun to create this more bold and colourful  version though. I also asked a few of my friends which one that stood out to them the most, and the majority of them agreed with me that the third design may be the nicest.

I continued to play around with the colours on the backpack with the red pocket and cover as I personally thought this one was the boldest and stood out the most.

Update: 10 March

As I was assembling my first four app screens, I realised that the contrast between the colours on all of these first ideas wasn’t stark enough without adding a stroke (which I didn’t want to do). So, to rectify this, I darkened the green of the buckles and pockets, as well as making the red toned body have more of a yellow hue. I think that changing the main colours from a pastel to more of a bold and bright colour will be the most effective in terms of accessibility.