On week three, we covered color theory and visual design. I really enjoyed this week’s reading content. Some of it was familiar to me as I took a color theory class many years ago, during my undergrad course work but some of the content was new to me or I had forgotten all about it. I have to say that I just find it fascinating that Sir Isaac Newton, a physicist, created the first color wheel. How great is that?
Color theory is a system of rules and guidance for mixing various colors for creating aesthetically pleasing content. Because color and the visual design of documents are a very powerful visual communication tool, it is extremely important for those who create instructional material to be mindful of their use. For example, color can produce feelings such as happiness or sadness. It can also imply associations like for example, red and white might be associated with Christmas, while black and orange are associated with Halloween (Schwertly, 2014).
When creating learning content, one should keep in mind that using the wrong color combination can become a detriment or a distraction to the learner. For example, using a bright green background with bright pink font color will make it very difficult for the learner to read because of the low contrast. The higher the contracts between two colors, for example, black text on white background, the easier it is to read the text. However, there are always exceptions, for example, a red background with blue text do not work well together even though these two colors have a high contrast. While warm colors such as reds, oranges, and yellow convey energy and excitement, cool colors like greens, blues, and purples evoke tranquility. Therefore to emphasize content in a presentation, one would use reds, oranges, or yellows.
Whether the content is created via Excel, Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, the web, etc., if the content is designed poorly, the message the creator is trying to communicate might not come across properly. For visual unity, some elements in the document should be repeated, for example, headers and titles should have the same type of format, spatial relationship among objects should be equal, and color should be used in a set of 3 or 4. The alignment of the content is also very important as it helps with the structure of the content. Aligning and grouping items in a document will help the reader remember the content better as short-term memory dictates that readers cannot maintain more than seven separate ideas in working memory (Williams, n.d.).
Reference
Schwertly, S. (2014, June 11). Color Theory Basics for Presentation Design. Retrieved from https://www.ethos3.com/2014/06/color-theory-basics-for-presentation-design/
Williams, R. (n.d.). Visual Design of Instructional Materials. Retrieved from http://www.coastal.edu/education/edit/modules/301.pdf
Color theory is a system of rules and guidance for mixing various colors for creating aesthetically pleasing content. Because color and the visual design of documents are a very powerful visual communication tool, it is extremely important for those who create instructional material to be mindful of their use. For example, color can produce feelings such as happiness or sadness. It can also imply associations like for example, red and white might be associated with Christmas, while black and orange are associated with Halloween (Schwertly, 2014).
When creating learning content, one should keep in mind that using the wrong color combination can become a detriment or a distraction to the learner. For example, using a bright green background with bright pink font color will make it very difficult for the learner to read because of the low contrast. The higher the contracts between two colors, for example, black text on white background, the easier it is to read the text. However, there are always exceptions, for example, a red background with blue text do not work well together even though these two colors have a high contrast. While warm colors such as reds, oranges, and yellow convey energy and excitement, cool colors like greens, blues, and purples evoke tranquility. Therefore to emphasize content in a presentation, one would use reds, oranges, or yellows.
Whether the content is created via Excel, Word, Publisher, PowerPoint, the web, etc., if the content is designed poorly, the message the creator is trying to communicate might not come across properly. For visual unity, some elements in the document should be repeated, for example, headers and titles should have the same type of format, spatial relationship among objects should be equal, and color should be used in a set of 3 or 4. The alignment of the content is also very important as it helps with the structure of the content. Aligning and grouping items in a document will help the reader remember the content better as short-term memory dictates that readers cannot maintain more than seven separate ideas in working memory (Williams, n.d.).
Reference
Schwertly, S. (2014, June 11). Color Theory Basics for Presentation Design. Retrieved from https://www.ethos3.com/2014/06/color-theory-basics-for-presentation-design/
Williams, R. (n.d.). Visual Design of Instructional Materials. Retrieved from http://www.coastal.edu/education/edit/modules/301.pdf
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