Color group selection for computer interfaces

2. INTRODUCTION In choosing colours for an interface, we must achieve a balance between several aesthetic and pragmatic objectives, some associated with the interface as a whole, and some associated with individual interface components. The two most important objectives relate to the interface as a whole. First, visual distinction must be maintained between items on the screen. Secondly, it is necessary to maintain overall colour harmony within the interface. Third, and least important, is the desire to give individual interface components a pleasant colour. Conventional colour pickers support only this third, minor, objective. Users are left to their own devices to achieve the more difficult and more important objectives. This complicates the design of interfaces with multiple coloured components. We hypothesise • that (following Munsell, cited in Birren (1969)), many of the aesthetic and pragmatic criteria characterising commercially important images, such as computer interfaces, can be represented by a mathematical formalism • that this formalism can be conceptualised as an abstract colour scheme • that the abstract colour scheme can be represented by a simple geometric shape in a 3D colour space (a colour molecule) • that the abstract colour scheme can be converted to a specific colour scheme which conforms to the aforementioned aesthetic and pragmatic criteria by locating the colour molecule within the space.