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Newsletter Archives
Recognition Cues:
Color-Code Your Messages
Be sure your audience
views and understands important announcements by color-coding your
messages.
With the barrage of
visual communications your audience receives each day, it’s important to
make the recognition and retention of important information as easy as
possible. Use color-coding to ensure emergency announcements are
immediately recognized. Whether information is presented as a bulletin
or a ticker, you can change the background and/or foreground colors to
indicate special circumstances.
Example:
Standard tickers often
use light colored text on a dark background.
Reverse or brighten your
color scheme for emergency announcements to gain instant attention.
It doesn’t have to be an
emergency that defines your color scheme. Many organizations standardize
within their approved color palette to identify messages from various
sources.
Example:
HR
announcements on a tan background.
Sales
on a red background.
News
bulletins on a navy background.
Steps to a color-coded
messaging system:
1.
Establish an agreed upon
color system for departments, topics and/or emergencies
2.
Publish the system and
keep an updated copy accessible to all employees for constant reference
3.
Be disciplined in your
use of the color system, make sure messages are not inadvertently designed
in the wrong color
codes
4.
Test the system (see our
article) and get feedback from users to judge success
By helping your audience
to instantly identify and recognize the source and priority of messages,
you can dramatically improve the success of your visual communications.
Copyright 2006. Tech Electronics, Inc. (TEi). All rights reserved.
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