Color has the following qualities that you need to consider when planning your Help system: color attracts the eye, adding emphasis; items that are the same color appear to be related, while items that are different colors appear to belong to separate groups; and colors have different associations for different people and cultures. In addition, much less detail and subtlety of color is available online than in print, and poor use of color may even cause user eyestrain.
nAdd color to your Help files only with extreme care. Overuse of color actually makes information more difficult to process, because the user slows down to think about what the different color means. Avoid adding color to text, in particular, as it is difficult to read, and it’s meaning may be easily confused with Help’s green hot spot text.
nIf you absolutely must add color, use it to convey information about structure, such as grouping or hierarchy, rather than to imply a particular meaning, or as decoration.
nAlways be consistent with the use of color. For example, since green is the defaul hot spot color, avoid using it for anything other than jumps or hot spots.
nDo not depend on color coding alone. The user’s monitor may not have color or may not correctly display colors. Some users may be color-disabled.
nDesign for VGA colors as a best-case scenario. Avoid the brighter colors of the Windows 16-color palette because bright colors can cause after-images, complementary (opposite) colors appear to vibrate, and both can cause eyestrain.
nDon’t rely on color to convey a particular meaning. Red, for example, implies “warning” in one culture, and “happiness” in another. Consult your localizer about color choices.
nIf you must add colors to your Help file, add as few as possible. Remember that there are already five colors in the Help interface, (black, white, light gray, dark gray, and blue) and green hot spots. Too many colors distract the eye. Consider designing illustrative or navigational graphics with a limited palette.
nIf you must use colored text, use strong contrast. Do not put light text on a light background or bright text, like bright-green, on a bright background, like magenta.
nIt’s helpful to use colored text for the hidden text coding in the source files. It stands out and makes it easier to debug and localize the topic files.
nHelp does not do any special color mapping for monochrome. It lets Windows do it.