This got me thinking about the biological impact of the color red and how it is used in software.
Of course there’s nothing new about the use of red to get our attention. Arguably our response to the color could be rooted in the color of our blood, and how seeing it should demand attention. Elsewhere in nature red indicates danger or alarm in the form of fire, poisonous plants, etc.
The use of red in human-made systems goes back a long ways as well. Red warning lights, red stop lights and other symbols indicate that we should stop what we are doing and/or proceed no further. This use continued on into the world of software as well where red was reserved for critical errors or choices that were irreversible.
But recently it seems more and more notifications are turning red. Even something as innocuous as an email results in a bright red dot.
This wasn’t always red, was it?
Now our communications systems scream bloody murder when any amount of our attention is needed. Opening Slack on any given day results in dozens of red lights beaming at us, and this is the same for almost any other application.
I’m not sure when this started but like most design elements as soon as one high-profile player does it everyone else copies it without thinking about why or what it means (lest they be seen as “outdated”). As a result our most ancient instincts are assaulted and our hormonal reactions triggered and for what? Rarely anything that is an emergency in the life-and-death sense of running a red light or allowing a boiler to operate above a safe pressure.
I try to take note when I notice things like this in the systems I depend on or must use (by choice or correction), because as I design systems of my own I want to avoid these mistakes. Whether or not they are ever consciously noticed I think it makes the things I create more pleasant to use and avoid the sort of emotional manipulation that is rampant in contemporary software.