Home Screen Colors: What does the color on our screens say about ourselves?
For delaO design studio, it is vital to understand the emotional relationship between technology and Mexican society. For this reason, we continuously design experimental research projects that help us discover and interpret aspects of Mexicans' everyday life and idiosyncrasy. For this project, We collected 183 home screens of various smartphone users to discover any relationship between the perception of color in Mexican society and its use.
The importance of using home screens for this experiment relies on our belief that it is one of the only elements on a smartphone where users can express their personality and project wishes and aspirations. With this in mind, we wonder: What does the color on our screens say about ourselves? We identified each home screen's predominant colors and analyzed them using image recognition software and interpreted this information through various color psychology theories.
Our data reflected the confirmation that our home screens' color is highly influenced by our identity and the role it occupies in the environment. For example, participants who live in places with an average temperature above 18ºC preferred warm colors on their home screens, as people in cooler zones choose colder colors.
In contrast, most participants who live in urban areas tend to use images with elements related to nature, in colder tones.
In addition to that, our data suggested that older participants preferred less bright colors on their home screens, perhaps as compensation for visual fatigue, relative to their younger counterparts.
Lastly, the data on this research might challenge the conception of the relationship with Mexican Culture and color. One might think that Mexicans would use a lot of color on their electronic devices. But most participants preferred desaturated tones on their home screens, and black was the most popular achromatic color in this survey.
This analysis is communicated through a collection of informative posters, representing the results of data collection and the questioning of color use within Mexican culture. For us, research does not necessarily seek answers; it opens the possibility of generating questions that can lead us to new territories; in this case, on color, both in design and technology.
This experiment was carried out between February and August 2020.
For inquiries on acquiring the full report, please contact us at info@delao.mx
Concept and Art Direction by José de la O
Analysis by Andrea de la Peña and José de la O
Graphic Design by Andrea de la Peña
Revisions and Editing by Adriana Gutiérrez
Production Assistant: Diana García