Any colour palette should respect the following principles:
- Be functionally appropriate and support UI usage
- Increase legibility
- Support brand values
I realise that I am making an aesthetic judgement here, but I've heard from multiple parties, and strongly feel, that the palette choice for this site is not working, and breaking all the principles above:
- The tint of yellow is too strong (
#FFFF00
): 100% luminosity and saturation! The choice of yellow is not appropriate, with reference to our brand values. We stand for clarity of vision, positivity, hope in the future, trustworthiness, knowledge and cold facts.
Appropriate colours would be in the light and cold range: blue, green. Certainly, hot and passionate colours are 180° from what we are trying to communicate on this site.
The dark, almost black background is also a poor choice. It is attention grabbing for no reason and it communicates the wrong brand values again. White is certainly more appropriate for clarity of vision, positivity, hope in the future, trustworthiness, knowledge and cold facts.
Please rethink the design and remove the yellow and black completely. The mismatch with our brand value makes us look like armchair detectives and it strongly undermines our credibility. Furthermore, it impedes prolonged usage of the site.
It is simply not acceptable.
Mostly in response of Tim Farley, asking for some references in the comments, I'm adding this addendum.
Various sources for common colour connotations:
I would start with Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black and then move on to some of the hundreds of books on the "meaning of colours" (see for example: https://www.google.com/search?q=meaning+of+colours&btnG=Search+Books&tbm=bks&tbo=1)
Peer-reviewed article
An example mock-up with lighter colours and no yellow shows a dramatic difference:
Thanks @Fabian :-)