CoColor: Interactive Exploration of Color Designs

Choosing colors is a pivotal but challenging component of graphic design. The paper presents an intelligent interaction technique supporting designers’ creativity in color design. It fills a gap in the literature by proposing an integrated technique for color exploration, assignment, and refinement: CoColor. Our design goals were 1) let designers focus on color choice by freeing them from pixel-level editing and 2) support rapid flow between low- and high-level decisions. Our interaction technique utilizes three steps – choice of focus, choice of suitable colors, and the colors’ application to designs – wherein the choices are interlinked and computer-assisted, thus supporting divergent and convergent thinking. It considers color harmony, visual saliency, and elementary accessibility requirements. The technique was incorporated into the popular design tool Figma and evaluated in a study with 16 designers. Participants explored the coloring options more easily with CoColor and considered it helpful.