Had to pick between texture and color coding for a control panel at work

I was tagging a bunch of equipment switches at a factory in Denver last month and had to decide whether to use colored stickers or textured overlays. The boss wanted green and red for go and stop, but I argued half the guys on the floor might not see that clearly. I went with small raised dots on the stop switches and smooth ones on the go, cost about $35 extra for the overlays. Three weeks in and two guys actually thanked me because they'd been guessing at colors before. Anyone else run into this problem with industrial gear?

2 comments

2 Comments

faith_smith16d ago

The thing I haven't seen anyone mention yet is how color coding can actually fail in low light or dirty conditions, which is half the battle in most factories. I used to work in a machine shop where everything was covered in oil and metal dust, and after a couple hours you couldn't tell green from red on most of the buttons. Textured overlays hold up a lot better when things get grimy because you can feel the difference even with greasy gloves on. Plus it's a good safety backup if somebody's colorblind, which is way more common than most people think.

nina83416d ago

Not to mention textured designs actually help train muscle memory faster than colors ever could.