Timeline for Origin of "big green button"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 11, 2016 at 12:10 | comment | added | Adriano Repetti | ...but you should carefully consider every implication when dealing with dangerous/critical devices/UIs or when feeling is involved. Usually industrial stack lights follow western convention (red = alert) but exceptions exist (for example I saw temperature indicators where red means low...sigh). You should check each specific scenario and do not generalize. My wife is Asian and after years I still find culture-related differences. | |
| Jan 11, 2016 at 12:05 | comment | added | Adriano Repetti | @johnfound late comment but: in many Asian countries red and green have different meanings. For example red in stock trade mean "up" and green means "down". Also red means happiness and it's a positive color. Red light in semaphores (to take your example) is just for coherence with countries from where they imported cars (like left side driving in Japan or left-to-right direction when writing in horizontal). They learned it's like that. It's so widely accepted that sometimes (not always) you may ignore this issue (unless you specifically target only their market)... | |
| Feb 12, 2013 at 12:56 | comment | added | johnfound | @BartGijssens these are different things IMO. For example I like red cars and the red color in generally and don't think the red cars are dangerous or forbidden. But we are talking about engineering and ergonomics here - where red indicators and red buttons always have negative meaning. Regardless of the culture. | |
| Feb 12, 2013 at 12:43 | comment | added | Bart Gijssens | @JohnGB: do you have some source for this? Japanese people have always warned me not to simply use red as an indicator for warnings, errors as it can be interpreted as positive, or as offensive. | |
| Feb 12, 2013 at 12:41 | comment | added | Bart Gijssens | In Japan, like in most other countries, there is a traffic law that explains the meaning of the traffic lights and the required behaviour of people using the public roads. That does not take away that it is a generalization to state that all people are taught to perceive red as negative, forbidden, danger, no. There are variations depending on context and culture. | |
| Feb 12, 2013 at 12:15 | comment | added | JohnGB♦ | @BartGijssens that applies to the perception of red as a general colour, but not when used as an indicator. The same applies to most of East Asia. | |
| Feb 12, 2013 at 8:26 | comment | added | johnfound | So, in Japan the traffic lights are red for "OK to pass"? Good to know. :P Maybe it was true in 15-th century, but not now and not here. | |
| Feb 12, 2013 at 8:21 | comment | added | Bart Gijssens | In Japan, red would be considered "positive, allowed, safe, yes". Generalization can be dangerous. | |
| Feb 12, 2013 at 7:53 | history | answered | johnfound | CC BY-SA 3.0 |