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I have to design , a website for a inventory storage firm. The items that are displayed , have three different status 1) In the store 2) Outside 3) Under Process,

When user , visits the homepage, and performs a search , the items will be highlighted in Green, Red and yellow. To inform the user that the specific color means a status , such as 'if highlighted in green, it means its in the store', I have kept the status associated with the color at the top of the page position fixed.

Is this an ideal way of informing users, the meaning of color? should I group them in a table?

Top banner panel

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  • by "outside" do you mean that it is on the way to the user?
    – Igor-G
    Oct 24, 2012 at 10:46
  • Its outside, not in store, but they want have it named as 'Outside' Oct 24, 2012 at 10:50
  • That's a bit confusing... I thought it meant "outside = on the way to you!". But I guess if you come to the website and you see it in red you would think that the product is not in stock. Why wouldn't they want to use "Out of stock" or "Sold out"?
    – Igor-G
    Oct 24, 2012 at 10:58
  • Can you provide a mockup that shows not just the legend, but the items themselves? That way, we can see if there's a strong relationship between your legend and what it pertains to. Oct 24, 2012 at 12:29

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Colour coding is a great way to provide an additional clue but you should include another indication that does not rely on colour (so that users don't have to refer to a separate key for an explanation and so that people who cannot perceive colour are still able to access the status information). I would, in addition to the colour coding, display the status next to each item, e.g. "In the store", "Outside" or "Under Process".

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    I came here to say something similar about color blindness. Personally, I would put it inside the box and make it something playful; like a smiley face in the green, a "serious" (:|) face in the yellow and a sad face in the red.
    – Ben
    Oct 24, 2012 at 13:20

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