Red, white and blue for you

"Your site is very red," a woman said to me recently.
"Do you like it?" I asked.
"Sometimes," she answered.

Red is not the only colour here at Spotlight Online, but along with white, it is the predominant one. As we were working on our new look at the beginning of February, I noticed a story on the Science website about how researchers at the University of British Columbia had tested 600 people to see their reaction when they were shown words and images on red, white and blue backgrounds.

Interestingly, when it came to attention to detail, like remembering words or checking spelling and punctuation, red was best. When the participants were asked to look at a list of 36 words, those in the red group recalled more words correctly than those in the blue group. However, when it came to creative thinking, the blue group was best.

Luckily, we've got all three colours: The white background for reading on, red for tags and hyperlinks and blue to indicate the translated words in our texts. (Just place your mouse cursor over one of those blue words and you'll get the German version.) Red, white and blue for you, in other words.