Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Europe Chapter
Bad Ergonomics - Example 4

Colour
Colour stereotypes are limited. I think the only exceptions are red, which indicates danger or an error, green, which indicates "save" or "go", and perhaps orange for "warning". The device shown below is a so-called event-data multiplexer, something we use for registering heart rate. The device is "home-made" and although it works very well, shortage of green LEDS and an abundance of red LEDS may have caused a violation of the just mentioned colour stereotypes. All the red LEDS mean everything is ok (or they indicate a specific state), the green LED (in the yellow circle) however, indicates that action is required, the system needs to be manually reset... Naturally, reversing the colours would have made more sense.

event-data multiplexer

submitted by Dick de Waard

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