Gender differences in children's use of colors in designing safety signs

Gender differences exist in color preference. However, most sign designs and research on signs nowadays seldom consider the issues of color preference and the gender differences. This paper serves as a preliminary study and explores children's use of colors on designing signs and examines the differences of boys and girls in choosing colors for different signs. In this study, thirty-two boys and girls were invited to draw twelve chosen signs with six colored felt-tip pens. After collecting and analyzing children's drawings, it is found that girls are keener to use more colors, and it can be argued that colorful signs are more effective for them. However, the factors affecting girls’ choices of colors in drawing the signs are still unexplored, and further investigations have to be conducted in this regard. Nevertheless, it is hoped that this paper is able to provide a children's perspective on the choices of signs’ colors and thus shed some lights on using different colors in sign design for children. Copyright © 2015 The Authors.