They are not only preventing you from dying when you cross the streets.

它们不仅可以防止您过马路时丧命。

Traffic lights are so incorporated in our everyday life that we react instinctively to them. We see red — we stop; we see green — we go. We don’t have to think about what those colours mean, they just give us an impulse, and we react to it.

交通信号灯已融入我们的日常生活，以至于本能地做出React。 我们看到红色-我们停下来； 我们看到绿色-我们走了。 我们不必考虑这些颜色的含义，它们只会给我们带来冲动，我们会对此做出React。

As a designer, it is self-explanatory that knowing your colour palette is crucial. Using the colours red, yellow and green will make certain elements stand out from their surroundings and probably lead to the desired effect. However, UX design, of course, is so much more than just making a few buttons pop out and make the user click them. The user’s experience has to be crafted from start to finish. Guiding the user through the site, however, doesn’t always require insane visuals, bling-bling and a dancing unicorn. In the case of the traffic light, you can see that an entire communication process is made by only using three basic colours. The associations the human brain has crafted regarding those colours go far beyond “stop-wait-go”.

作为设计师，不言而喻，了解您的调色板至关重要。 使用红色，黄色和绿色将使某些元素从周围环境中脱颖而出，并可能导致所需的效果。 但是，UX设计当然不仅仅是弹出几个按钮并让用户单击它们。 必须从头到尾精心设计用户的体验。 但是，引导用户浏览网站并不一定总是需要疯狂的视觉效果，闪闪发光的钻石和独角兽跳舞。 对于交通信号灯，您可以看到仅使用三种基本颜色即可完成整个通信过程。 人脑就这些颜色建立的关联远远超出了“停下来等待去”的范围。

基本的颜色和基本的直觉 (Basic colours and basic instincts)

Let’s start with the basics. These colours have been chosen for a reason. They have to be understood immediately because — not to be dramatic here — your life depends on it.

让我们从基础开始。 选择这些颜色是有原因的。 必须立即了解它们，因为–在这里不要太夸张–您的生活取决于它。

红色-警告和有趣 (Red — Warning and Intriguing)

Red is typically associated with warnings, danger or the importance of something and is a highly visible colour. Not only traffic lights or other signs in traffic like the STOP-sign use this colour to say “no-no” and require your immediate attention. Just think about where the colour red is found in nature. Most people associate it with fire and blood- something that most certainly does require your attention. But let’s also not forget about other associations it might evoke. Romance and erotica are often connected to this colour (for instance, on valentine’s day where everything is decorated with red hearts and red roses and red everything-ugh!), and this is not a coincidence. Humans react very emotionally to it, and it is said even to enhance metabolism, increase respiration rate, and raise blood pressure.

红色通常与警告，危险或某物的重要性相关，并且是一种高度可见的颜色。 不仅交通信号灯或其他交通标志(如停车标志)也使用此颜色表示“禁止”，并需要您立即注意。 只需考虑一下自然界中红色的位置。 大多数人将其与火和血联系在一起，这确实很需要您的注意。 但是，我们也不要忘记它可能引起的其他关联。 浪漫和情色常常与这种颜色有关(例如，在情人节那天，一切都装饰有红色的心，红玫瑰和红色的一切-啊！)，这不是巧合。 人类对此会产生非常强烈的情绪React，据说它甚至可以增强新陈代谢，提高呼吸频率并提高血压。

In marketing, there is probably no easier way of using colour to make people react to your message or product than using red. Just think about how a sale is always advertised with red signs or how tempting it just is to click that fat, red button. Our minds have been conditioned to associate this colour with an immediate response- just how when you see a red traffic light. Look at the home screen of your phone and pay attention to the little red circle that means you have a message or notification. It’s so tempting to open this notification right away because we always think that this is something super important. We tend to think that in the right context, red means excitement. It is in the human nature to have a sensitivity for this colour, which has the ability to influence our appetite, our attention or our sexuality- it is no coincidence that it is called the “red-light district”, for example.

在市场营销中，可能没有比使用红色更简单的方法来使用颜色来使人们对您的消息或产品做出React。 只要考虑一下如何始终用红色标志来宣传销售，或者点击红色的胖按钮就多么诱人。 我们的思维已经习惯于将这种颜色与即时响应相关联-以及如何看到红色的交通信号灯。 查看手机的主屏幕，注意红色小圆圈，这表示您有消息或通知。 立即打开此通知非常诱人，因为我们始终认为这是非常重要的事情。 我们倾向于认为，在正确的背景下，红色表示兴奋。 对这种颜色具有敏感性是人类的天性，这种颜色具有影响我们的食欲，注意力或性别的能力-例如，被称为“红灯区”并非偶然。

So long story short: Don’t underestimate primitive, human instincts and if applicable, make use of this colour for an immediate CTA.

长话短说：不要低估原始的，人类的直觉，并且在适用的情况下，请使用此颜色进行即时CTA。

黄色-注意和过渡 (Yellow — Attention and Transition)

Yellow or orange, on the other hand, are considered very happy colours since they are connected to sunshine and energy. However, they have not been incorporated into the traffic light to make people happy (as if being in traffic would make anyone ever happy). Since yellow is such a vibrant colour, it serves as an attention-getter as well. Held against dark colours, yellow is the most visible of all colours and also the last colour humans are able to perceive before complete blindness. In the case of the traffic light, this colour serves to indicate a transition. Even though yellow and especially orange are quite close to red and seem to have a similar effect, they evoke different reactions in people. While red calls for immediate action, yellow indicates change and progress and has more fluid meaning.

另一方面，黄色或橙色被认为是非常幸福的颜色，因为它们与阳光和能量有关。 但是，尚未将它们并入交通灯中以使人们感到高兴(好像在交通中会使任何人感到高兴)。 由于黄色是一种鲜艳的颜色，因此它也可以吸引人们的注意。 对于深色来说，黄色是所有颜色中最明显的颜色，也是人类在完全失明之前可以感知的最后一种颜色。 在交通信号灯的情况下，该颜色用于指示过渡。 尽管黄色，尤其是橙色与红色非常接近，并且似乎具有相似的效果，但它们在人中引起了不同的React。 红色表示需要立即采取行动，而黄色表示变化和进步，并且含义更流畅。

In design, yellow and orange can not only be used as indicators for waiting and but also for change. It can be used to encourage the user to finish a task. Primarily through the use of yellow in traffic lights, we tend to think of this colour as something like an instruction which we have to pay attention to. It creates an ephemeral zone of decision around the intersection and indicates that something is about to happen. We naturally associate yellow in traffic with something that is guiding us to an important decision.

在设计中，黄色和橙色不仅可以用作等待和更改的指示。 它可以用来鼓励用户完成任务。 主要通过在交通信号灯中使用黄色，我们倾向于将这种颜色视为类似于我们必须注意的说明。 它在交叉路口周围创建一个临时决策区，并指示即将发生的事情。 我们自然会将交通中的黄色与引导我们做出重要决定的事物联系起来。

绿色-积极安全 (Green — Positive and Safe)

Green is the most positive colour and the colour of nature. It symbolises freshness and harmony and has a strong emotional correspondence with safety. Green is the direct contrast colour of red and therefore, has also the opposite effect. It basically just says: “Go ahead, you’re doing everything right!”. It is seen as very encouraging, and this is why many CTA’s uses this colour — it makes the user feel good about their decision. When creating, for example, a button for signing up to a page, you would have to consider what effect your choice of colour would have. Red would probably get the user’s attention easier but might also be associated with a warning if it’s too much out there.

绿色是最积极的色彩，也是自然界的色彩。 它象征着新鲜与和谐，与安全感有着强烈的情感对应。 绿色是红色的直接对比色，因此也具有相反的效果。 它基本上只是说：“继续，您做对了所有事情！”。 这被认为是非常令人鼓舞的，这就是为什么许多CTA使用这种颜色的原因-它使用户对他们的决定感到满意。 例如，在创建用于注册页面的按钮时，您必须考虑选择的颜色会产生什么效果。 红色可能会更容易引起用户的注意，但如果警告过多，则可能还会与警告相关联。

把事情简单化 (Keep it simple)

What you can see from the traffic light is how powerful this simplicity can be. But when talking about simplicity: why aren’t there only two colours? Wouldn’t red and green be enough to communicate what you want to communicate? Well, in essence red and green would do the job more or less. However, yellow plays a more vital role. The direct transition from red to green would be so abrupt that our brain would react with stress to this sudden change. Also in design, we want to create a flow which is most comfortable for the user. As with the traffic light, we don’t need ten colours to indicate what we should do, and more colours would mean distraction from our actual goal. The colours of the traffic light manage to communicate things to us clearly, and we universally understand them without much context.

从交通信号灯中可以看到，这种简单性有多么强大。 但是在谈论简单性时：为什么不只有两种颜色？ 红色和绿色不足以传达您想要传达的信息吗？ 好吧，从本质上讲，红色和绿色或多或少可以完成这项工作。 但是，黄色起着至关重要的作用。 从红色到绿色的直接过渡将是如此突然，以至于我们的大脑会对这种突然的变化产生压力。 同样在设计中，我们希望创建对用户来说最舒适的流程。 与交通信号灯一样，我们不需要十种颜色来指示我们应该做什么，而更多的颜色将意味着偏离我们的实际目标。 红绿灯的颜色设法将事物清楚地传达给我们，我们在没有太多上下文的情况下就普遍了解它们。

The traffic light was established to control people’s behaviour. Through the continuous use of the three colours and their associations, it is possible to control human’s behaviour outside of traffic. You can make them think that it was their own, free decision following their own will. But is it really? Well, the user most likely wouldn’t notice that unless he consciously thinks about those colours in their lives. But since traffic lights are so incorporated in our everyday lives, and we follow them automatically, we would be too used to them to notice.

建立交通信号灯是为了控制人们的行为。 通过连续使用这三种颜色及其关联，可以控制交通以外的人的行为。 您可以让他们认为这是他们自己的，遵循自己意愿的自由决定。 但这是真的吗？ 好吧，除非他有意识地考虑生活中的那些颜色，否则用户很可能不会注意到这一点。 但是由于交通信号灯已融入我们的日常生活中，并且我们会自动跟随它们，所以我们会习​​惯于他们不去注意。

Of course, there are so many other colours and possibilities when it comes to UX. No one says you should only stick to those three colours (keep in mind that around 4,5 per cent of the population is actually colour blind, with a significant part having a red-green weakness). Nevertheless, it is definitely worth keeping in mind that colours can be very effective in initiating specific reactions.

当然，对于UX，还有许多其他颜色和可能性。 没有人会说你只应该坚持这三种颜色(请记住，大约有4.5％的人口实际上是色盲的，其中很大一部分是红绿色弱点)。 尽管如此，绝对值得牢记的是，颜色在引发特定React方面可能非常有效。

Don’t be mistaken, however, that traffic lights will solve all your problems and that you will definitely reach your goals with using those three colours. As with everything in life, you have to take it with a grain of salt.

但是不要误会，交通信号灯将解决您的所有问题，并且使用这三种颜色一定可以实现您的目标。 就像生活中的一切一样，您必须带着一粒盐。

好的，现在忘记您刚刚阅读的有关交通信号灯的所有内容。 (Okay, and now forget everything you just read about traffic lights.)

Even though these three colours are found in nature and have been proven to evoke certain reactions in humans, don’t underestimate the way our brains have been wired to react to them. For around eight decades, traffic lights in more or less this form are present in our world. This means that the colours with their meanings manifested in our heads. Taking them outside of the context of traffic, we still associate them with things like stop, get ready, go.

尽管这三种颜色是自然界中发现的，并且已被证明可以引起人类某些React，但请不要低估我们的大脑对它们做出React的方式。 在大约八十年中，世界上或多或少存在这种形式的交通信号灯。 这意味着颜色及其含义在我们的脑海中得以体现。 将它们带到交通环境之外，我们仍然将它们与停止，准备好，出发等事情相关联。

But only because our minds have been trained to make these connections, it doesn’t mean that this is the only correct way to use colours to signal certain things. Our brains are actually able to be conditioned to make different associations. For example, in some countries, white is the colour of innocence, and in others, it’s the colour of death. Also, babies and small children react most favourable to the colour brown, and even adults feel more calm seeing it. This indicates that naturally, brown is one of the most pleasant colours for humans, but we grew up associating it with…yeah whatever. Moreover, we tend to think of pink as a girly colour, but in some cultures, it is perceived as the colour of masculinity. Even in western fashion nowadays, especially the younger generations, made it fashionable for guys to wear pink clothes, which diminishes the association with femininity.

但这仅仅是因为我们已经训练好了建立这些连接的思维，但这并不意味着这是使用颜色来表示某些事物的唯一正确方法。 实际上，我们的大脑能够适应各种不同的联想。 例如，在某些国家/地区，白色是纯真的颜色，而在其他国家/地区，则是死亡的颜色。 另外，婴儿和小孩对棕色的React最明显，甚至成年人看到它也会更加平静。 这表明，自然地，棕色是人类最舒适的颜色之一，但是我们长大后将它与……是的。 此外，我们倾向于将粉红色视为少女色，但在某些文化中，它被视为男性气色。 即使在当今的西方时尚中，尤其是年轻一代，也使男孩穿粉红色衣服变得时尚，这减少了与女性味的联系。

我们真的需要红绿灯吗？ (Do we really need traffic lights?)

Bluntly said: it is not necessarily. But please hear me out before you run someone over while you ignore traffic lights.

坦率地说：不一定。 但是在忽略交通信号灯之前，请在有人撞倒之前先听我说。

Our relationship with traffic lights is changing. Many urban traffic lights have been computerised throughout the decades with improvements or additions such as pedestrian crossing buttons and differing light durations at different times of the day. At the same time, the interplay between vehicles, pedestrians and traffic lights is becoming more sophisticated.

我们与交通信号灯的关系正在改变。 在过去的几十年中，许多城市交通信号灯都已进行了计算机化处理，进行了改进或添加，例如人行横道按钮和一天中不同时间的不同持续时间。 同时，车辆，行人和交通信号灯之间的相互作用越来越复杂。

In more and more places, traffic lights and signs are being replaced by a completely different traffic design. It has shown that by doing so, intersections have become safer, more flowing and even reduce accidents.

在越来越多的地方，交通信号灯和指示牌已被完全不同的交通设计所取代。 结果表明，这样做可以使交叉路口变得更加安全，通畅，甚至减少事故的发生。

但是那怎么可能呢？ (But how is that possible?)

While removing traffic lights and other regulatory signs, it is also important to focus on the architecture of the road, since this is the actual factor which dictates traffic flow. At first, it seems too chaotic to be safe. However, it creates a flowing interplay between vehicles, cyclists and pedestrians. In many instances, it has been proven to raise driver’s awareness of their surroundings, which makes the traffic process much more natural than solely paying attention to some regulatory lights and signs.

在拆除交通信号灯和其他监管标志的同时，重点关注道路的结构也很重要，因为这是决定交通流量的实际因素。 起初，似乎太混乱了以至于无法保证安全。 但是，它在车辆，骑自行车的人和行人之间产生了流动的相互作用。 在许多情况下，事实证明，这种方法可以提高驾驶员对周围环境的意识，这使得交通过程比仅仅关注某些管制灯和标志更为自然。

So what if we would just back off from trying to violently shove colours and impulses down people’s throats to make them behave a certain way. Instead, make their experience feel more smooth and replace aggressive signalling colours with a more balanced design. There is a big chance that the user will still make the “right” decision.

因此，如果我们只是避免猛烈推挤肤色并冲动人们的嗓音使他们表现出一定的行为，该怎么办？ 取而代之的是让他们的体验更流畅，并用更加平衡的设计替代激进的信号色。 用户仍有很大的机会做出正确的决定。

Just experiment around. There is no right or wrong, per se when it comes to colours in the design. A universal formula doesn’t exist. While using (and most importantly knowing the effects of) traffic light colours can be useful in some instances, it is also important to think outside of colour concepts that we grew up with.

只是试验一下。 设计颜色本身没有对与错。 通用公式不存在。 尽管在某些情况下使用(最重要的是了解)交通信号灯颜色会很有用，但在我们成长的颜色概念之外思考也很重要。

Remember that traffic lights are just a signifier of a social contract that we have kind of agreed to — and this doesn’t mean that there might not be better options.

请记住，交通信号灯只是我们已经同意的一项社会契约的标志-这并不意味着可能没有更好的选择。