Authors:
Doug Everly - deverly@wam.umd.edu
Jeff Mason - jsmason@wam.umd.edu

Abstract

This experiment was developed to test some of the different color selection methods that exist when comparing color pickers. The four color selection methods used were the Crayon, HSV, RGB, and CMYK color pickers. In the experiment we measured the speed and accuracy of each color selection method when subjects were asked to match a target color using each of the four different pickers.

We hypothesized that as the degree of the color selection method increases, so will the selection time in which the Crayon will be the fastest, followed by the HSV, RGB, and CMYK pickers. The Crayon and HSV pickers will be most accurate, followed by RGB, and CMYK. The results showed that there is a statistical significance between each of the four color selection methods for both the time to select a color and the accuracy of that match. The Crayon was the fastest, and most accurate by far over the other color pickers. The subjective data from the questionnaire also proved to be statistically significant in reference to the user satisfaction of accuracy, speed, and ease of use, for each color picker used. The crayon was once again the favored color picker over the HSV, CMYK, and RGB pickers.

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