> I don't quite get the desire to have just some color (prompts but not applications). Can someone with this opinion explain their rationale? The more sparing

> I don't quite get the desire to have just some color (prompts but not applications). Can someone with this opinion explain their rationale? The more sparingly you use colour, the more effective it is as a means to highlight important information. Different users think different information is important. I'm not sure how widespread it is but I work in the mining industry and I've seen a trend on newer installations towards keeping the general appearance of the entire interface to a couple of modestly contrasting neutral greys. Only parts of the plant which require operator attention are shown in colour (I think plant that's not in the normal automatic operation mode was yellow and alarms were red). The information's still all there and easy to read if the operator wants to, but it's not screaming for your attention unless it actually needs it. Compare this with the usual visual confetti of brightly flashing colours that a SCADA system devolves into, especially after a few years when a lot of 'important new features' have been added 'which the operator needs to see'.