Why is Facebook’s colour scheme blue?

Can you recall the colour scheme of your favourite social media app Facebook? It is blue. But that is not because blue is soothing to the eyes. Facebook chose a blue colour scheme because its founder, Mark Zuckerberg has red-green colour blindness. Therefore, the colour he can see best is blue.  

What is colour blindness? 
Colour blindness is fairly common. It occurs mainly in males affecting 1 in 12 men (8%) and 1 in 200 women. Worldwide, around 300 million people are estimated to have colour blindness. 

Now, let us explain to you the science of detecting colours. First understand this: in your eyes, it is the retina that is in charge of detecting colours. This retina is made up of two photoreceptor cells - rods and cones. The cones detect colour while rods detect brightness and darkness. Again, there are three types of colour cone cells: red, green, and blue. Your brain uses input from these cone cells to determine your colour perception.  

For a colourblind person, one or more of these colour cone cells-– red, green or blue—are absent, not working, or may detect a different colour than normal. So, what people who are colourblind see depends on what kind of colour blindness they have.  

The most common forms of colour blindness are collectively known as ‘red-green colour blindness’. In this kind, people can easily confuse any colours which have some red or green as part of the whole colour. So someone with red-green colour blindness is likely to confuse blue and purple (red + blue) because he can’t see the red element of the colour purple. For him, even purple is blue. Given this, a red-green colourblind person will likely identify only five shades of coloured pencils accurately from a standard box of 24.  

What causes colour blindness? 
But why does it occur? Well, mostly, it is genetic, usually inherited from one’s mother. But a person may also get it if he has some disease such as diabetes. It can also be a result of certain kinds of medications or drugs or you can also get colour-blind as you age. 

Why is blue a favourite among brand logos? 
Blue is also a fairly common colour scheme for brand logos. If you look at the brand logos for Twitter, HP, Ford, Samsung, Philips, Panasonic, Amazon, Adidas, Nokia, Intel, IBM or Skype, you will find a similarity – they all use blue.  But it is too many of them to be using blue. Is it just a coincidence? Or there is some logic or science behind it?  

Well, there are reasons ranging from scientific to psychological to behavioural, which make blue the most chosen colour. According to some, blue is pleasant and less dramatic while red and green come with strong psychological associations. But Zuckerberg's reason for picking blue was of course more personal!