Briefle words · UI design
Accent color
A contrasting color used sparingly to mark the most important or interactive elements, so they stand out against neutral colors.
Say it to an AI
Invoices card with a mostly neutral palette and a single accent color reserved for the "New invoice" button. Use semantic color on the status badges only: green for Paid, red for Overdue, amber for Pending. No decorative color on avatars, amounts or titles.
How an expert would brief the stronger version of “Invoice list”.
See it
Try it as a puzzle →Recent invoices panel in a freelancer's billing dashboard.
Why: A uses indigo only on the 'New invoice' button. B reuses that indigo on the Paid pills, so indigo no longer means 'you can click this'.
More ways experts use it
Course dashboard following 60-30-10: a light neutral page and white cards as the dominant color, a dark slate sidebar as the secondary, and orange as the accent color used only for progress bars, the active nav marker and the 'Continue lesson' button.
Course dashboard · UI design
Related words
Room 1 · Essentials
Learn “Accent color” in a five-minute lesson