Colour theory for software testing
14 Oct 2026
After I recorded my 99 second talk on grey box testing, I realised how it's all lacking some colour. We have white box, black box and grey box testing, we need to liven things up. I took a look at some colours and what they mean and tried to associate them with test ypes and techniques. This is what I came up with:
- Exploratory testing: Orange. Orange is a fun and positive colour that inspires spontaneity and creativity, just what you need for exploratory testing;
- Risk based testing: Red. Red is the colour of passion, danger and caution, exactly what risks are made of;
- Combinatorial testing: Yellow. To find all the combinations needed for a test, you need logic and creativity, that's what yellow inspires most;
- Security testing: Blue. For secure applications we need safety and balance, that's what blue stands for;
- Contract testing: Turquoise. Turquoise is about communication and clarity, if that doesn't scream contract testing, then I do'nt know;
- Sanity testing: Green. Sanity testing is about being safe and an applciation in harmony when the codebase keeps growing, that's where green comes in;
- Edge case testing: Purple. The rare and mysterieus edge cases require creativity and a dash of purple so it seems;
- UI testing: Pink. While testing the UI you need sympathy and compassion for your users combined with some intuition about when something doesn't feel right, that's pink all the way;
- Performance testing: Brown. Brown is the colour of reliability, stability and dependability, all things we're checking in performance testing;
- …
What do you think of the associations I made?
Do we need to work in color shades maybe?Â
What test types or techniques would you associate with a specific color?
(Disclaimer 1: I know that not everyone can see colours (or can't see at all), so white-grey-black might be mmore accessible. That's why I added the explanation on why each colour fit as well to hopefully make the explanation understandable for everyone)
(Disclaimer 2: I don't know what the preffered spelling of color/colour is, so I picked one and tried to stay consistent)
Do we need to work in color shades maybe?Â
What test types or techniques would you associate with a specific color?
(Disclaimer 1: I know that not everyone can see colours (or can't see at all), so white-grey-black might be mmore accessible. That's why I added the explanation on why each colour fit as well to hopefully make the explanation understandable for everyone)
(Disclaimer 2: I don't know what the preffered spelling of color/colour is, so I picked one and tried to stay consistent)
Demi Van Malcot
Test engineer, Test lead, Quality manager
she/her
I've been in testing since 2023, since then I never stopped learning and taking every opportunity I've come across. From becoming test lead not long after I started, to being a community lead for testing and for AI in at the company I work at. Nowadays I'm learning the ropes of leading with quality as I have added the role of quality manager of my department to my growing list of titles.
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