A Study of Children's Color Preferences for Consultation Room Furniture

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to explore children's preferences for the colors of furniture in consultation rooms to provide guidance for medical environment design, improving children's consultation experiences and reducing their anxiety and stress. Background: Color plays a crucial role in environmental design, especially in medical spaces. As a special group, children's medical environments should particularly emphasize humanization. Methods: This study assessed the Hue, Saturation, Value (HSV) preferences of children aged 3–15 for consultation room environments through an experiment where participants selected different color palettes based on displayed scene images. The experimental data were quantitatively analyzed. Results: The results indicated no significant difference between children's HSV preferences for furniture and walls in consultation rooms. Among these colors, children preferred a warm color with a saturation of 25 and a value of 75. Children's preference for colors increased with brightness. Among the three levels of saturation, the most preferred value was 25, followed by 75, with the lowest preference for 50. Age and gender also influenced HSV preferences. Older children preferred lower saturation values, while boys preferred higher saturation colors compared to girls. Conclusion: The study revealed that children's color preferences for consultation room furniture and walls were primarily focused on warm colors, high brightness, and specific saturation values. These findings can inform the design of medical environments, suggesting that furniture and walls in children's consultation rooms should preferably use warm colors with high brightness and moderate saturation to enhance children's comfort and satisfaction.