Use three colors in equal amounts and nobody knows where to look. 60-30-10 forces hierarchy through area — large surfaces like backgrounds and whitespace get 60% (dominant), mid-sized surfaces like cards and sections get 30% (secondary), and small surfaces like buttons and badges get 10% (accent).
The smaller a color's area, the more saturated it can be without becoming overwhelming — which is exactly why the accent can be loud. The dominant color, by contrast, covers the whole screen, so it needs to stay low-saturation to remain comfortable over long viewing sessions.
It doesn't need to be exactly 60/30/10 — the point isn't the precise split, it's the asymmetry: one overwhelmingly large surface, one medium surface, one tiny point of emphasis.
When to use
Reach for it once your palette is chosen but you’re unsure how much of each color to actually use, and where.