This article presents a user-oriented protocol that can be used to characterize chromatic attributes of an urban area. A need for both affordable and reliable assessment method of color has been observed in the field of urban design. The challenge is to provide statistical answers to these two questions: how is color organized, how does it develop its own structure in the city? The main purpose of the research is hence to investigate mean color types within the city via the implementation of a characterization tool; an urban area of the four main classes (historic center, periurban housing districts, working-class neighborhoods, and commercial zones) being characterized by a specific color palette, or a layout of specific color types. The developed instrumentation allows the assessment of the homogeneous and consistent features of an urban district. Their characterization protocol was tested through an application to several streets of the city of Liege (Belgium). (C) 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published Online 13 January 2016 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com).