Well, a very good thing that you should know is that many transition metal salts have caracteristic colours. Copper(II) ions have a blue-green color, Iron(II)salts a pale-green color, Iron(III) has a characteristic brown-red color, Chromium(III) salts are dark-green, Manganese(II) has a pink-white color, anhydrous Co(II)salts are pink and hydrous Co(II) salts are blue, Ni(II) has a green color....and so on....some other metals have other colors (I think that Ir has a nice red color, but check me on this.)
Another example are indicators...but as Mitch said there are billions of examples, please be a bit more specific!