Color and Web Design

Color is one of the most important but least understood elements of web design today. Whether they know it or not, visitors to a site respond to colors and other visual elements on the site on a psychological level. Color affects the emotion of the audience, and emotion drives decision-making. An intrigued visitor is more likely to engage in the goal of your site -- whether it is meant to inform, entertain, or to sell products or services. If the colors are unsuitable, the eye will reject the site and your product may be rejected too, no matter how good it is. A well-considered color scheme is frequently the difference between an okay web site and a great web site. It can also make a site unusable if the scheme used is too outrageous and hard on the eye.

Keep it Simple. A color palette that uses three or fewer overall colors contributes to the clarity of a web page. The reader will be able to find information quicker on a simple site versus a complex site that may make them feel frustrated and lost.

Use White Space! This relates to the previous point of keeping it simple. There are a lot of sites with too much information cluttering up the screen. Your audience will have trouble searching for navigation and the information they need amongst a bunch of clutter. White space balances colors, lets the design breathe and can make a large site feel less complex. If a customer is not overwhelmed, they will stay at your site longer.

Be consistent. Color each element (i.e. links, menu items, instructions etc.) the same on each page so that your audience will instinctively know where to look for information.

Know Your Audience Designers need to know who the target audience before choosing a color scheme. Before you begin your design, you should ask yourself what colors the audience would find compelling and right for your product.

Different colors evoke different emotions in different cultures. This is important to keep in mind on the web if your site has an international audience. For example, in China red symbolizes happiness and good luck, in India it symbolizes purity and in South Africa it symbolizes mourning.

To complicate matters further, many colors have both positive and negative associations in the same culture. In North America, for example, black can symbolize death in some instances and formality in others.

Web Designers should also use different colors if their target audience is a specific gender or age. For example, bright, primary colors like red yellow and blue are great for kid's sites, but if you are designing a site for an audience over fifty you may want to use desaturated, softer colors. Younger audiences also tolerate a black or dark background with lighter text better than an older audience.

In general terms, here are the meanings of a few basic colors: Red Energy, strength, passion, risk, fame, love, -top, take notice Blue Wisdom, protection, spiritual inspiration, calm, reassurance, gentleness, water, creativity,-Depth quality; large companies often use it for their logos. Yellow Sun, intelligence, logical imagination, social energy, cooperation, sunshine, joy, happiness, intellect, energy, cheerfulness Green Healing, monetary success, fertility, growth, personal goals, resurrection, renewal, youth, stability, freshness, nature-Plants and environmental awareness Grey Security, reliability, intelligence, dignity, maturity, conservative, practical

Temperatures of Colors Yes, colors have perceived temperatures! The perception of your site will be affected by your choice of warm or cool colors. Cool colors are water and sky colors like blue and purple; warm colors are on the opposite end of the color wheel: red, orange and yellow. The temperature of a color can affect how your message is perceived. Red text for the word SALE will be perceived as more vibrant and urgent than soft purple text.

If you have a calm and reassuring message you want to get across, (i.e. for a spa) color can affect the tone and mood. For this message, soft browns or deep green would be more calming than an orange or red.

The Importance of Contrast Contrast between colors on a web page can help draw attention to certain elements. Contrast between text and its background is a necessity for legibility. Dark text on a white background is more igible than orange text on a red background.

Different elements on your web page (i.e. the menu and body of the page) should also contrast or they will start to blend together. Contrast helps your audience distinguish between the different points on your site and therefore helps them feel less frustrated and gives them a more enjoyable experience when they visit your site.

Color Design Links

· Here is a link to a great primer on the color wheel and how colors combine http://www.colormatters.com

· Colorscemer at http://www.colorschemer.com is a great color tool. It helps you create color schemes, match colors and determine the color used in graphics.

· Colorimpact (http://www.colorimpact.com) a similar tool to colorschemer. Very useful!

Color is a powerful design tool. Strong reactions to color from the audience of a site can assist in such things as brand confidence, sales growth, and readership. The web designer must match the colors they choose to the message and image they want to get across to the web site's customer.

Colleen Happ designs effective and affordable websites and graphics. Her portfolio can be viewed at http://www.happconsulting.com. She offers free one hour consultations to show how an effective website can benefit your business.

---

Increase Sales on Your Website! Use Graphics!

How many times have you clicked on a website only... Read More

How to Hire The Right Web Design Firm

Regardless whether you manage a small business, charitable organization, or... Read More

How To Give Your Business Credibility

Let's face it. Buying products and services from the Internet... Read More

6 Tips To Improve Your Business Website

There are six important characteristics that can play a major... Read More

Using Server Side Includes to Simplify Your Web Design

An "include" file is a piece of code that can... Read More

Website Re-Design?

My site is working fine. The links work. Content is... Read More

7 Ways of Building Customers Trust With Your Web Site

When I purchase something from a web site I first... Read More

Build It And Build It Cheap!

There are several very good reasons why you should consider... Read More

Tips for a Successful Website for Any Organization, NGO or GO

Most NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations) don't understand these important aspects of... Read More

The Contrast And Similarities Between A Web Designer And Web Programmer

The concept of web designing based on the nature and... Read More

Pages to Include in Your Website

What pages need to be included on your website? The... Read More

Build It And Build It Cheap! Part II

If you are familiar with my work, then you have... Read More

If Content is King who is Queen?

It's been said again and again, when it comes to... Read More

Affordable Web Design In Birmingham

If you have a business, big or small you may... Read More

Freelancers Bite Back!

The Internet has seen an explosion in so called 'lance'... Read More

The Ultimate Web Site Marketing Strategies That You Should Know

Most of us know that we need to advertise our... Read More

How to Find Inexpensive Web Design

Web design is a very competitive area and there is... Read More

Is Your Website?s Copy Up to the Mark?

The Internet is a relatively new medium. What works for... Read More

Building Your First Web Site?

Before doing anything on the technical side, you need some... Read More

How To Get A Pay Raise From Your Web Site

How many of the visitors to your web site take... Read More

Some File Naming Tricks for Your Online Home Based Business Web Pages

Conventional Wisdom states you should use Sub-Directories to organize your... Read More

The Secrets to Successfully Learning Basic HTML

If you'd like to create/maintain a website, having some HTML... Read More

Understanding How HTML Color Codes Work

Ever wonder how HTML color codes are put together? For... Read More

Its No Good Having A Killer Product If You Dont Have A Killer Website

Read the title of this article over a couple of... Read More

What Drives Repeat Visitors To Your Site?

There can be zillions of reasons why your visitors return... Read More

Creating Your First Website? Your Options

Creating your own website is great fun! But how is... Read More

You Too Can Have an Amazing Website

It is a well-known fact that a successful business depends... Read More

Simple Steps To Proper Web Design

Over the course of the last decade, the Internet has... Read More

Simplify Your Web Site for Clarity and Ease of Use

There are plenty of web sites out there in which... Read More

E-covers for Your Niche Market

When creating an e-cover the what's the first thought that... Read More

Web Design:10 Magnificent Millionaire Dollars Ad Copy Secrets To Empower Your Website..

Hello, how is your website doing?Are sales flowing in?If you... Read More

Banner Enchancement - Designing Your Banner

A well designed web site is great to have, but... Read More

.htaccess to Mask Errors on Your Website

The .htaccess file is a control file located in your... Read More