If you feel that design and content make a website, you are only partially right. One of the most important things that spell success of a website is the choice of colors. Just imagine yourself entering a room with a great color combination on the walls. It immediately soothes your mood and you feel like staying there for some time. The same effect works here! So, to engage your clients, you need to choose the right color scheme for your website. Here are some great tips:
1: Get Started with a Blank Canvas
Building a color palette from scratch always helps. For your convenience, you may use tools such as ColoRotate, Adobe Kuler, Color Scheme Designer and so on. There is no written rule stating the number of colors that should be used; however, there is a 60-30-10 rule in case of design, which can be applied here.
To elaborate, the primary color, which would constitute the site’s unifying theme should fill about 60% of the space. To create a visual appeal, a contrasting color needs to cover 30%. The remaining 10%, called accent color, should complement the primary or contrasting color.
Again, three to five colors can be used for websites with content-rich web pages. In such cases, tints and shades can be leveraged for additional color effects.
2: Understand the Psychology behind Each Color
As colors have a psychological impact, it is important to understand the inherent meaning that the human mind associates with each color. For instance, yellow stands for cheerfulness and fun, while blue represents honesty and trustworthiness. Again, white stands for cleanliness, simplicity and order. Then there are black, pink, magenta, red, brown, and so on, representing different moods. So, choose the color combination according to your business perspective and the theme of your website.
3: Match the Colors with Your Target Market
The color preference varies according to the target market. Women prefer different colors than men. Children have a liking for brighter as well as simpler block colors in comparison to adults. Again teenagers do have their own preferences.
The color suitability of your website also varies according to the business domain in which you operate. Some colors suit corporate businesses, while some apply to gift shops or beauty portals. Still others are relevant for fast food outlets.
While you are choosing the color scheme for your website, also keep in mind the following:
- Tropical inhabitants have a penchant for warmer and brighter colors.
- Residents of cooler countries like ‘cooler’ colors.
- People who are well-educated have an inclination towards sophisticated and tertiary colors.
4: Know Where to Apply Your Brand Color
It is not necessary to use your brand color everywhere within your website. There are certain areas where the brand color fits perfectly, such as interface controls like menus, navigations, links, buttons, boxes as well as search fields. The portions of your website where users go through the text need to have high color contrast. Moreover, the colors used in that particular area should not compete with the colors of your brand. Given this, the best combination is black and white as it enhances the readability of the text and do not compete with the rest of the colors.
Check out the websites of Logitech and Nike and you will find that they make use of this principle. Brand colors are used for interface controls whereas the text areas have shades of black and white.
5: Use De-saturated Background Colors
If your site consists of product pictures or headlines delivering significant messages, it is always advisable to go for a de-saturated background in order to make the images stand out across the page. If you use a saturated background, it will dominate the page, and the content as well as the images would lose their distinct identity. The overall appeal of the website would be lost due to decreased readability of content and ineffective pictures. Hence you must keep the colors of the product images as well as the main messages more saturated as compared to the background colors.
6: Choose the Best Colors for Images, Links and Text
Once you grasp the messages that your website colors send, you would be able to use the colors to your advantage. With the help of the right combination of colors, the visitor can be directed around the web page and encouraged to make the purchase decision. Moreover, colors build up coherence and unity, leading to a unique brand identity for the business. With that being said, it would be good to know that red is the best color for actions required and directing the visitors. Again, green is the color for decision making.
7: Avoid Using Excessive Number of Colors
One of the most important things to remember while making your selection of colors is the color harmony. Therefore it is recommended to go for a reasonable and modest number of colors. Black and white used with four or five other colors would be enough. If you apply too many colors, instead of enhancing the appeal, it would simply distract the user by creating discord.
Life is colorful, so a careful interplay of colors in anything works wonders for the viewer. Colors are as important to a website as are the texts and the design. The right web color scheme goes a long way in creating the first impression when the user lands on the page while browsing, and is a crucial factor in the user’s decision to stay on the page or move away from it.