Best Colors for My Website

Apr, 24 2009

 

Did you know that colors can evoke emotion? Restaurant owners know this. Red, for instance, makes you hungrier, so few buffets decorate with reds and burgundies. After all, if you eat a ton of food at a buffet, the restaurant owner loses money. However, a diner or fast food joint that charges per item will use red in order to entice you to order more food. Color theory is the science of colors and their effect on people, and it applies to websites and web design like any other industry, and perhaps more so because websites are an almost entirely visual medium.

 

The Importance of Colors

On a website, color choice is as important as any other design element. First, the web designer needs to choose colors that are considered "web safe." This means that they display just about the same on any computer or browser. Don't worry, though, because there are over 200 choices for web safe colors.

 

The actual colors chosen is also important. A website with garish colors will send visitors running long before they have the chance to read the tremendous content it contains or view the quality products it is selling. Colors can have a psychological affect on a site's visitors, encouraging trust and causing them to want to make a purchase.

 

Colors and Emotion

The most important thing to consider when choosing the colors of your website is the emotion that the colors evokes. Here are some common colors and the emotions or ideas they tend to bring to people:

 

Browns – Brings to mind thoughts of home and family
Blacks – Can bring feelings of power or elegance, but also can represent death
Gray – Professionalism, conservatism, and reliability; often associated with business
White – Stands for purity and evokes hope and trust
Reds – Promotes people to action, brings feelings of anger or passion, good for emphasis
Orange – Stimulates the appetite
Pink – Brings thoughts of romance and innocence
Yellow – Evokes warmth and happiness
Blue – Calms people and makes them feel trusting
Green – Stands for greed or jealousy, but also makes people think of money
Purple – Symbolizes romance and creativity

 

When choosing the colors for your website, make sure you consider what they will cause people to think or feel.

 

Colors Working Together

You may want to use purple and red on your website to evoke certain feelings, but it is not a good option in most situations. Some colors work better than others. Look at the 12-part color wheel, and choose colors that are opposite each other on the color wheel. These are complementary colors and they will work together well. Keep in mind that complementary colors are typically a strong contrast, and some contrasts will "vibrate" or be straining to the eye.

 

Another option is to use analogous colors, which are colors that are side by side on the color wheel. Again, these look nice together and create a pleasing overall effect. Strong contrasts are less common with analogous colors.

 

Another option for creating a harmonious website is to use different shades of the same color. This almost always works well and creates a unified look.

 

Finally, blacks and whites can be added to just about any color scheme. These work well for text on a page that has a colored background. You can also highlight images with shades of black and white.

 

Choosing the colors for a website is not as easy as it might seem. Use these tips, and then have several people look at the site to see if it could be improved. Use their suggestions, because you want the site to be visually appealing to all of your visitors so that they are encouraged to stay on it and interact with each page.