Designing for the Internet is not merely about something that’s stunning to look at. Indeed, there needs to be reasoning behind all web design-related decisions & one of the most important decisions is colour. Picking the right colour has a massive impact on the future of your site and could be the difference between the prosperity & breakdown of a web site.



Knowing what colours can lead to emotional reactions is the key to picking the right colour for a web site. Knowing which colours have a calming effect & which cause excitement can also make choosing a colour scheme extremely easy.



Colours can also be used to create contrast & attention to a design. This could be used to guide users to specific bits of a page. For example, ecommerce websites could be made better by directing the user to a purchase now button using colour to emphasise contrast.



Different Colours and What They Do



Below is a brief guide to how a handful of colours affect human emotions & perceptions. This is called colour psychology.



Blue can symbolise depth, professionalism, trust and honour. Numerous corporate companies use dark blue, but this colour can also signify as cold.



The colour black is about power, style, evil and mourning. Rock bands regularly use backgrounds that are black due to its association with the dark side and anger.



Yellow can represent riches, design optimism and energy. Using yellow in website design is a fantastic way to make components stand out from the rest of the web site.



Like yellow, red is associated with love, sex & energy. It is also associated with strength, fire, blood and lust. If it is used sparingly on a light background colour, it can be used to make the most of and emphasise. It can often be too over powering if it is over used, but it’s fabulous to attract attention.



Blue is the most frequently used colour and it can denote confidence, loyalty and royalty. the darker end often represents strength whereas the lighter end can be used to express fantasy and dream.



Orange is a colour that is linked with vibrancy, heat, fire and energy. A healing colour, it can be used in designing web-sites to show openness.



Purple isn't a really popular colour in designing web-sites, because its seen as being pretty girly and gives the impression of arrogance, wealth, luxury and indulgence.



Grey can be a weird colour because it is not strong. It is used to create fashionable, classy and calm sites. It’s used a lot on technology sites.



Conclusion



Knowing what colours symbolise, as well as the subconscious power of them, can be a great benefit to you when designing websites. By knowing about the target audience of your site, designers can thoughtfully choose colours that appeal to the end user thus making the site more appealing & attractive to them.

Karra Maxim is a former budget web designer who has offered comtent managed website design in the past.