Web Design & The Importance of Colour

By Alex Simpson

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For thousands of years’ colour has played an important role when it comes to how humans communicate with each other. Countless scientific studies have been carried out by scientists on the psychology of colour and its impact on the human brain. You can see for yourself, the world around us is painted in a particular way to create different emotions and feelings that then influence our thought process and decision making.

Studies have found that a person will make a subconscious decision about a product or service within 85 seconds of first sight. The majority of that initial judgement is based purely on colour. The ability to remember a product, service or even a brand is also enhanced through colour. Businesses will place a lot of importance on colour when they are designing their logo and branding. The industry they serve in and their target audience is considered as certain colours evoke different emotions and reactions with their audience.

You will notice that many fast food outlets use the colour red in their branding. This is by no means an accident; the colour red has been well documented to bring on hunger. Whilst at the opposite end of the spectrum, the colour blue has been proven to be a calming colour, commonly used in bedrooms and with regards to its use within web design, corporate websites such as your bank as it instils trust and calmness.

When colour is used correctly in harmony with great typography you will find that its effect on a website is quite powerful. So you can see how important it is to get the colour scheme for your logo, branding and website right from the very start. You need to consider your target audience and the industry that you are operating in. To create a memorable brand, you should also consider limiting the amounts of different colours you use to a maximum of three. You don’t want to overwhelm your website user with an overload of colour.

Choosing your website's colours carefully can also make your website visitors experience a more memorable one. You may also find that they enjoy using your site over a competitor and in turn, you then see a rise in conversion rates. Colours can also be used to help add focus to key information you don’t want your website visitor to miss along with important elements such as ‘call to actions’.

Considering Accessibility When Choosing Colour

Colour is an important factor when it comes to accessibility in web design. With nearly 10% of males and 0.5% of females affected by a form of colour blindness ensuring that you apply the correct amount of contrast between each of your elements is essential. This is especially the case with copy written on coloured backgrounds, it needs to be easy to read by everybody. In fact, Google Lighthouse tools can indicate areas of your website that you may need to improve to bring the contrast ratio to the correct levels.

Using Colour Throughout Your Own Website

It sure does. Coming up with what colours to use throughout your website can be a tough task as there are so many different factors to consider. If you can start with a solid palette of three colours, perhaps picked out from your current branding then you are off to a good start. When selecting these colours, we think if you consider these four factors:
1) Your target audience
2) Your industry
3) Your competition
4) What emotions the colours you are using evoke

If you consider these four factors then you are certainly heading down the right path to creating a memorable and successful website.

Web Design Blog Author

Article Written by Alex Simpson
Designer & Digital Marketing Specialist
alex@madebyabstraction.com

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