Understanding How Color Affects Outcomes In Your Website Design

Color contains magical powers that directly influence the mind, feeling, and soul. Color and design are two completely different things yet they are closely connected and can’t be separated from one another. Speaking of a website; design and color are very crucial. As a web designer and web developer, one of our primary tasks is to ensure that every website that we create will get across the correct message in the right way. Using the right colors for your website design is one of the best ways to deliver a message.

There are two main sections in this article;

1. The uses of colors in web designs
2. The psychology of colors (basic colors and their impacts)

When it comes to web design, the chosen color has the power to make or break your design.

1. The practice of Colors in your Website Design

When building a website, you need to pay attention to all aspects that can make your website impactful to other users or people. And of the main aspects is color. Algo Sea Biz creative team has summed up the three common uses of colors in building and optimizing websites.

a). Colors boost brand recognition.

In the realm of business and marketing, branding is a huge deal and a great part of branding itself is what we name color branding. Before going further, we need to sum up what a brand really is.  A brand is what people think of a particular business or organization and branding is referring to practices that aim to shape that perception. Color branding is a tactical use of colors to aid in building an image and identity of a company so that people will easily recognize it. For example, the combination of colors green, yellow, red, and white. 90% of people will think about Google. That’s exactly how colors increase brand recognition. As designers and developers, it is your goal to assure that when people visit your website or your clients’ websites, they will recognize what company it is.

b). Colors can make certain elements stand out

In creating designs for your websites, there are specific elements that you need to highlight and make them stand out. Many designers use large arrows and flashing neon lights to draw attention to a particular section on websites. That’s good, but you should not use it often. It is always better and more eye-catching to use special colors (preferably, colors with the highest contrast) to highlight some elements on a website such as CTA (Call-To-Action) buttons, subsections, and important texts.

C). Colors can influence how people think and feel about your website

Colors have psychological power and aesthetic value to touch people emotionally and to impact people’s perception. That’s why, as a designer and developer, you need to understand the perception of color psychology. This will aid you in choosing the best colors for your design. Your chosen colors must be significantly impacting users’ first impression on your brand or client’s brand and overall user experience on the website. In other words, colors can increase or decrease people’s trust on your website.

2. The Psychology of Colors (Basic Colors and Their Impacts)

A web design should be able to influence the way people behave and their way of thinking. To make your website more impactful, you need to combine a set of colors. Remember that a perfect combination of colors can lead to great psychological impacts. It is highly recommended for any web designer or web developer to study and understand comprehensively about the psychology of colors. This will be a big help in maximizing your website designs.

Here are some basic colors and their impacts that you need to know;

a). Red – The color of power and urgency

Red color resonates with strength, power, passion, urgency, aggression, anger, youth, excitement, survival, and courage.

Shades of red;

• Bright red; exciting and energetic. This color is suitable for beverage, entertainment, adventure companies, and food websites
• Dark Red; Luxurious and authoritative. It is great for business websites that sell high-priced services, products, and educational institution websites.

b). Green – The color of nature, balance, and money

The color green has a very powerful harmonizing and balancing effect. It is always associated with wealth, money, fertility, harmony, energy, calmness, and growth. Green is also ideal for outdoor products.

c). Blue – The hue of peace, productivity, and trust

Blue color resonates intelligence, trust, safety, productivity, and security. Many companies use this color for their websites with the aim of gaining people’s trust.

Shades of blue;

• Dark blue color; associated with intelligence, calmness, and trust
• Light blue color represents creativity, reliability, and productivity.

d). Yellow – The color of creativity and playfulness

The yellow color is the happiest color that evokes cheerful, joyful, and happy feelings. It is the color that makes most people feel excited and optimistic. Most organizations or institutions related to children use yellow as the color of their websites and logos because it symbolizes creativity.

e). Purple – The hue of sophistication, wealth and royalty

The color of purple has the psychological power that can stimulate our minds and encourage intense contemplation.

• Light purple; associated with women’s sense of beauty and sophistication. Many companies that sell women products use purple as the color of their websites and design.
• Dark purple; associated with wealth, gloomy, and luxurious.

f. Orange – The color of warmth and happiness

The orange color stimulates appetite and confidence. It resonates warmth, durability, happiness, and also urgency. The color of orange also gives a feel that is uplifting, energizing, and optimistic.

g. Pink – The color of love and romance

The pink color is a compassionate and nurturing color that can calm and reassure the viewers. It is also associated with romance, happiness, and love.

h. Black – The color power and authority

The color of black creates a feeling of control and intimidation. It is more sophisticated. With the right combination and contrast, it can be best for brands that cater to the wealthy clientele.

i. White – The color of classiness and friendship

White color is often used to describe something which is classy, sophisticated, friendly. White is associated with high-end products and luxury products. It can add aesthetic touches of elegance and sophistication to your website designs.

Using the right combination of colors will aid in putting customers in the frame of mind that can impel them to take further action. Colors have the capacity to increase conversion rates by catching the attention of customers and prompting the right emotions for sales. Colors define the perception of people about your brand.