The emotion of colors
Color by virtue of its tremendous expressive qualities is
one of the most effective tools in advertisements and presentations.
Web design is no exception in this regard. Psychologists
have found out that color impression can account for 60%
of the acceptance or rejection of that product or service.
Here's a brief elucidation on varying dimensions of color.
There is a high degree of universality in the implicit meaning
of color across cultures and geographies
Name something Green, people will refer to trees, name something
blue, people will mean water. People generally associate
colors with where each color is predominantly found, regardless
of cultures and regions.
Here's a description of the symbolic significance and potential
uses of common colors.
Red
Symbolizes : Passion, fire, love, lust, war, violence,
blood, and aggression
Potential Uses : Where the aim is to motivate an
individual to initiate action, convey a warning, or stop
the user.
When using different shades of red on a website, exercise
caution Bright red can be quite irritating if used over large
areas.
Pink
Symbolizes: Calming, cute, candy, soft romantic,
and feminine
Potential Uses: When you want strike on a user's
caring or romantic side.
Orange
Symbolizes: Vibrancy and warmth. It is like a less
passionate red.
Potential Uses: Recommended for food sites, nature
sites.
Orange is good in moderation. Over-use should be avoided.
Yellow
Symbolizes: Sunshine, caution, happy, cheerful, warmth,
hope, light, energy, weakness or illness, or symbolize cowardice.
Potential Uses: To make a webpage brighter and more
spring-like.
Like red, it catches attention swiftly, but can be an irritant
if over-used.
Green
Symbolizes: Spring, renewal, fertility, wealth, inexperience,
health
Potential Uses: Excellent color option for websites
about money and growing.
Blue
Symbolizes: Sky, sea, intelligence, reassurance,
also depression and sadness.
Potential Uses: To give a website formal look and
feel.
Purple
Symbolizes: Creativity, spiritual and mysterious.
Potential Uses: Best for spiritual sites, expressing
romantic tenor
Black
Symbolizes: Power, elegance, and sophistication,
death (Western context), evil, anger and sadness.
Potential Uses: Be on the safe side, never use over
a wide area.
White
Symbolizes: Cleanliness, purity, and spirituality.
It symbolizes life and marriage in Western cultures, but
it is symptomatic of death in Eastern cultures.
Potential Uses: Great as an accent or background
color because it makes other colors seem more vivid and bold
How to make color scheme work for you
Keep it simple . A color palette using three or fewer
overall colors contributes to the clarity of a web page.
Use white space . White space does a balancing act
for colors, lets the design breathe and makes a large site
feel less complex.
Be consistent . Consistency in colors (i.e. links,
menu items, instructions etc.) allows your audience to instinctively
know where to look for information.
Know your audience. Before you set the ball rolling
in design, you should be convinced enough what colors the
audience would find compelling and right for your product.
Choose the right temperature of colors . The perception
of your site is affected by your choice of warm or cool colors.
Cool colors are water and sky colors like blue and purple;
warm colors are red, orange and yellow. The temperature of
a color affects how your message is likely to be perceived.
SALE written in red will be perceived as more vibrant and
urgent than soft purple text.
Let color contrast distinguish significant parts of your
site.
Contrast between text and its background is essential for
legibility. Dark text on a white background, for instance,
is more legible than orange text on a red background. Different
elements on your web page (i.e. the menu and body of the
page) must contrast or they will begin blending together.
Color lesson: A well-considered color scheme can
transform an okay website into a great web site
Color is one of the most important yet not-so-thoroughly
understood elements of web design today. Whether web designers
appreciate it or ignore it, visitors to a site respond to
colors and other visual elements on the site on a psychological
level, and will continue to do so.
Color affects the emotion of the audience, and emotion,
in the process, drives decision-making. An intrigued visitor
is more likely to be engaged in your site -- whether it is
meant to inform, entertain, or to sell products or services
or ideas.
But if the colors are unsuitable, or outrageous, or not
in line with the underlying symbolism, the visitors can outrightly
reject the site--and the products as well--no matter how
good they are. So, picking colors on your website carefully
can transform your site, and of course, your business too
Deepak Sharma is a
Web
Designer at BlueApple, a
Web
Design and Development Company with a well connected development
infrastructure in India having a strong offering superior web
services and solutions at competitive costs.
