Ever wondered how to choose a colour scheme that appeals to your target audience? Colour plays a vital role in web design. It can help web designers to decide what colour to use for backgrounds, text, buttons, links – all of which will impact your users’ experience.
Here, we explore the psychology of colour and how you can make informed colour choices for your web design.
What is the psychology of colour?
Even without doing much research on colour psychology, you’ll know that certain colours can spark different emotions. Your favourite colours often influence the choices you make. Whether it’s the way you decorate your home, the clothes you wear or even the brands and products you buy.
Colour and web design
Colour choice plays a significant role in web design. Your brand colours and the colours of your website impact how people view your brand. It affects a designer’s ability to create a website that gets results. And the right colour choices can increase brand recognition – by up to 80%.
The colours you select from your website need to be well thought out. Companies in the same industry or offering similar products will usually have an alike colour palette. It’s no coincidence that social networking sites like Facebook, LinkedIn and X (formerly Twitter) as well as tech brands like Dell, Intel and HP have blue branding. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that blue is right for your site. And even if it is, don’t forget to consider other colours that could be suitable.
How to choose web design colours
A properly selected colour scheme will help you achieve a balanced design for your site. Here are a few things to consider when selecting web design colours:
Brand Identity
Your colour scheme should reflect the overall brand identity you’ve established. For example, a school site might use bright and cheerful colours, while a law firm website might opt for more professional and trustworthy tones like blue or grey.
Target Audience
Who are you trying to reach with your website? Different demographics and industries respond better to certain colours. Consider the emotions you want to evoke and choose colours that resonate with your target audience. For instance, green is a positive and calm colour associated with nature and renewal – ideal for environmental non-profits or charities; pink is a youthful and romantic colour associated with femininity and sensitivity – great for beauty businesses.
Colour Harmony
There are colour theory principles you can use to create pleasing colour combinations. Popular website colour schemes include analogous (neighbouring colours on the colour wheel), complementary (opposite colours), and triadic (three evenly spaced colours).
Readability
Make sure your chosen colours have enough contrast for good readability. This is especially important for text and essential website elements. Speak to an expert web designer to advise you on a good colour contrast ratio.
Number of Colours
While there are no strict rules, most websites use 2-3 main colours with additional neutrals (white, black, grey) for balance. Too many colours can overwhelm users and may lead them to click off your website.
Customise your professional web design
At CWD, our websites are already expertly created with colour schemes we know will work for your industry. We have a host of professionally made web designs that can also be customised according to your needs and colour preferences. We’ve designed our website options to suit particular sectors as we understand the strong influence that colour and design has on brand building.
So now you know all about the psychology of colour in web design, why not attract your ideal audience and get results with a professional pay monthly website. Contact us to chat to one of our friendly experts.
