Designing Websites with Color in Mind

Color Stories

Color has the ability to bring about feeling, convey an emotion, and affect visitors’ moods. That’s why it is so important to consider color when designing a website.

Different colors portray different feelings. Warm colors such as red, orange and yellow have a more vibrant and exciting feeling. They invoke feelings of power, optimism, and cheerfulness. Cool colors, such as green, blue, and purple are more subdued. They bring about feelings of peace, honesty, and calm.

When choosing a color it’s important to look beyond your favorite colors and instead try to decide how you want visitors to feel when they come upon your site. The right pairing of color can transform a lifeless web page into one that is stimulating.

The Institute for Color Research reveals that people make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.

One of the very first aspects visitors notice about a web page is color. When there is such a short time span to grab the attention of visitors, color choice has to be perfect.

However, we’re not suggesting you put out a tie-dyed webpage. Color is important, but so is white space and contrast.

The good (and bad) part about color in web design is that there are no rules. It is a matter of doing research and personal taste. Use color wisely and your website will thank you.