The colours of a website can sometimes make or break your brand. That’s why it’s important to choose them carefully before you start designing your site. In this article, I’ll discuss some of the things that you should consider when choosing colours for your website so that you can create a cohesive and professional look.
Why is colour important to your website?
Colour is one of the most powerful tools to communicate a message. It can be used to build trust and convey a mood or feeling, but most importantly, colour can be used to attract customers.
If you want your site to stand out from the crowd and make an impact on potential customers, you need to consider what colours are going to work best for you.
Consider your brand’s target audience
When choosing a colour scheme for your website, it is important to consider some of the following things:
- Who is your target audience?
- Age group?
- Gender?
- Culture?
Plan your colour scheme before you start
If you’re not sure which colours to use, the best thing to do is to choose a colour scheme that’s easy to use and consistent. When creating your website, keep in mind that the colours need to be easy on the eyes when read; they should also be easy for users to navigate with.
While using brightly coloured fonts can look quite quirky and cool, it can make your site less accessible to those who are visually impaired and may require higher contrast.
Think about the psychology behind colours
- Colour psychology
Colours have their own associations and therefore can make a big impact on the way people feel when they see them. This is why it’s important to pick colours that are appropriate for your website and promote a positive emotional response from your users. For example, some colours can be associated with negative feelings like sadness or anger, while others can be linked to happiness or relaxation.
- Colour associations
In addition to colour psychology, there are other factors you’ll want to consider when choosing a colour scheme for your website:
Perception – what do people perceive when they see a certain combination of colours? Do they feel warmer or cooler? What emotions does it evoke in them? You should choose a palette that resonates with the audience that you’re trying reach out to (e.g., blue suits introverts while pink attracts extroverts).
Existing Associations – Being a Glasgow Web Design agency, you can probably guess what advice is coming next! Certain colour combinations can be associated with existing organisations or movements, such as football teams, that come with it a lot of existing emotions and complexities. Make sure you do your homework on you’re colours and check your combination isn’t giving out the wrong messages.
Select complementary colours
Complementary colours are opposites on the colour wheel. They create high contrast, so they’re great for drawing attention to an element. Use complementary colours to create a sense of movement in your layout, or to create a sense of energy and excitement on your site.
If you’re struggling to come up with your colour palette, check out a colour scheme generator such as this one here which we often recommend to our web design clients. Its great to play around with!
However, Don’t get stuck down a rabbit hole…
We fully appreciate how important your colour scheme may be on your business, your website and potential customers or clients. However, don’t let indecision on colours prevent you from launching your site. We’ve unfortunately had projects run months over, due to the client being unable to settle on a certain shade of pink! Sometimes you’re best just to get moving and remember – your website isn’t carved out of stone, you can always change it again later!
Conclusion
As you can see, there are a lot of factors that go into choosing the perfect colour scheme for your website. This is why it’s so important to take some time to think about your brand’s target audience, plan out which colours will work best, and consider the psychology behind colours. Once you have all this figured out, it will be much easier for you to select complementary colours that complement each other well!