Make the right choice of colour scheme for your web design

The web design process is certainly one that will give you no shortage of things to think about when it comes to linking your firm’s brand to a website that is attractive, informative and easy to use.

One of the most obvious aspects of the great value that the right aesthetic choices can have in projecting the right image of your company – and therefore helping to boost sales and revenue – is brand logo design. But in today’s piece, we’re here to talk to you about something just a bit more ‘basic’ as far as web design considerations are concerned… the use of colour.

Indeed, the exact colours that you choose for the design of your site can have a rather greater influence than you might expect, and it has certainly long been noted that different colours have different psychological effects on those that view them.

There may be a particular mood that you wish to evoke in site visitors, and by choosing the most appropriate colours, you can create associations between such moods and your company. A completely colourless website would, after all, be unable to evoke any emotion or interest in the viewer.

Your website’s temperament

It helps significantly in the web design process to be aware of the difference between warm and cold colours, with red basically being an example of the former and blue, the latter. These colours play a vital role in determining the website’s temperament, with red being associated with blood, lust, fire and strength… whereas blue, for example, brings a certain coolness to mind.

Paler shades of blue help to imbue a website with a certain dreamy quality, although the darker shades are capable of conveying strength. Nonetheless, it is the earthier, more muted colours that tend to be used with the greatest frequency in web design, as these are the colours that can be accompanied by other forms of content with the most minimal impact on the overall design.

And what effect do other colours have on a website? Well, black communicates plenty in the way of power, money and style. Grey, meanwhile, has an aura of respectability, professionalism and modernity. It is a popular background colour, in which it helps to convey a certain quality of space amid all of the surrounding content.

Other frequently used colours in web design include green, brown and beige, which are all earthy colours that can have a particularly relaxing influence. For something a bit more vivacious, you may wish to choose orange, while yellow is associated with an even greater vitality, and can make an especially strong impact when it is contrasted with black.

Know the web browsers capabilities

When selecting the desired colour scheme for your website, you’ll need to consider what colours most web browsers are actually capable of showing, with many browsers being restricted to 254 colours and others, 216. It makes sense, then, to choose the safest colour combination as far as browser capability is concerned, as well as to use opposing tones for your site’s foreground and background.

More important than all of that, however, is ensuring that the colours that you choose throughout your site appropriately represent your brand.

Barry Magennis blogs on web design, usability and email marketing optimisation.