It’s no secret that color tends to sway our emotions and overall attitude. We see this everywhere. From grocery item packaging, to colors a spa chooses for their walls to brand logos and web designs. Color is a very important factor that determines whether you’re going to buy that item or come back to the spa because you felt peaceful and had a great experience there. The colors a website uses are just as important to not only convey your message effectively, but also to engage your visitors and keep them coming back.
This is what’s called Color Psychology, the science of how color affects human behavior. So how does this happen? I’m going to get technical now.
When our eyes take in a color, part of the brain known as the hypothalamus is activated, which in turn sends a wave of signals to the pituitary gland, on to the endocrine system, and then to the thyroid glands. The thyroid glands signal the release of hormones, which cause fluctuation in mood, emotion, and resulting behavior. Research from QuickSprout indicates that 90% of all product assessments have to do with color. “Color,” writes Neil Patel, is “85% of the reason you purchased a specific product.”
OK! now that you know how it happens, it makes sense that website color has major affects on website conversions.
Using color to convey your message
Colors can get tricky. Lets go back to our Spa example. If you are building a spa website, you dont want to use black, red or hot pink. These colors don’t evoke calmness and serenity. You’d want to use subdued colors, like neutral tones, browns, soft blues, etc . Not to say you cant use a black or a red, but use it in moderation, as an accent color. Bold colors in general should not, in my opinion, be used as a primary color of the website. The visitors eyes will be strained and start hurting and they will leave your website and find another site that will keep their interest. Lets look at one example:
This is a medical spa website that we built for a client. The website uses brown, beige, and skin tones. The overall feeling is soft and luxurious and we used the purple that is in their logo as an accent color, links. (Purple usually invokes a feeling of luxury) It just works! Here is another example. See below. This is a watch company that wanted to attract a younger audience with their “race theme” watches. You’ll see that we used a black background with white lettering and red accents. Now imagine the colors we flipped and the background was bright red? Wouldn’t look so sophisticated, and would do nothing to make the watch look good…
3 W’s to picking colors
Who – Who is your target audience? Gender, sex, age, professionals, parents, etc. Why – Why are they there? What is the purpose they are looking at your website? ex: A restaurant? They’re feeling hungry and you’d want to use colors that would make their mouth water What – What are you offering them, ex: service, product or idea. What kind? ex: if you’re a moving company, you’d want to make them trust you. You’d want to use solid colors, like blue and white (maybe red accents?) Answer 3 w’s and you’ll be closer to choosing your colors! Take a look at the colors below. This is where Color Psychology comes into play. There are a lot of research hours put into this!
Photo credit: UXPin
So you settle on a website primary color. Now what?
Here is where you’d ideally rely on your web designer. You tell them I want to use green because I’m a landscaping company. Your designer will come up with designs that use the green along with complimentary colors that will make your website inviting and user friendly! But if you’re designing your own website, lets briefly get into color compliments. Take a look at our choices:
