Color is a great way to add emotions to your website since it is a non-verbal communication that evokes an emotional response from website visitors. The use of colors in web design can decide the tone of the message your website is trying to communicate. All colors have different meanings and create a diverse impact on different people. Selecting a color scheme for the website design is a very crucial decision that has to be carefully made keeping in mind the color theories and color psychology. There is no perfect color combination that can be used for a site web design. Designers must choose color combinations based on client requirements or by experimenting with colors.
Basic Guidelines for Choosing Colors
1. Rely On a Natural Color Palette
Natural colors are pleasing to the eye than unnatural colors such as blue, red and green since these cause eye strain and discomfort. Bold colors are best used for culinary websites or kids’ websites.
2. Create a Contrast between the Background and the Text Color
Contrasting combinations such as a white background with black text are preferable. You can even have grey, black or dark blue backgrounds and a lighter text color. If your web page design features products then de-saturated colors should be used to rivet visitor attention on the product.
3. Focus on Chromatic Harmony
For a pleasant visual, it is better to use a fair number of colors in web design and manage them consistently throughout the website. An excess of colors would result in inconsistency and visual overload.
Commonly Used Color Schemes for Specific Categories
Graphic designers cannot rely on a universal color scheme for all their clients. Decisions have to be made based solely on the client needs, the type of business and the products or services provided.
Restaurants and Food Products
Websites that revolve around food, usually use bright solid colors such as red, yellow, and green to easily attract the eye and induce hunger. Warm colors should be used to increase appetite and cool colors such as blue and purple should be avoided since they decrease appetite.
Hygiene Products and Makeup
Color schemes such as lavender, light blue, light pink and white can be used to depict grace and femininity for makeup products. For emphasizing simplicity and cleanliness, neutral colors can be used.
Government Organizations
Colors that reinforce trust, respect and dignity such as green and blue can be used for such public organizations. Red and white are also used for giving a sense of nationalism. Monochromatic or analogous color schemes should be used in website designs.
Spas and Hospitality Setups
The hospitality industry denotes comfort and relaxation which can be emphasized by using earth and natural colors. Green, blue, brown, black, white, along with silver and gold can be used for hotels, spas and resorts.
Colors are combined not based on intuition rather by researching about the color wheel and color combinations that create aesthetic web designs.
