Understanding Color Psychology in Web Design

Color on your website is as important as color anywhere else in life. Color psychology in web design affects (Nordeborn, 2013) how a user perceives your website the moment they land. The use of color in any design is applied with greater scientific understanding because of its effects on people both physiologically and psychologically (Singh N. & Srivastava S.K., 2011), including in marketing.

Color In Marketing

If you’re looking to make your website memorable, it’s partially to do with color. If you’re questioning why the answer is right in front of you. Color is crucial to human memory and moods. Colors themselves have specific attributes that a related to how they make people feel (Importance of colors on your website and brand identity).  

Understand that the colors you choose for your business must be intentional. They also need to work together as far as colors go to bring home the message.

What? It’s Free Web Design! Right?

Let’s talk about the magic of a free website theme template. You’ll see where I’m going here in a second with this tangent. Whether you’re freelance or just getting started with your business, using a free theme is usually an attractive idea because of the value you’re being provided. Free themes that you see use complimentary colors preset from the start. However, those same free theme colors tend to be unremarkable neutral colors that are on purposely designed to fit what the web designer is imagining for use case scenarios. Anyone can use them that’s why they are attractive.

That’s also the rub, they’re unremarkable.  Color has an effect on human emotion and can be a make or break keypoint to your brand story. 

Part of marketing is brand awareness. It is arguably, the most important aspect of marketing to get people to buy something. Do bland colors make your brand memorable? The answer is a simple ‘no’. This is where the science of color theory along with the application of color usage becomes important, even in those sweet little free themes.

Marketing Through Color and Emotion

Getting back to the business of being memorable, there are several ways you can apply color science to your website yourself (How to strategically use color in website design) or you can engage us to help you. First, understand your user expectations. What colors will your users expect based on the nature of the brand? Second, define which colors will compliment your message and each other. You can use several free tools to determine color compliment like Adobe Color. Third, and finally, keep it simple. A good pallet can be simple and elegant.