Color Wheel

Color Wheel

Choosing the right color combination is vital for any design – web site layouts included. A good color combination can lead to success while a bad one spells doom. Be sure to judiciously select a color combination that matches the theme or your site. Colors on your web site can be complementary to your logo colors or can be quite different which helps your logo standout helping in brand recall. Also remember that the effect of a single color changes, sometimes dramatically, when used in combination with other colors.

You want to make sure you use a font and background color that’s easily readable. Certain color combinations are better than others. Choose the wrong combination, and you may frustrate visitors and drive them away. But a good color combination can make the reading experience better.

Determine the Product / Service You Are Selling

If you are selling environmental or ‘green’ products, it would not be appropriate to use colors like red or orange.  Instead you would want to use greens, and/or earth tones.  Choose a color that matches the product or service that you are offering.

Focus on the Target Audience

When deciding on the appropriate color for a website, consideration should be given to the target audience. The color used for a product focused on the elderly may not fare well with teens or younger generations. Also, over use of extremely bright colors like red, yellow, blue etc causes eye fatigue and could drive visitor away.

Background Color

We often find it helpful to have a different color background.  By doing this, it punches the body of the website page forward and keeps the focus on the website itself.

Make Your Text Black

When it comes to reading text, people are used to reading black text.  It is the easiest on the eye.  There is no need to stray from what people have grown up using.

Color should relative to products being highlighted

As stated earlier, it is important to relate your product / service to a color relevant to your industry.

  • Red is attractive and powerful and would go well for websites that are focused on products meant for children and also for inducing a visitor to take action with a “Book now”,  and/or “Reserve now”.  Red invokes emotion.
  • Orange is used in websites that promote food products. It is known to promote positive thinking and increase creativity. The color also appeals to the younger generation.  Many technical companies use Orange.
  • Yellow signifies cheerfulness and creativity. It appeals to children and is used in sites that promote leisure products. Yellow, however,  can tend to strain the eyes and should be used as an accent color in most cases.
  • Green is pleasing to the human eye and is apt for tourism sites and sites that relate to nature. Green symbolizes prosperity and wealth.  Green also invokes trust and is one of the most trendy / corporate colors.
  • Blue is a conservative color with incredibly high trust value and is known to relax the nervous system. It is suitable for sites offering high- tech products and also for diet products. Many people mistakenly use blue for text color.  This should be avoided as it is not a standard color for the human eye to read with.
  • Black is useful for sites that relate to photography and art.
  • Purple is used in religious sites and vacation sites.