How the Color of Your Website Design Affects Your Visitors

How the Color of Your Website Design Affects Your VisitorsDid you know that the colors in your website design have a huge effect on your readers? While the content of your website is important of course, the colors that you use will create a certain feeling and mood within the website. You might have heard about the basics of color theory and how color impacts mood, in terms of the idea that blue is cool and red is warm, etc. However, there is a lot more to the story than this. Color can really help visitors to recognize your brand and recognize content from your blog on future visits. Also, the right color can hold the attention of your readers and give your content a sense of authority.

This is why it is important to think carefully about the colors that you choose to use in your website design.

The Impact of Color

When your readers are looking at your website, what effect is the color of the page having on them? Depending on the tones and shades you are using, you could be stimulating a range of different feelings, associations and meanings.

How the Color of Your Website Design Affects Your Visitors

For example, red will cause your reader excitement and stimulation whereas blue evokes feeling of calm, security and trust. This is why blue is a common color for banks. Studies have shown that the color turquoise is commonly associated with tropical places, which is why you might see it in holiday advertisements. Colors such as yellow and orange are associated with happiness and fun. Black is often used to market luxury products because it is seen as being powerful and sleek. Pink is a romantic and feminine color and it is often used in websites that are targeted toward women and young girls.

Studies have shown that color choice can increase brand recognition by up to 80%. Also, it can improve readership by as much as 40% and increase reading comprehension by 73%. In fact, some studies have shown that color can be up to 85% of the reason that users decide to buy a product.

How to Use Color in Your Website Design

When you are thinking about the use of color on your blog, it is important to consider not just the blog design but also the content of your posts. Are you adding color into your blog posts, or are they just large walls of text?

Think about how you can incorporate color into your blog posts, such as adding some photos or illustrations in. You could also experiment with different colored text or icons within your navigation. Be creative when it comes to using color in your design and your website will be more visually interesting to your readers.

Don’t Go Overboard with Too Much Color

Be careful not to add too much color to your website design. If you throw every color in the rainbow into the mix, you will find that the design looks too crowded and overwhelmed and it will be confusing for the eyes.

Instead, try to put together a colour scheme that consists of no more than three or four colors. If you are not sure how to do this, a professional designer will be able to show you how to use color sparingly to create an effect without overwhelming the viewer.

Consider Your Demographic

It is important to consider the demographic of your readers when you are choosing your website color scheme. For example, if your site is designed for younger viewer, you will want to use bright and colorful colors. If you are attempting to appeal to an older audience, they will be drawn toward more conservative colors such as browns, greys and whites.

Adding in Color with an Infographic

If you have important information you want to convey, you might want to consider adding an infographic. This is a colorful illustrated chart which conveys a concept in a very visual way.

An infographic is a great way of explaining visually some information or a concept that would take pages of boring text to describe otherwise. There are companies out there, such as SkyRocketSEO.com that can help you to design a custom infographic for your website. They will be able to ensure that the style and the color scheme of the infographic match the overall look of your website.

Add Contrast between Background and Text

When you are choosing colors for your website, it is important to make sure that the background color and the text color have a strong enough contrast so that the text can be easily read. For example, orange text on a white background or dark green text on a black background will be difficult to see. Black text on a white background is easiest on the eyes, so it is usually best to leave the main body text this way and add color to other aspects of the website.

Choosing the right color for your website can be complicated and will take some experimentation, but once you have found the right hues they will add immensely to the visual impact of your website.

About the Author

Chris Hoole is a freelance writer and web designer. He also loves to travel and paint with water colors and he lives with his wife and two daughters.

3 thoughts on “How the Color of Your Website Design Affects Your Visitors”

  1. Very simple article. I would probably laugh if I walked into a bank and the walls where red. I wonder what the statistics are of bank robberies in relation to paint colors or overall design of a bank. Thanks for the article!

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