Is Your Website Too Colorful?

How to Pick Colors That Wow: A Comprehensive Guide

Colors do more than make a website “pretty” or “professional.

They’re powerful tools that can make or break your website.

This guide shows you how to harness their potential.

Understanding the Psychology of Color

Different hues evoke specific emotions and reactions. There are a ton of resources online that go into depth on color psychology and marketing. Here’s a simple summary:

Red: Often associated with energy, passion, and urgency. It can be attention-grabbing but use it sparingly as it can also evoke feelings of anger or aggression.
Orange: Brings a sense of enthusiasm, creativity, and warmth. It’s a great choice for call-to-action buttons.
Yellow: Evokes happiness, optimism, and clarity. It’s often used to highlight important information.
Green: Symbolizes growth, harmony, and nature. It can be calming and reassuring.
Blue: Associated with trust, calmness, and reliability. It’s a popular choice for corporate websites.
Purple: Often linked to luxury, creativity, and wisdom. It can be sophisticated and mysterious.

For more details on color psychology, here are 3 resources.

Color and User Experience

Colors affect our emotions and have significant cultural impacts as well. As people come to your website, how do you want them to feel? Remember the “rider & the elephant”. While logic – the rider – is in “control”, achieving the result is much easier if the elephant – emotions – has bought into the journey. Just remember… this has nothing to do with “your favorite color” unless your favorite color speaks to your audience.

Emotional Response

Colors evoke specific emotions and can influence user behavior. For instance:

Joy and Excitement: Bright colors like orange, yellow, and red can stimulate excitement and enthusiasm.
Trust and Reliability: Blues and greens are often associated with trust, stability, and security.
Luxury and Sophistication: Purple, black, and gold can convey high-end and exclusive vibes.
Calm and Serenity: Soft blues, greens, and purples can create a relaxing atmosphere.

If you’ve already developed a brand, do the colors still align with the feelings you want people to have? If you’re just starting, take time to consider how you want people to feel as they interact with your website (or social media, etc).

Cultural Considerations

Color symbolism varies across cultures. What signifies positivity in one culture can represent negativity in another.

It’s essential to be mindful of these differences to avoid misunderstandings or negative associations. Here are a few examples:

Red: Symbolizes luck and prosperity in Chinese culture but is associated with danger or anger in Western cultures.
White: Represents purity and mourning in different cultures.
Green: Associated with money and luck in some cultures, while representing nature and harmony in others.

Take time to research your target audience’s cultural background to ensure your color choices are culturally appropriate. Here’s a good article we found to get you started – Color Symbolism: Psychology Across Cultures.

Building Your Color Palette

As you develop your brand colors, there are 3 groups of color you want to consider:

Primary Colors: These are the foundation of your color scheme. They should reflect your brand identity. Stick to two or three primary colors to avoid overwhelming visitors.

Secondary Colors: These colors complement your primary colors and add depth to your palette. They can be lighter or darker shades of your primary colors or contrasting hues.

Accent Colors: Used sparingly, accent colors draw attention to specific elements like your primary call-to-action buttons. They should contrast with your primary colors for maximum impact.

The Importance of Color Contrast

Color contrast is crucial for readability and accessibility. Tools like the WebAIM Contrast Checker can help you determine if your color combinations meet accessibility standards.

Tip: Aim for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 for standard text and 3:1 for large text.

Color Blindness: Your website can be absolutely stunning visually, and yet be unreadable for someone who is color blind. As you put your brand colors together, and build your site, you can test website colors with a tool like Toptal.com.

Here are some additional tips for color accessibility:

Do not use color as the only indicator of action with your text. Make sure that links are underlined.
Be mindful of the context of your colors. For example, avoid using red and green together, as people with red-green color blindness may not be able to distinguish between them.
Use a color palette checker.

Make sure that your website is usable by everyone, regardless of their visual abilities.

Color and Branding

Color plays a vital role in shaping your brand’s identity and personality because they will portray the feelings and emotions you want people to have as they interact with it.

Brand Personality: Choose colors that align with your brand’s desired image (e.g., playful, luxurious, trustworthy). These colors may also be somewhat driven by your product or service.

Color Consistency: Maintain consistent color usage across all brand materials for strong brand recognition.

Color Associations: Consider the psychological impact of colors on your target audience when selecting your brand palette.

Call-to-Action (CTA) Buttons

CTA buttons are pivotal elements in driving conversions. Color plays a crucial role in their effectiveness.

Primary vs Secondary: What is the key action you want people to take on your website? These buttons should have the highest contrast and stand out the most. Secondary buttons should be a different color so that people can easily understand the main action you want them to take.

Contrast: Use colors that contrast sharply with the background to make buttons stand out.

Psychology: Colors can influence the perceived urgency or importance of the CTA. For instance, red is often associated with urgency, while green suggests growth or positivity.

A/B Testing: Experiment with different color combinations to determine which performs best.

Visual Hierarchy

Color helps guide users’ attention through a webpage. By strategically using color, you can create a visual hierarchy that highlights or differentiates important elements.

Emphasis: Use brighter or contrasting colors to draw attention to essential information.

Grouping: Group related elements together using similar colors to improve readability and understanding.

Progression: Create a sense of visual flow by using color gradients or variations to guide users’ eyes through the page.

Color Trends and Tools

While it’s tempting to follow the latest color trends, make sure they align with your brand. Here are some beginner-friendly tools to help you explore color combinations:

Adobe Color: Offers pre-made color harmonies and allows you to create custom palettes.
Coolors: Provides a simple interface for generating random color combinations.
Color Hunt: Explore color palettes if your brand colors feel weak or in need of a facelift.

Exercise: Do Your Own Color Audit

Take a look at your website.

How many colors are you using?
Do they effectively communicate your brand message?
Are they accessible?

Bonus: Carry this exercise to your social media. Are the colors that you use tied into your brand?

By understanding color psychology, building a harmonious palette, and considering user experience, you can create a website that not only looks great but also engages and converts visitors.

Want to dive deeper into colors? Check out these helpful articles: Building Your Color Palette and 12 Essential Tips to Picking a Website Color Scheme by Neil Patel.

Remember, color is a powerful tool. Use it wisely!

Does your website need a color adjustment to better align with your end user and your brand? Take advantage of our free website review where we look at color and engagement elements.