What Color Is Your Website?

Psychology behind the colors that can make or break your website’s success.

I always get this question when designing or redesigning a website: “What colors should I use?”.  Did you know that the values associated with colors can have a significant impact on your website’s success? And did you know that you can change your visitor’s feeling, mood and reaction by using different colors on your website?

Some professional web designers do not realize the impact that a single color can have on their project when designing a website for their clients. In reality, the meaning of colors will send the first message of your website to your visitors. You don’t have to be a genius to find out why since it is obvious that the first thing they (visitors) see is the color of your site!

I have studied one hundred visitors to evaluate their patience for uploading a web page. First, I tried a plain black background page and the average waiting time was up to 2.47 seconds. Then I tried a plain white background page and the average wait time for uploading the web page increased to 4.89 Seconds.

The reason is just fear. People are afraid from black and darkness and they feel vulnerable when they see a plain black page. I won’t go in detail about this subject in this article but if you would like to know more you can always visit our site at websitedevelopmenttech.com and get more information about color psychology.

What color should you use when designing your website?
Before answering this question you should do some research about your target audiences and find out about their character, behavior, mood, emotion … etc. I’m not asking you to go and find each individual and interview them to find out their feelings and emotions. All you need to do is find the answer of these two questions:
1. What is the market segmentation that you are targeting?
a. Age
b. Gender
c. Culture
d. Geographic location

2. Why are they coming to your website?
Let’s take a closer look at these two questions.
A. Market Segmentation:
a. Age: What is the most appropriate color for the age group that your website is targeting.
b. Gender: Men and Women have different taste and they react differently to colors. For example, the color pink is more appealing to women.
c. Culture: Colors mean different things to different cultures around the world. People associate colors to special events in their culture. For example, white is the symbol of purity and virtue in some cultures while in others white is associated with mourning and grief. d. Geographic Location: Sometimes geographic location can change people’s interpretation of certain colors. For example, people that are living in a desert area tend to be more passionate toward bright colors from yellow to orange vs. people that are living in the mountains.

B. Why are they coming to your website?
a. That is a very important question which determines the mood and feeling of your visitors. For example, people go to a lawyer’s or a doctor’s website because they have a problem and they want to be FIXED. This means they are not really excited or happy about that issue. Although, this may not be the case all the time there are some exceptions such as plastic surgeons, patent attorneys… etc.

As a designer, once you know your target markets then you can decide what color to choose to get the best possible outcome for your site. Sometimes you may end up changing some colors that you thought would be interesting to your visitors.

Remember, no matter how much you know and how hard you try, there is no guarantee that you can make it the first time. That is why it is important to monitor the results of your website and know how visitors are interacting with your site so you can change your mistakes and learn from it.

Best Regards, Shawn Davari

If you are looking for Atlanta Web Design, logo design, or any web design or redesign services, Call Kinedo today!