Color Palettes and Websites – A Symbiotic Association

Imagine a house painted all over with stark yellow and accents of black. Would you be comfortable staying in it for years? Forget years, even days? Tiger stripes may look good on your clothes but not on your house. Now, imagine another house painted in shades of blue, white and teal or neutral shades and white. Would it not be wonderful to stay there forever? Would you choose the same color scheme for a palace and a winter house? There are color patterns that best suit every component of your life. What might fit one might not flatter another, and your website is no exception.

Choosing the right color for your website can be compared to choosing colors to paint your house. It has to reflect who you are, become your identity, and also please your family and visitors. Choosing the right color becomes a challenge to most people because the majority are not adept at combining colors and using them in the right places. It can get challenging if you do not have an eye for colors or if you are color-blind. Unless you have a proper understanding of color palettes and their influence on the human psyche, it is better to take professional help to choose the right hues reflecting your product.

An apt color scheme is imperative for the impact of your business as different colors appeal to different segments of the audience and the colors you choose are decisive of the crowd that visits your e-store. Each color is an indicator of a feeling. Specific segments of people favor some colors, some by genders. The colors need to be in harmony with each other and catch the eye of the customer.

Aren’t the stats amazing?

We are a visual-stimuli driven race. We tend to believe everything we see. We associate specific brands with specific colors. Yellow and Red for Mac Donald’s, Red for Coca-Cola, Blue Red and White for Pepsi, etc. None of these iconic colors were chosen at random. They were well curated to:

Pointers to Choose the Right Colors for Your Website

As per studies, each of the familiar colors is reflective of a particular emotion. And you need to select the right one that reflects your business. They have the power to influence a specific sect of shoppers to your site and even alter their shopping patterns.

Colors and Target Audience:

You need to consider the below indicators while choosing your color scheme:

You also need to consider the fact that men and women have different color preferences. While men like achromatic, shades and bright colors, women go for soft colors and tints. You may note that Blue and Green ranks as the first two favorites for both the genders. If you want to appeal to both the sexes, irrespective of age group, these are the two hues you can swear by as your primary color, accent colors, or both. Note that Orange and Brown are the two colors least favored by both genders. Using these tricks judiciously can subconsciously alter consumer brand perceptions.

Let’s take a look at the standard colors and their subsequent representation:

The deciding factors that you need to consider while choosing the hues that would adorn your precious site are :

1. Logo and Header Color: Pick a color scheme that best reflects your brand. The logo should both stand out and blend in with the background. It should speak the story of your brand to the audience.

2. Primary or Dominant Color (60%): This is the most important of all the colors on your website. You need to choose a color that evokes feelings in the readers’ minds that is reflective of your product and brand. This is the color that jumps out at people when they think of your brand. This color should be a significant part of your logo as well. You have to use the primary color prudently, by not using it indiscriminately. The color needs to be focused on all the elements that need immediate attention like the header, title text, phone numbers, contact forms, sign up for a newsletter, etc

Based on the above color chart, you by now have a fair idea on which color to choose as your primary color. Using a combination of the colors that reflect your target audience, you will be able to attract more of them to visit your site. It is just applying a little bit of color psychology.

3. Secondary or Complementary (30%) and Accent (10%) Colors: Accent and Secondary colors help you highlight accessory parts of the website that deserves attention, such as menus, secondary buttons, tabs, subtitles, quotes, secondary pages, information boxes, etc. You could take the help of color matching tools (e.g., Adobe Color CC tool, Color Spire, Adobe Kuler, Pictaculous, Toucan, etc.) to get the perfect blend of colors that make your website ‘pop.’ Accent colors work best when limited to 1-2 colors. Too many accents would render the site busy. You can choose to go with an Analogous or a Complementary color scheme with reference to the Color Wheel while deciding on these colors.

4. Backdrop Color: Choosing a background is akin to choosing the base color of your home. Too bright colors would create a noise in the backdrop, and all your furniture and accessories would get lost in it. Pale colors create a comfortable ambiance for you to stay peacefully. The same goes for websites.

This color sets the mood for your website and is decisive in keeping customers comfortable on your site. Always choose a non-invasive, pastel/neutral, contrasting color as your backdrop so that it highlights your product and makes it visible for the consumer. If you notice, most of the leading eCommerce sites choose white as their background to keep their products or ideas as the focal point and content easily readable.

5. Placement and Combination of Colors on Website: The choice of colors alone won’t do the trick for you. The expertise lies in combining the colors to make it look pleasing to the audience. A subtle background, an appealing combination of complementary colors and play of primary color at just the focal points is sure to create a visual feast for your customers’ eyes.

6. Keeping the Color Blind Visitors in Mind: We should also take into consideration the small segment of color blind people that must visit our sites. We need to make the site look friendly for them too.

I’m sure that by now you realize the potential colors have in attracting and sustaining your store’s traffic. The colors play a significant role in setting the mood for customer purchases and influencing their buying trends. The color scheme needs to be thought out and made audience-centric. The colors need to communicate to your customer.

Align your design with the colors and get yourself a stylish website with a color scheme that fits your brand to a T. Happy Selling!