Basic Color Theory and you

The color you choose for your website should be done so after careful consideration, the color can be chosen with the purpose of the website and the target audience in mind.

Check out these articles’ about color psychology on infoplease.com and about.com

This listing of color symbolism also has a listing for color symbolism by culture.
Though on a personal note, I did find that they had the color of saffron wrong in their listing, saffron is more like orange-red than the orange-peach they have it listed as.

"Research reveals all human beings make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or item within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone"

This statement from Institute for Color Research demonstrates the dominant role that color plays in influencing potential users, will the color appeal, attract or repel the user. Using the correct color schema is therefore important in designing your website.

Design your color schema to match the mood of the website you are planning, either it’s a corporate website or an online retail site, or a personal web site, the color has to match the mood of the audience. For ex: The color green is immediately associated money in the United States, green triggers the following positive emotions: hope, growth, good health, freshness, soothing, sharing, and responsiveness. Blue is usually used at corporate websites since it is the easiest color for the eyes to focus. It generates feelings of tranquility, love, acceptance, patience, understanding and cooperation.

What do www.ibm.com, www.microsoft.com and www.dell.com sites have in common, and mo I don’t mean the fact that they are all related to the computer industry, another thing should immediately touch your mind. Loot at the screen shots below, they are all BLUE.

All with a blue motif; shades of blue on white.

. . . but blue has been abused to such an extent that people are starting to find it boring, repetitive and unimaginative. Your website needs to stand out from others while making a statement of its own, if you do not have enough brand recognition, it would be safer to experiment another color schema.

[D] There should be a harmonious blend of colors in the website, some colors just do not go well with other colors, like the solid colors, red, green and blue do not go well with each other. Most designers these days use the color wheel (more about color wheel in Dimtry’s Design Lab) to find complementing colors (A simplified explanation of color schemas)

Knowing basic color theory will enhance your ability to use color successfully in web design. I found an excellent online resource that provides expert information not only regarding color use on the web but in a variety of commercial settings. It is the best online color theory resource that I have seen to date. Also, it is written in a way that makes learning about color a joy. You must visit COLORMATTERS.COM. Not only it is a fine resource but it also provides links to other sources of expert information on the use of color in graphic and web design. It is a compendium of knowledge for colors.

A point of note on colors is that unfortunately web browsers can only see 256 colors. The number further reduced since all browsers don't share the same 256-color pallet. Web browsers only share 216 common colors. When designing key elements in your web site you should try to stay within the 216-color pallet. Most imaging utilities have tools that allow you to select only the web safe colors.

If you go outside the 216-color pallet you start to use colors that do not exist within that browser. The browser has to mix the colors that do not exist. In order for the browser to display the color, it needs to take tiny dots from the colors native to that browser to come up with an approximate color. This is known as dithering. Some displays will distort the tiny dots to the point where the image is so speckled that it does not appear to be a solid color. This makes text very hard to read if it is placed over the dithered color. You should preferably use a browser safe color when using solid color as a design element. Some of the browser safe colors should be used with caution though. List of web safe colors in a web safe color chart.

But one can say today, the computers are no longer stuck in an area of the 256-color range and can handle most colors that you throw at them.

The best advice I can give any web designer is this: Choose your colors well! It is the single design element that most often determines the success of your web design.

While writing this down, I have seen people go overboard on designing for color and miss the whole concept that color is also a part of the designing constituents that also includes form and order.

Useful Links

Excellent online color schema generator wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html, couple of good color generators color.twysted.net and www.colormatch.dk