How colours affect your website

Since people associate particular colours with different emotions, the colours used on your website can have a psychological effect on visitors to your site. By using specific colours geared towards the emotion you want to invoke, you can actually increase product sales.

Here are some colours along with the emotions and symbols they stimulate:

White

Purity, innocence, peace, perfection, chastity, sterility, cleanliness. In general, white creates a cool and refreshing feeling.

Black

Night, space, authority, sturdiness, reliability, power, constancy, prudence, wisdom, classy, elegance, submission, mourning, demons, witches. Black is a controversial colour as it can symbolize both good and evil.

Red

Love, excitement, warmth, heat, fire, blood, passion, power, aggression, action. Use red as an attention grabber. It works better as an accent colour rather than a background one.

Pink

Love, excitement, warmth, heat, fire, blood, passion, power, aggression, action. Use red as an attention grabber. It works better as an accent colour rather than a background one.

Blue

Sky, ocean, water, temperature, ice, coolness, mist, shadow, travel, freedom, truth, solitude, wisdom, trust, loyalty, peaceful, calmness, intelligence, dedication, masculinity. Different shades of blue convey opposite meanings. Light blue is peaceful while dark blue is depressing.

Purple

Royalty, dignity, luxury, wealth, sophistication, feminine, passion, romance, sensitivity, coolness, mist, shadows, mysterious, mystic.

Green

Money, calm, envy, greed, nature, life, youth, renewal, hope, vigour, fertility, rebirth, freedom, guilt. Different shades of green have different meanings. Dark green-cool. masculine, conservative, wealth. Emerald green- immortality. Olive green- peace. Green is the easiest colour on the eye.

Yellow

Light, purity, understanding, brightness, warmth, playfulness, creativity. Lemon yellow is the most eye fatiguing colour. Yellow can increase irritability so yellow should not be used as a main colour, only as an accent. Yellow enhances concentration.

Orange

Autumn, youthful, fire, warmth, contentment, fruitfulness, wholesomeness, strong, generous, endurance, strength, ambition. Orange is the colour most associated with appetite so it would be a good colour choice for a website selling food products. Orange also makes a product seem more suitable for everyone and more affordable.

Brown

Wood, comfort, strength, earth, solid, reliable, credible, maturity, humility, conservancy. Light brown conveys genuineness.

Grey

Exclusivity. Enhances the psychological response of other colours.

In general, red, orange, and yellow are exciting colours while purple, blue and green are calming ones.

Use the colour that symbolizes the emotion you want to convey as the primary colour on your website. Add 1-2 other colours to reinforce this emotion. The colours used for your background, header, graphics, text, highlighting, headlines, etc. will all contribute to your website's influence on your visitors.

Tags: Colours, Miscellaneous, Web Design

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