Color Scheme Discussion

It has come to my attention (sitting here doing a bit of self reflecting) that color scheme may play a vital role in of the performance of websites (most likely nothing new to most of the people).

We as webmasters have the same intent as store and franchise owners; to attract customers/traffic to our stores/online sites and to do out best in attempts to keep them happy with our services or what we have to offer. But in order to do that, they must stick around long enough to see the kind of quality services we can offer them. Scientific studies have proven time and time again that even the most minute things that affect mood such as music can sway a person to stick around and shop for a longer duration of time because of the way it makes the customers feel.

i think color theory falls along the same line of how it makes people feel. I think it has more of an effect since color has more of a universal appeal as opposed to a music genres which satisfy certain crowds. I feel that if we just take a couple of minutes to study Color Theory and take into consideration how much our site content and color scheme compliment each other, we can maximize the amount of traffic, true customers, and in the end, ultimately reap in huge amounts of profit.

http://iit.bloomu.edu/vthc/Design/psychology.htm

 

Cool link, thank you!

 

Good stuff. I read a lot about this a few years back, it's certainly interesting.

Note big brands like IBM, Microsoft, Dell - all heavily use blue. The most trusting colour, of course!

Colour is probably the main reason these forums have a nice feel to them and I like visiting, when compared with WebMasterWorld, which is just sterile, clinical and very boring. I hardly visit WMW simply because of this fact alone. There's no feeling over there, damn it.

Oh yes, and there's that little similarity with the colour of a dollar bill in here.. ooh, our posts look like dollars mm.. lovely AdSense dollars.

Pete

 

Yes, yes, yes. Over the years I have read similar articles.

 

i've found purple works well

 

personally, i like sites with light pastel colors and dark words... it creates a pleasant and comfortable look and feel. it also make the content easy for reading...

 

Yes, color IS important - so much so that I wrote the first of my "do it yourselfers" series on that topic. I wrote a product called Shades of Success, aimed at web designers and other business people who were doing their own web site design without necessarily having a graphic design background.

In Shades of Success, I provide an overview of color theory, the most common color schemes, and some definitions of the technology involved in color.

After that, we get into the fun part – color palettes. We will take a tour around the color wheel - green, blue, purple, lavender, pink, red, orange, yellow; with a few stops in neutral territory - beige, brown, black, gray, white!

For each color, I wrote about

* the psychology, symbolism and meaning of the color,

* palette ideas (what color goes with orange, for example) and then, very importantly,

* what NOT to do!

At the end, I share some of my favorite online resources for color. This document is a springboard to creating real palettes for all your projects –launching you right into the direction you need to go.

Plus you will also automatically receive a FREE BONUS that I wrote just for this occasion, The Color Meaning Glossary! That has actually been as popular as Shades, itself.

If you're into color, you might find it all very useful, especially if you're designing - and not really a designer, then its a great overview and reference for the topic of color!

PS. I've also got an affiliate program for this and am about to release another product for business people who are not designers but doing a lot of hands on stuff with their own marketing. Info on the same page above.

 

Don't forget to read up on what color means in different cultures.

For example, white in America means totally the opposite as it does in Far east cultures (IE China).

The caveat is brand size. For example, you won't find Coca-Cola changing their color in different cultures no matter what red signifies.

 

That is an excellent point. I didn't cover that in my product but I did make note of the fact that it should be done, and I noted some of these cultural differences in the color meaning glossary. I knew once I started down that road, it would make the lessons endless - and how would i know which cultures and countries mattered to my readers, and who would i leave out? But - that said - if someone is marketing to an audience in another country, it is important to keep these color meanings and emotions in mind; not a hard and fast rule, just information to take under advisement when you're designing. It also depends on the product and service you're designing around, and what direction you want to go. For example, for every color and every meaning, there seems to be a number of options (ie., red means a dozen different things )

 

Fascinating stuff.

Me? I like websites that are mostly black or white and use a vibrant colour or two to spice things up. On sites with mellow colours, I don't pay attention to colour schemes, but I guess that's the point -- not to distract.