Undoubtedly, Color is one of the major factors that affect the visual and non-verbal communication. It communicates with your website visitors on an emotional level. Color has extreme power to give an appropriate message to visitors clearly with an emotional touch.
When it is about choosing a color scheme for a website, as a designer or developer it is important to have basic knowledge of main principles of color theory and how it is useful to increase your professionalism. Picking a color that best suits your niche could be a nightmare – especially if you’re not sure about your color combination ability.
Color makes a spectacular impact on how we discover and retain information, that’s why choosing the best color scheme for a website becomes so important. In this article, we intended to cover all important aspects of color; numerous methods for choosing color coordination and of course some basic principles.
So, let’s get started!!!
Basic Color Theory
Choosing a color according to your taste is great if you think you have a good eye for which color you’d pick for your website. But, all are not good at it. So, for all those who are not aware of what colors to combine, I’d recommend them to learn basic color theory first.
Learn More: Essential Tips and Tricks for UX/UI Design
We all grow up learning about primary and secondary colors. Right? There are three primary colors available – Red, Yellow, and Blue. They are colors on their own and cannot be created through the mixing of other colors. Green, Purple, and Orange are the secondary colors that made by mixing two primary colors. Apart from these two, we also have tertiary colors- which are what you get after mixing a primary and a secondary color together.
But, in design, we generally use two basic models RGB (Red, Green, and Blue) for digital media and CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key –Black) for print media.
Now, let’s take a look at Color Schemes
Monochromatic
The monochromatic color scheme makes use of a single base hue. It can be extended using tints and shades of that color.
- Tint- it is achieved by mixing of white color to the main color to increase lightness.
- Shade- it is achieved by mixing black color to the main color to reduce lightness.
Analogous
This scheme combines one man color with the two colors which are positioned next to each other in a color wheel. It will always give the pleasant feel and is easy to work with. It looks great for professional and business uses.
Complementary
This is most useful in highlighting important elements in a website, as it provides the strongest contrast of colors. It combines colors that are positioned exactly opposite to each other in color wheel.
Triadic
The triadic color scheme combines three colors that are equally apart from each other on the color wheel. When you connect all the three colors, it creates a triangular shape. Use this scheme to create an aesthetically pleasing website.
Tips on choosing colors or color scheme
Now, the question arises is how to choose the right colors for your website. Before picking colors, you need to consider some of the key factors:
- What your app or website or brand represents?
For example, if your brand or website is based on Makeup and Hygiene product; white, lavender, pink etc should be your first choice if it is Govt. agencies or NGOs; blue and green may be ideal. So, firstly focus on what your brand stands for?
- What is your target audience?
It’s important to think about who will be using the website and what they expect. The colors for feminine products would likely be different from the colors for kids or males.
- Does your brand already have the main color?
If your client has a logo with the specific color or brand like Coca-Cola uses white and red predominantly, then that will be your priority or start color.
- Is your message based on content or visuals?
If your app is related to eCommerce or to sell something, it would be better to use neutral colors. It will help to draw the attention of visitor toward the product.
How to choose Website Design color Schemes?
There are 3 main colors you need to choose for your website design:
- Choose a base color as your brand color
Prefer a base color from your branding (logo or company color) like red and white of Coca-Cola. However, if you don’t have a brand color or particular color of the logo, pick your color with the help of some tools available for color selection.
Some of the best are Kuler, Adobe Color CC, Material palette, Color Hunter. The list is not limited to these only; you can use other tools also.
Use your base/primary color to highlight limited and important information such as logo, contact detail, titles, headings, important popup etc.
- Choose 1-2 accent colors
Only one color makes your website slightly boring or dull. To make it more attractive, you need accent colors which compliment base color and are used to highlight secondary information on your website.
There are some content/ items that are not so important, but you still want them to highlight. For example, Current menu tab, subtitles, quotes etc. To do so, use accent colors. But, try to use only 1 or 2 otherwise use of too many accent colors make your website messy and your visitor confused.
- Choose background color
Choosing background color of the website is challenging because each brand serves a different purpose. For example, if your website’s goal is to sell products, use of white or tints of gray would be a great choice. So that, products displayed on site instantly grab the attention of buyers.
In contrast, if you want to promote the brand or service you should go with dark colors as your background color.
Final Verdict
Metizsoft Solutions: By following above mentioned tips and methods, you can definitely choose a good color combination for your website – even if you don’t have natural skill of color coordination. Don’t be afraid of doing experiment with colors, but at the same time remember that your content is your first priority. So, choose according to that.
Thank you for reading. Found this post helpful? Leave your comments below.