Novice web designers will have a blast choosing color schemes for their first few web designs. However, they will soon find out why web designs are created using a very select color palette.
Color does not work the some online as it does in print. Because the color will translate differently depending on the computer being used, it can be difficult to maintain that perfect selection. Here are some tips that will help your website look great and translate onto any screen.
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Tip#1 Choose simple colors
Some colors have very complex hexadecimal triplets. You can simplify the triplets by duplicating the numbers so that you have only three different numbers used twice.
Tip#2 Use browser safe colors when you can
The browser safe color palette is a limited one, but you will get better results with them. Try to substitute similar colors with browser safe ones when you can.
Tip#3 Harmonize your color palette by using hex codes
In many cases, you can choose three triplets and rearrange their order. You will come out with three colors that work harmoniously together.
Tip#4 Keep cultural differences in mind
Colors in the Western culture have very different meanings than they do in European countries and far east countries. You would do very well to look up the meanings behind colors in the cultures that will be viewing your web pages. Look up Color Symbolisms on the web before finalizing your color choices.
Tip#5 Consider age and gender differences
Age and gender differences are mostly ones of preference, whereas the cultural consideration avoid offending visitors. However, when you are marketing to a certain age group or gender group, you will have better results with certain colors.
Children prefer bold, bright, and primary colors. Adults prefer lighter, pastel, and calming colors. Men seem to prefer blues and greens, and women tend to prefer reds and oranges.
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Tip#6 Consider class preferences
Research has been done that has determined that lower income groups respond better to primary colors. Higher income groups prefer blended colors like mauve, taupe, and azure.
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Tip#7 Look around to see what is popular
You don’t always have to follow trends, but you must never look outdated. Keep an eye on the color schemes that work on other web sites and those that don’t. This way you will have a site that looks new and in line with the times.
This is a guest post by Anne Cruz, check out our guidelines to guest post on this blog. Image Credit : Benheine
16 comments
And also keep following the design trends in your industry. May be you get an idea!
Good point. Study your niche and see what the trends are.
very creative image here and thanks for sharing post it would be helpful to every one
I think it comes with experience. Some people just don’t know where to start. I’ve seen some beautiful brown themes and I don’t think many people realize that brown can look great in combination with other colors.
That triple hex color swapping thing is kind of cool. I’m a designer (somewhat) and didn’t know that. Very nice.
I also think we should create good color contrasts in the colors we use. This ensures that everyone would find it easy to read your content
Well at first I thought that I was pretty good in choosing colors and the colors that I chose on the background of my sites were good enough.Not long ago I received comments from my readers that they did not like the background of my website.I was surprised, but then I had to change them according to the taste of my readers.
Interesting point about cultural differences. You have to design your website to satisfy your target market. So if those people read extra meaning behind color choice, that could be a disastrous decision. So before choosing your color scheme, do some research into what emotions certain colors incite.
Good point about competitve analysis. You should always see what your competition is doing, what the trends are and what people are predicting and see if you can come up with somethign from there.
I think colors always play a vital role in the website. If colors are good all the visitors will remain on website. And this is the maximum time consuming period which a good designer takes.
I always have a hard time figuring out what colors I will use for my blog designs, but often times I will look to other blogs to inspiration, which usually works out well for me. 🙂
Till then,
Jean
im trying to search for the website that you choose the style of the dress but you can choose it any color you want..they were like some bridesmaid dresses..does anyone know the name of that website?
Thanks to all for sharing and glad so many found this article to be helpful!
@ viral marketing: Yes, I agree that experience is key. This is why playing around with different color schemes is so important, especially those you wouldn’t normally think to use.
@ Julius: Contrast definitely helps with text standing out from backgrounds and other similar layout aspects. Without good contrast, a web page could be very unreadable. Good point!
@ Reverse Phone Lookup: Being able to listen to your visitors can be hard to swallow at times. I commend you for listening to their complaints and doing something about it!
I think its a very big thing to choose colors for your website design and you need to have a great sense of combination with colors, these tips teach a good way to choose the perfect color.
Regarding your point;
Tip#6 Consider class preferences
Research has been done that has determined that lower income groups respond better to primary colors. Higher income groups prefer blended colors like mauve, taupe, and azure.
Do you have any links to such research?
This is an enlightening post, especially the information about color associations across different cultures. One of the aspects that has been a challenge, beside picking colors, has been matching colors. Has anyone used color scheme generators? Which ones would be recommended? I currently use Color Scheme Generator (http://colorschemetools.net/colorschemegenerator), and have used Adobe Kuler and Color Jack, but I would like to know what professionals are recommending.