The aspect of color is very crucial in the design process since it determines the user experience, perception and manner of usage of the website. The colors used in a website can also be chosen to beautify a website, make it easier to read and even dictate certain actions on the website. In this blog, let me briefly discuss the basics of choosing colors and guide you on how to make effective color schemes for web design.
Color studies are the knowledge about how color functions and they can be best utilized to complement one another in a certain layout. Concurrently, color knowledge is a part of aesthetics that engages the study of the color wheel, color harmonies, and the psychological effects of color.
The Color Wheel
The diagrams showing the connections of various hues are called color wheels and it is circular. They are the fundamental set of colors: red, blue, and yellow, secondaries: green, orange, and purple as well as the tertiary colors; a compound of the primary and secondary.
Color Harmonies
The harmonies are mixes of colors in which the result is harmonious and balanced. Some common color harmonies include:
Analogous Colors: Two colors that are neighbors in terms of position in the color wheel. It is quite pleasant to look at and they give a feeling of unison and tranquillity. Examples: Volunteerism, humane treatment of animals, and organic food.
Complementary Colors: Two colors are selected in a way that they appear on the two sides of the color wheel and are contrasted with one another. The advantages of contouring include; You get a high contrast and vibrant appearance. Example: Red and green.
Triadic Colors: Three colors, which are located equipment in the circle, help to understand the relationships between their tints. They maintain the proportions of all the elements used in the design and add a certain measure of movement. Example: I came up with Red, Yellow, and blue as my color combination.
Split-Complementary Colors: A color and two of its neighbors concerning the color pink which is one of the primary colors. It is a pair that presents high contrast compared to complementary colors, but less contrast compared to the tension of the opposite pair. Example: Except blue, red-orange, yellow-orange, and blackish.
Psychological Effects of Colors
Each of these shadings creates its feelings and associations. Knowing these effects can help you select appropriate colors that will elicit the right perception based on the message and tone of the site. Here are some common associations: Here are some common associations:
Red: Desire, zeal, opportunity (typically associated with buy now or contact us buttons).
Blue: To build trust, relieve tension, and convey aimed professionalism (often found on the websites of large companies).
Green: Green, sprout, wellness (common for the blogs and web pages that promote a sustainable environment and good health).
Yellow: The squares: are green, and mean ‘Happiness: optimism: attention’ this is slightly unrelated to red and is more like ‘Stop’ in the sense that it grabs the reader’s attention without necessarily being an urgent matter of concern.
Purple: Jewel – luxury, playfulness, mysterious (often associated with beauty and luxurious items)
Black: Formality, refinement, authority, or strength (used in the promotion of expensive items).
White: Hygiene, purity, simplicity (one of the most popular words for clean design themes).
Process for Creating Good Color Combinations
Establish Your company’s Brand Position
There are good color combinations it is always advisable to use them since your brand identity will determine the colors to use. Reflect upon the feelings and attitudes that you would like to see evoked in clients by the site. Use images, textures, and deeper colors to relate your brand with what the brand stands for.
Selecting the primary color is the first step when designing for an organization.
This color is also often referred to as the key color, or, in some cases, as the lead color mainly because it has the greatest presence within a color scheme. It should be unique for your business; if you have one, it should be the same on your website. The first color selected will be the basic color that outclasses the rest in tone.
Choose secondary and accent colors
Secondary colors act as the hue color for the primary color and are employed to make resourcefulness and interest. Typeface color is low contrast and secondary colors are used to accent rollover states such as buttons, links, and that calls for actions. As we select these colors we can use color harmonies to give a proper balance of colors.
Test Colour Combinations
To design compositions involving different colors, one can create accounts in Adobe Color, Coolors, Paletton, or similar applications. It means that these tools help you to find harmonies of base colors and tune by shifting into various combinations. Always try it in other lighting setups so you can decide whether it is best to implement it on your website or not.
Consider Accessibility
But most critical of all, make sure that color does not become a barrier for color vision deficient users. Web accessibilities, such as the WebAIM Color Contrast Checker, can be used to ensure that there are good distinctions of foreground and background color.
Useful Suggestions about the Application of Colors
Lately I learned that it is correct to use a limited color palette.
Do not use colors beyond the recommended total of 3-5, to avoid overloading the user with colours and making the design appear less professional. To much portions, of color are not desirable, as they will clutter your layout and make it look disordered, and eventually, unappealing.
Leverage White Space
Other significant design concept that give shape and form to the design include white space or negative space which also goes to contribute to the highly optimal look of the design. It makes your colors pop and provides enough whitespace in your content to ensure that nobody feels suffocated by it. Remember to seek additional quality from white spaces and ask for more quality from your color schemes.
Create Visual Hierarchy
Consider color for conveying hierarchy and focus on the way users’ eye would flow through it. For instance, paint your key color for headings and other essential items such as tables and graphs, secondary colors for subheadings, and the rest of your document in normally shaded colors. Secondary colors contrast with the main color and they are ideal for Calls to Action and links.
Be Consistent
There has to be continuity from one part of the design to another in order to attain this continuity. Even if you are using your color scheme very creatively on your site, you should use it on all of the pages buttons, links, icons as well as backgrounds. This adds to the branding process and also makes it easy for the user who visits the site to be directed to the intended page without confusion.
Case Studies: Proper Integration of Colors in Web Design
Dropbox
Another interesting feature of Dropbox’s appearance is that it has a very simple and monochromatic interface with a white background and blue as the main accent color. The blue is friendly and professional and the use of white between the blue sections keeps things clean and easy to locate. There are secondary hues, like green, which occur only where essential features, including the click-through buttons, are concerned.
Spotify
I also have to note the website has a dark interface, and the main color is green. The black color choice brings a rather business-like appearance, but also a contemporary one, while the green choice brings the look and feel of dynamism, which fits to the brand. Secondary colors target information and aspects that need to be emphasized on by creating a visual pop.
Airbnb
Airbnb employs a relatively somber and warm Non-branded color scheme with red-patted as the traffic color. The red color is associated with warmth and hospitality embodying the, objective of the brand to give the customers a home-like feeling. Shades of grey such as the blue strip as well as other secondary colours complete the look and gives it a balance in contrast to the main colour.
Tools And Resources That Can Be Employed In Developing Colour Schemes
Adobe Color
Adobe Color is a tool specifically designed to help you really understand and build up colour palettes. The features provided by the application include color harmonies generation, color extraction from images, and a catalogue of the favourite palettes.
Coolors
Coolors is a tool for generating color schemes that works instantly and features smooth performance. Organization: You can compose color palettes, and store them as well as to preview and export color palettes of other users.
Paletton
Currently, there is a color application called Paletton that is designed in a form of a color wheel and used to find satisfactory color combinations. As you work with several colors you may have an idea of what two colors look like when placed together within an environment.
Color Contrast Checker
Having designated the colors, there is no better resource than a WebAIM’s Color Contrast Checker to check if all colors correspond to the standards of accessible design. It enables you to check on the equivalence original color and colour on the screen.
Conclusion
It takes creativity and a degree of understanding to design good color spaces. Understanding the theory of color and its practical application will allow designing Internet sites that will look good, will convey the right feelings to the potential users, and will be pleasant for perceiving all this information. As with any other parameters, do not forget about accessibility and employ tools to check your color options. By practicing and applying these techniques to the different websites that you’re designing, you are assured that the art of color in web design will become one of your specialties or strengths that you have to perform. I am Pravin Parmar and I am a WordPress Developer who builds custom themes, plugins, and client websites. Let’s talk with me.