Dated Sunday September 1, 2013
The correct website colors for your target audience
Every color evokes a certain emotion. Red is associated with love (or passion) but also with agression. Using blue as website color gives it a calm, strustworthy and serious look and feel. Green also evokes calmnes and relaxation, and is also associated with the outdoors and enviromental issues. Yellow as website color draws lots of attention and stimalates visitors into action. Yellow is also associated with low cost (or plain cheap).
When selecting colors, keep in mind the effect the colors will have on your visitors. Is it the effect and image that fits your personality or brand? If you have a hotel in a scenic enviroment, green comes to mind. Does your company offer business to business products or services, blue might be the most suitable color. Is your website all about having being the best offer in town, go for yellow!
Try to avoid being different than your competitors. The selection of colors is more about getting your visitors in to the right mood. And vat the end, visitors don't realy care if your different, they care if you match there expectations.
Color combinations
No website is composed out of a single color. After selecting your main color you need to select supporting colors. You can choose either complimentairy colors or colors in the same tint. If you look at the color wheel (see image) then colors in the same tint lay next to the color you pict, complimentary colors lie opposite of each other in the color wheel.
With the combination of colors you can emplify your message. For example: you have choosen blue for a business to business website. Choosing the complimentary color of orange for links and buttons enforces them as a call to action (remember, yellow stimulates to action).
How to choose the correct colors for your website?
Having red this article you might have an idear for the main color you want to use. But how to find a complete pallet that will work for you? Fortunately there are tools to help you. A helpfull website is ColorCombos.com. On this website you will find an enormes set of predefined color combinations. Another website that could help the more artistic among us is ColourLovers.com. This website has a collection of color combinations based on famous paintings.
