Colour Psychology: What You Need To Know About Website Colours

When it comes to choosing the website colours for your site, there are a lot of things to consider.

What looks good? What colours will represent your brand? What colours will appeal to your target audience? All of these questions are an important part of one thing: colour psychology.

Colour psychology is the study of how different colours and shades can make a person feel. It’s the reason why ‘danger’ is always represented by the colour red, and ‘happiness’ is always shown as yellow.

But why does this matter for your website?

Well, more and more marketers are starting to take notice of how colour psychology can impact their businesses. From videos, to websites, and also graphic design, the choices we make about the colours we use can have a lasting effect.

In fact, according to the Institute for Color Research, people make a subconscious judgement about the things they see – a website, for example – in only 90 seconds.

And, 62-90% of that decision is based upon the colours they see.

This means that the colours you use in your marketing materials are extremely important when it comes to how your target audience will perceive your business.

If you’re looking to redesign your website or establish your brand through your colour scheme, read on! We’ll tell you what it is you need to know about website colours and colour psychology.

Before we get into why it’s important to carefully choose your website colours, you need to know what each colour means!

Often, how we perceive colours is impacted by personal associations and experiences. However, there are some universal meanings that we all find when looking at colours.

Red: one of the primary colours, it’s very bright and vibrant. When used positively, it can symbolise love and passion. But, when used negatively, it can mean danger or a warning.

Yellow: as stated earlier, yellow can represent concepts like happiness and sunlight. But, just like red, yellow can also symbolise warning too. There’s a reason why all ‘Wet Floor’ signs are yellow – the colour is bright and demands your attention.

Blue: a calming and soothing colour, it makes sense why so many social media companies use blue as their primary colour (think Facebook, Twitter). Blue is a trustworthy colour, when used correctly. But this is where vibrancy and hues come into play: when used in pale shades and hues, blue can look sad. Be mindful of this when using it!

Orange: orange is associated as a fun and exciting colour – after all, we all get excited when opening up the Amazon app. It’s playful and engaging and is a great colour to use as a compliment to others. But, when used on its own, it can be jarring.

Pink: despite technically being a lighter shade of red, pink has separate connotations to that of its more vibrant counterpart. Whilst red can mean love and passion, pink means romance and femininity. As a lighter version of red, it’s often seen as gentle and soft.

Purple: when we use it positively, purple can be regal and elegant. Think of the royal purple shade donned by Kings and Queens around the world. But, purple can also be a relaxing colour – bordering on boredom.

Black and white: like yin and yang, you can’t have one without the other. Black can mean darkness, and white lightness. But black can also mean something sinister, whereas white is innocent and pure.

Knowing what the general associations for each colour are is an important thing to remember. The wording you use on your website, along with your website colours, will determine which association it is you’re evoking.

Not only are colours important when it comes to your website, but it’s also important for building awareness and brand association.

Your website colours need to reflect the aesthetic of your brand – meaning that you need to figure out what your business’s colours are before you start on web design.

In 2012, Cadbury’s long legal battle came to an end when they were able to trademark their famous shade of purple: Panatone 2685C.

Whilst they gave the trademark up in 2019, for the 7 year period it meant that no other confectionery brand was allowed to use that exact shade of purple.

And, it’s no wonder. It’s a very well associated shade, and hard to imagine it being used to market any other product.

Cadbury’s knew the worth of their colour purple and the associations it carried and sought to hold on to that.

But just how important are the colours a brand uses?

There have been multiple studies conducted about the brands that people think of when they see a colour.

When you see red, do you think of Coca-Cola? Or McDonald’s?

When you see blue, do you think of Facebook? Or Twitter?

A study carried out by Strategic Factory found that a whopping 94% of people were able to recognise Coca-Cola’s famous red and white logo.

What’s more, given the longevity of the brand, many people associate said colours with happiness and sentimentality.

Coca-Cola has been able to weaponise its colours to create strong brand awareness across the globe.

Now we’ve established the different meanings with colour psychology, and how colours can help build brand awareness, it’s time to apply this to your website.

Your website colours need to be reflective of your brand and values, so bear this in mind when choosing them.

If you’re an eCommerce store selling a product like a luxury spa item, you want your website to be calming and soothing. You want your website to act as a representation of what you’re selling.

So, you’ll likely lean towards calmer, cooler colours. Shades of white and cream, or blues and purple, will instill a sense of calm and tranquillity.

Conversely, if you’re a travel agency and you want potential customers to be excited about your website and the holidays you can offer them, then you’re going to want to use brighter and more engaging colours.

Something vibrant like orange and red will be able to get your potential customers interested and eager about your services, in comparison to more uninteresting and dull colours like grey, brown, and cream.

Another thing to consider when choosing your website colours is the cohesiveness of the site and how easy it will be for your visitor to read and navigate. Much like when you’re choosing the font for your website, which you can learn about here.

When looking at the colour wheel, you need to think about what colours compliment each other and what colours clash.

There’s an old saying that goes: “blue and green must not be seen unless there’s a colour in between.” There’s a reason why you don’t often see those two colours together alone.

Colour cohesiveness can make or break a website. Having colours that compliment each other well and don’t make it difficult to read text or stare at a screen for too long means you’ll have a smoother user experience.

As a result, you increase the chance that a visitor will stay on your website for longer.

Colours that exist together on the colour wheel can create a soothing gradient effect. The colour red bleeding into pink will look appealing given how closely aligned they are.

On the other end, colours that exist opposite each other can create a sharp and engaging contrast. Blue and orange, like you can see expertly used on our website, can be captivating of your visitor’s attention.

However, you need to be careful about the colours you use and make sure to use them in moderation.

When either technique is used excessively – gradient colours or contrasting colours – they can come across as boring and unengaging, or jarring and clashing respectively.

When choosing the colours for your website, you not only need to think of what colours represent your brand and what will be easy to see, but also what your audience wants to see.

The way to do this is by separating colour associations with how appealing a colour actually is.

But what does this mean?

Well, it’s long been established that the colour pink is associated with femininity and women. It’s the colour that many people dress baby girls in, and is often seen as ‘typically’ the colour for women.

However, that doesn’t actually mean that it’s liked by women.

According to a 2011 Harvard Business Review, plenty of women actively dislike the colour pink. Whether this is because it’s the colour they’re ‘supposed’ to like, or they don’t appreciate the associations the colour holds, it turns out that pink may not be the favourite colour for every woman.

Which means, that it doesn’t necessarily mean that pink is the colour you should use on your website, even if your target audience is women.

Whilst colour associations are important, you have to make sure that your website colours are also what your audience wants to see. Yellow may be a happy colour, but if your target audience finds it garish or childish, then you should steer clear of it.

It’s clear now that the colours you use for your business are extremely important, and not to be underestimated.

This means that they’re something you should certainly consider when bearing in mind the design for your website.

The website colours you ultimately choose have an impact on your website’s user experience, the message you’re relaying about your brand, and the emotions and feelings your visitors have.

Because of this, will you be taking a look at your website and making any changes to your design?

Let us know in the comments below!