Choose & Use the Best Colors

The Psychology of Color

Are you using the best colors for your web site? Many web designers often overlook the issues of color in web design. When choosing colors for your web site there are three main areas that should be addressed.

1) The psychological effect of colors,

2) The effect on the readability of your site, and

3) The complementary choice of colors for your background, graphics, links, and text

These are all areas that must be well satisfied to create an effective and professional web site.

Listed below are a few characteristics of color that should always be considered when designing your graphics.

* Colors have an effect on our emotions within 90 seconds of viewing.

* Color choices can motivate, impress, and persuade your prospect to buy from you.

* Colors not only intensify the item, they greatly influence our behavior.

* The effects of color differ among different cultures.

* Color choices alone are sending a specific message to your viewers.

Given the fact that people respond more to non-verbal cues than verbal cues, it's all-important that you choose the corresponding colors for the emotional trigger you want to trip. The following colors are associated with certain emotions or qualities in North American culture.

White - Suggests truthfulness, purity, clean, devotion, mild, and contemporary. White is the best color for a background color on the web. For business it can be refreshing and sterile.

Black ? Suggests elegance, boldness, power, authority, seductive, evil, sophistication and classic. Black is the ideal choice for text on a light background. It is hard on the eyes when used as a background on web sites.

Red ? Suggests strength, sex, excitement, passion, speed, danger, aggressiveness, and demands attention. In business it is associated with debt. Red is the most emotionally intense color. It stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing.

Blue ? Suggests security, trust, reliability, coolness, faithfulness, belonging, and dignity. Blue is the most popular color. It is the second most popular color. In business it suggests fiscal responsibility and sanctuary.

Green - Suggests abundance, health, fertility, freedom, healing, nature, growth, jealously, and cool. In business it suggests status and wealth. It is the easiest color on the eye.

Brown ? Suggests effectiveness, politeness, richness, and helpfulness. Brown is the color of earth, and is abundant in nature.

Gray ? Suggests earnestness, authority, and practicality. In business it suggests traditional and conservative.

Pink ? Suggests softness, sweet, femininity, well-being, innocence, and nurture.

Purple ? Suggests dignity, spirituality, royal, luxury, wealth, authority, mournfulness, and sophistication. In business it is upscale. Purple is favored by the artistic.

Orange ? Suggests playfulness, pleasure, cool, warmth, cheer, vibrant, strength, endurance, and ambition.

Yellow ? Suggests sunshine, warmth, cheer, happiness, cowardice, and jealousy. In business it is appealing to intellectual types and is good for accents. Yellow enhances concentration, increases metabolism, and is the most difficult color for the eye to take in.

Gold ? Suggests expensive, and prestige.

Silver ? Suggests cold, scientific, and prestige.

Whenever you begin to choose your colors, think about your target market. What emotions do you want to evoke? Give some thought to the current emotion of your prospect and to the message you want to send. Then choose your colors.

Copyright 2005 Andrew Eaton

Andy Eaton is one of the most sought after graphic designers on the web, not only does he create quality graphics, but he also teaches you how to create them step by stem in his video membership site, Right now you can get access to some FREE quality videos by signing up to his action packed ezine Visit http://www.graphicsecretsexposed.com/ezine

---

Cool Web Design And Promotion Tips

This article gives free tips on how to find a... Read More

Tips for Getting More Sales From Your Website

(1) Create a Direct Response Website, with the minimum number... Read More

Color Scheme for Your Website?

Yes, in a world that is obsessed with makeover madness,... Read More

How To Create A Professional Website In Less Than A Week

Here's a really simple way... any novice can create a... Read More

Why Do Images Disappear from a Webpage?

In learning webpage design, I encountered many problems that took... Read More

The Secrets to Successfully Learning Basic HTML

If you'd like to create/maintain a website, having some HTML... Read More

Freelancers Bite Back!

The Internet has seen an explosion in so called 'lance'... Read More

The Top 8 Website Sins Part Two

Sin #5Poor Spelling And GrammarWe all make mistakes when we... Read More

Effective Website Design For Massive Traffic

STEP 1:Do your homeworkPlan and think about your content. Think... Read More

Give Your Website A Chance

I often wonder how serious people are when it comes... Read More

10 Tips for Killer Website Design

Does website design make a difference in how long people... Read More

How Does Your Website Measure Up?

Does your website make a good first impression? Is the... Read More

A Great Banner Only Needs Simple Things

To create your own great banner, you only need five... Read More

Web Site Redirection - How to Implement a 301 Redirect

You just created a new web site but want to... Read More

What is ASP.NET

ASP.NET is a new programming framework from Microsoft for developing... Read More

Why Dot-Coms Fail - a Webmasters Perspective

Everyday we hear that another company goes out of business.When... Read More

Why a Website Design Speaks Volumes About Your Company?

Whether a business has just got off the ground or... Read More

How To Make It Easy For Your Web Designer To Build Your Website

You have an idea for a website and you are... Read More

Browser Compatibility

Internet Explorer, created by microsoft has been the most popular... Read More

Using Graphic Design on Your Website

Almost everything is available on the web? products, services, e-books,... Read More

Custom Website Design - 7 Steps to a More Professional Website

If you are trying to sell a product or service... Read More

Keyword Density

We can't emphasize enough the importance of including keyword-rich content... Read More

Professional Web Design Companies - How to Avoid Getting Ripped Off

Building a website that is exactly what you want and... Read More

How to Get Your Visitors to Create Content for Your Website

An ongoing challenge for webmasters today is to provide fresh... Read More

Website Design Info - Part 1

What Will My Site Do?This is the first of eight... Read More

Got Web Traffic but Still Low Sales? Ten Ways to Selling Success - Part 1

Have you put a lot of effort, time, and money... Read More

When Your Graphic Designer Costs You Money

So how do you know when your graphic designer costs... Read More

Creating Personal Web Sites

This is a two-part article about creating a web site... Read More

5 Ways To Improve Your Website Immediately

If you are reading this, I assume you either have... Read More

Dos and Donts in Web Design - part 1 (design)

Do use a consistent look and feel Your site should... Read More

Is Your Web Site Turning Visitors Away?

One of the biggest problems with Web sites is that... Read More

Creating a Favicon

Once, I attempted to create a favicon (the little graphic... Read More

Choose & Use the Best Colors, The Psychology of Color

Are you using the best colors for your web site?... Read More