Schewanick Computer Services

There's more to selecting colors for your
website than just choosing what you think is
pretty. You also need to be aware of the
psychology of color, and what's easy on your
visitor's eyes.

I recently visited a Goth site that had dark
purple letters on a black background. It felt
Gothie, but the copy was so hard to read that I
gave up after a few words. Another site had an
almost fluorescent orange background. It was
so bright that it hurt my eyes. I left as fast as I could hit the Back button. While the creators of
these sites may think they looked great, in
reality they chased people away. What good is
having a website if people leave after just a few
seconds. Whatever these people were trying to
accomplish, it failed. If people leave your web
page before they can read your copy or look at
the products or services you sell, then the site
is useless, no matter how great you think it
looks.

The first thing you need to do is decide what
colors will best fit the theme of your site. You
can then use these colors when you, or a
website designer, create your site. A Goth site
may include black, dark red and purple, while
one for Renaissance Faires could use earth
tones and a florist may want pinks, reds and
purples.

Here are some common responses that people
feel for several colors.

• Black - seriousness, darkness, mystery,
  secrecy, power, elegance, death, evil,
  formality.
  
• Blue - trustworthiness, success,
  seriousness, calmness, power,
  professionalism, health, tranquility,
  knowledge, integrity.
  
• Brown - earth, nature, tribal, primitive,
  simplicity, stability, masculine qualities.
  
• Green - money, nature, animals, health,
  healing, life, harmony, ambition, greed,
  jealousy.
  
• Grey - neutrality, indifference, reserved.
  
• Orange - comfort, creativity, celebration,
  fun, youth, affordability.
  
• Pink - softness, sweetness, innocence,
  youthfulness, tenderness, romance, love,
  friendship.
  
• Purple - royalty, justice, ambiguity,
  uncertainty, luxury, fantasy, dreams,
  romance.
  
• Red - love, passion, rage, anger, joy,
  sexuality, danger, warning, excitement,
  food, impulse, action, adventure.
  
• White - innocence, purity, cleanliness,
  simplicity, goodness, virginity.
  
• Yellow - curiosity, playfulness,
  cheerfulness, amusement, caution, joy.
  

Once you decide on a main color for your site,
you need to select other colors that you can
use. After all, you don't want a monochrome
site, that would be very boring. You can
choose colors that have the same hue, such as
various shades of green, or you can use
complimentary colors, like green and red. Just
remember to selections shouldn't be an
annoyance to your visitors.

You can easily select the colors you want by
visiting one of the following links. Some of
these sites will help you pick a main color while
others will show you what will work well with
that central theme.

• Visibone -
  http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/big.html
  
• MoreCrayons -
  http://www.morecrayons.com/
  
• Color Scheme Generator 2 - http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
  
• Color Schemer -
  http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html
  
• Defence Mechanism -
  http://www.defencemechanism.com/color/
  
• Slayeroffice -
  http://slayeroffice.com/tools/color_palette/
  
• YCOLN Design Services - http://www.ycoln-
  design.com/WebColorCharts/WebColors.asp
  
• Color Blender -
  http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend/
  

After you have chosen the colors you want to
use, I'd suggest trying them out on a sample
page. See how they work together. If they look
good to you, then add some text to see how
easy it is to read. You can change text color if
need be. I've seen various sites use white, red
or beige text, and it worked very well. If you are
going to have pictures or artwork on the site,
you should also put several pieces on your
sample page. Make sure that the pictures show
up well and don't blend into the background, or
that the colors in the artwork don't clash with
your site.

I've found that it's a delicate balancing act
between my vision of a site and what it looks
like in reality. Always keep usability as one of
your key measures when designing a site. If
people find your site hard to use, look at or
read, then they will leave quickly, never come
back and won't tell anyone about your site. Or
they may submit your site to one of those
website that lists terrible sites. There's just
some publicity that you don't want.

So think about what you want and use the sites
I've listed. You'll find that choosing the colors
for your site is fast and easy and you'll get a
site that's more in tune with the feeling you
want to convey.


About the Author
http://www.CreativeCauldron.com
Jeff Colburn is a website designer and writer. His goal is to make the process of creating or updating your website easy and simple for you, while creating a website that meets all your needs and expectations. Jeff can also create all of the copy for your website.