Designing Web Pages With Colour in Mind
Research has found that web users form an opinion of a certain website within seconds upon opening a web page. It is also during those critical first few seconds that they decide whether to continue browsing through the site or go to another one. Basically, what draws them to a website consists of several factors such as the design and layout, content and colour scheme.
Colour scheme plays a major role in any web application
Colour is very effective in attracting web surfers to a particular site and encouraging them to take action when needed such as register and avail of an email newsletter or buy a product. A website’s colour scheme, therefore, is a vital element of web design which should never be taken for granted by web designers whether novice or professionals.
You may wonder why colour attracts people.
The answer is that colour has a natural influence on the human subconscious mind meaning it’s psychological. In fact, many major companies spend millions of dollars in researching for the right colours for their new products as well as in their marketing and promotional campaigns.
The same principle should be applied in web pages.
In order to come up with an eye-pleasing colour scheme for a website, designers need to have some understanding of colour harmony as well as colour theory. The colour wheel is the basic and most important tool to use when combining different hues. In addition, gaining knowledge on the three major sets of colour schemes – analogous, complementary and monochromatic – is as important.
To give you an idea, analogous refers to hues on the colour wheel that are adjacent to each other. Complementary colours are those located opposite each other on the colour wheel. Examples are red and green, violet and yellow as well as orange and blue. On the other hand, monochromatic refers to using shades of a single colour.