Most of us have heard the saying, "Don't judge a book by its cover." This may be true as a philosophy of life, but the same cannot be said for website design and web user behavior. Because of this, one of the most important components of a website is its "front cover", or appearance. Let's take a closer look at what to pay attention to when designing a web page and focus on one seemingly common aspect - colors and their combinations.
Why is website design important?
In the digital world, all life happens faster than in real life. This is also the case with the formation of users' opinions. The website visitor needs everything 50 milliseconds time to form your opinion of the site. 0,05 seconds is the time a visitor needs to decide whether he likes the website he is visiting or not. The first impression made in this extremely short time is 94 % related to the design of the website, or to put it more simply - the appearance. Research on user behavior has found that visual appeal and website navigation have the greatest impact on people's first impressions, not only of the website itself, but also of the company.
High quality sisu and other aspects are important, no doubt. But even the best and most relevant text becomes powerless when surrounded by poor design. Because of this, each website must be approached as a whole, and visual design is one part of the whole that should not be neglected.
What does website design consist of?
Website design starts with creating a visual brand. With an existing business, the style, logo and colors are often already defined and the web designer's goal is to make them work on the website.
Here are 6 visual elements to keep in mind when designing a new website or updating an existing one:
Typography and hierarchy.
A clear and legible font and effective use of headings help to organize the content and make it as easy as possible for the visitor to read. Each level of the typographic hierarchy should have a noticeable difference in size, font, color, and/or style that makes it clear how the content is organized. This helps site visitors consume information and instantly notice what the important parts are.
A picture that speaks more than 1000 words.
Images and other illustrations are a great addition to any website, but make sure they match the content and are relevant to represent the business. The goal of web design should be to create a connection between textual content and images. It is not wise to add images to the homepage just to fill up the space. Images to be shared on a website should support the message being conveyed. They should help convey the narrative being created to the audience.
A limited color palette with a few strong accent colors.
Website colors should match the brand or logo colors and should be used consistently on every page. However, it is not recommended to use too many different shades, especially strong shades, in the design of the homepage. Limiting the number of colors helps to create simplicity and cleanliness so that the most important things on the web page catch the eye first. There should be one main accent color from the color palette. This one strong color to use to draw the eye to the most important elements of a web page, such as calls to action (CTA - call-to-action), hyperlinks and other buttons.
Our online store for customer success story you can read more about how user experience design and drawing attention to the CTA button can increase the number of inquiries by as much as 412%!
Prominent, but not ostentatious, logo.
A company logo is important, but that doesn't mean it should be the biggest and most noticeable element on a website. It must be visible on every page, but not "shout" at the audience. The logo could appear on the left side of the navigation bar and could be in a simplified form on the website.
Empty space.
All of these design elements, along with web page content, need space – white and empty space. Space is important so that the site does not appear too crowded. Different sections, space around the images or CTA button, and space below the title create an easy-to-grasp and structured view. With empty space, you can draw attention to what is most important - for example, a call to action.
Uniform style.
Website design - style, fonts, colors, elements - should be the same on every page. If you are just starting to design a website, it is recommended to prepare one page first, and if you are completely satisfied with it, build the other pages of the site by imitating the finished page.
What is Color Psychology?
Color psychology studies how different colors affect human mood and behavior. If and how colors can affect emotional responses, or how factors such as age, gender and cultural background affect responses to colors.
- how colors affect physiological and emotional reactions,
- factors affecting color preferences,
- cultural differences in the meanings and associations of different colors,
- can colors affect mental health
- how colors can influence behavior
- ways of using colors to promote well-being,
- how colors can be used to improve safety and create a more optimal home and work environment.
Color psychology is widely used in marketing and branding, including website design. Marketers consider colors to be important because color can affect consumer emotions and thereby create an image of a company or encourage consumption of goods and services.
While marketing uses colors to entice customers to consume, color psychology is used in many other fields - interior design, medicine, sports, the toy industry, etc. For example, it is no coincidence that protein pain relievers are usually white in color - white is associated with pain relief.
What colors to choose?
The company logo and its colors are important. The design of the home page starts with the color choice of the logo. A logo can be attractive to customers if customers believe that the company's logo and its colors match the goods or services.
This is how it has turned out "ketchup and mustard theory". If you feel sudden hunger while driving past a fast food restaurant, such as McDonalds, this connection may not only arise with their food. The subconscious mind and colors may be to blame for this. Fast food companies have been using color psychology to subtly influence customers for years. Their logos are united by two colors - yellow and red.
While the color yellow evokes feelings of comfort and solace, red tends to make people feel hungrier and more impulsive. Marketing experts call the pairing of yellow and red the “ketchup and mustard theory,” a combination that can make you crave fast food.
Similarly, other colors have been assigned symbolic meanings:
- red: excitement, courage, youthfulness, love/passion,
- purple: creativity, imagination, wisdom/intelligence,
- blue: reliability, strength, determination,
- green: calmness, healthiness, closeness to nature,
- yellow: optimism, warmth, good-naturedness,
- orange: friendliness, energy, cheerfulness, confidence,
- white: neutrality, balance, peace,
- black: mystery, wisdom, luxury.
What is the color of your company?
There are many aspects to keep in mind when designing a website. In addition to well-chosen images, conveniently designed structure and other factors, colors play a key role. Colors can help direct visitors to where the page owner expects them to be – the CTA button. Color can play an important role in conveying information, creating a certain mood, and even influencing people's decisions. Color is an important part of a website and its design. What they say Strateegi company colors to you about us?
