Color Psychology

Shawn Escott - February 4, 2009

Color occurs everywhere in nature and impacts our lives daily. For example, when it is cold outside, the colors are white, blue and purple. When it is warm, the colors are yellow, orange and red. This psychology of color can come in handy when designing a website.

Each color in nature has a corresponding emotional impact. Here are some simple examples:

Blue: Serious, reliable, cool, cold, peaceful
Red: Hot, anger, love
Green: Nature, fresh, growth, calming
Yellow: Sunny, Cheerful, bright
Orange: Warm, exciting, energetic
Black: Mysterious, elegant, dark,
White: Clean, fresh, elegant, purity
Purple: Majestic, powerful, romantic

Using Color in Your Designs
If you have a website that is friendly, warm and inviting, you might consider colors that reflect those attributes, such as yellows, oranges or greens. On the other hand, if your website is promoting a serious and informative presence, you may want to lean more toward blues, whites, and greens. If you are branding a mysterious and foreboding site, then black would be the way to go. If your website is promoting a hospital or medical company you want to project a brand that is clean, reliable and sanitary, white and blue would be appropriate.

Color Harmony
A good rule of thumb when choosing colors is to keep your selections to a maximum of three. If you stick to this rule then you are most likely going to have harmony in your design. In some cases you can break this rule but do so with caution.

Some good color website references are:
http://kuler.adobe.com/
http://www.colorjack.com/sphere/
http://www.w3schools.com/Html/html_colors.asp