Hello,
I'm Mervi Eskelinen!
An artist, nerd and sorcerer, dedicated to make world softer and better for everyone, and to get you to make more art. Make art, change the world!
Choosing colours for a website
One big part of web design and web based branding is the colour palette of the site. I see lots of "web designers" creating websites for their clients using the same theme: White background, black text, simple black and white logo and maybe one accent colour. They probably use a (bought) WordPress theme as a base and just slap the design elements on it without really doing any design work. This results to a huge bunch of websites which look the same, feel the same and generally don't really stand up from the crowd. Colours are an easy way to set a website apart, at least when they are used thoughtfully. Choosing the colours for a website is about many variables.
Brand colours
If you already have set brand colours or a visual guide those colours must be included in the website colour palette. While website colours can partially differ from the general branding they must be overall cohesive. It's good to note that your brand's colour profile may not fit web as is. Bright, non-contrast colours can be difficult for viewing on a screen and different browsers and screens display colours very differently. Your current colour profile may need adjustment, adding new more contrasting colours or creating a more web safe palette. Yellow as an example is a complicated colour on screens thus we web designers like to avoid using it.
Colour usability
As mentioned above all colours don't work very well on websites for several reasons. Lack of contrast can result problems with reading with different devices and browsers. Additionally people who have issues with their sight or colour blindness must be taken account, unless you don't want them to visit your site at all. Colour blindnesses can result to link texts cannot be distinguished from regular text if the link colour doesn't have enough contrast (also don't forget underlining). It's good to remember that there are several types of colour blindnesses (not only green/red) and other visual issues that can affect the usability of the site when the colour palette is poorly chosen.
Elements and colours
The elements and layout of a website affect the choices of colours. Certain elements will work better with some colours and worse with others. Usability issues can render using a colour or a tone impossible, for instance if it doesn't provide enough contrast for the element. While a colour or a tone may work perfectly on some element of the site it might not work as well on another. Another thing to remember is that images, photos, videos and other visuals affect the colour choices of a site as well. If the site has lots of variable colourful images the palette of the site is good to be either fitting or very subtle. The types of elements used and the whole layout of the website have an impact on the chosen colours as well as the colours have an impact on the elements and the layout.
Meanings of colours
In our variable cultures colours are perceived in multiple ways. For instance orange is often seen as colour of cheap and sale in many modern societies, but in Buddhism orange was the colour of illumination. Additionally different shades of colours have different cultural meanings. This sort of bias is good to take on account especially when choosing colours for a website which is targeted to certain areas of world. Cultural meanings of colours may not seem important, but they become such when someone gets offended or decides the website is not worth it based on it's colour palette. People are funny like that.
How the colours feel
The feelings colours convey are related to the cultural meanings of colours. Soft blue or green are often seen as calming whereas red can give feelings of boldness or even aggression. The feelings you want the site to produce in website users must be taken in account when choosing the colour palette. Do you want to calm your website visitors down, make them click the buttons or take other action, make them come back again, provoke them, make them feel safe or maybe even set them into a neutral, non-biased mood? Remember to also make sure the colours aren't annoying or upsetting to those who are going to update the site.
Choosing the colours
The points above are only some of the variables in colour palette of a website. When choosing colours of a site you must keep in mind what the site is about, who uses it, how they use it, what sort of a first impression it's supposed to give and what the visitors are wished to do with or on the site. All these factors are added to creating a colour palette which isn't all over the place, which gives a clear image of the brand or the focus of the site and which complements the contents. Of course overthinking is the enemy of any creation. You cannot make everyone happy and compromise is boring. Thus be bold and wise in choosing the colours of a website.
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