Web Design Guide: The Role of Color in Web Design
Today we are going to discuss color and how it relates to designing web sites. Granted, I am hardly qualified to provide an art lesson, as my colleagues can attest.  However, color choice goes well beyond “what looks good” when you are designing a web site and have revenue on the line.Â
The right or wrong color choices can make a difference in revenue for your web site. This is a well-known idea for restaurants and stores, with such businesses spending thousands of dollars on design experts to help design interiors and providing customers with a certain atmospheric “feeling” due to the color. Below is an outline of color meaning, as explained by About.com:
Blue: Calming, cool, importance, confidence, intelligence, stability, unity, conservatism, corporate
Green: Life, nature, growth, renewal, balance, harmony, stability
Silver: Sleek, modern, glamourous, distinguished, elegant, earthy
Red: Hot, anger, power, danger, emergency, attention
Pink: Physical weakness, delicate, feminine
Yellow: Happiness, joy, deceit, cheerful
Gold: Wealth, prosperity
Orange: Stimulant, vibrant, energy, warmth, attention
Purple: Royalty, nobility, spirituality, moodiness
Black: Conservative, mysterious, elegance
White: Purity, cleanliness, innocence
Brown: Wholesome, earthy, simplicity, friendliness
So what does any of this mean when designing your web site? It can be important to keep in mind the nonverbal meaning of the colors you use on your web design and logo as you build your brand identity. Certainly, a quality product and/or marketing campaign can override choosing the wrong color for your logo or web design, but your color choice does often have a quantifiable impact. This is just one more thing to think about among the millions of considerations when starting a web site.
Seth Trachtman is a Web Marketing Account Manager for The Net Impact Web Design St. Louis.