The Psychology of Colors : What colors to use in your startup website design and why

Color greatly influences human emotion and behavior. The productivity of workers, the attention span, shoppers spending money etc all can be altered to varying lengths with the proper colored surroundings. Colors play more a role than just looking appealing and adding a spunk to the wall or the product or the website. In a study titled Impact of Color in Marketing, it appropriately proves that 90% of the impulse buying is done on the basis of the color of the product alone.

Responses of color on your mind ranges from changing your perception of temperature to evoking emotional and mental responses to altering your analytic thinking speeds. It has also been found out through researches that the color of a product changes how people perceive the brand of the product. It has also come to notice that most people prefer brands which can be recognized easily and that is why companies are so color conscious of their products.

While designing a website, especially for your start-up, color might indeed tip the scales in your favor. One should choose colors based on the personality of the product, the kind of emotions that the product hopes to trigger. It is of premier importance that the logo and the website stand out from your competitors. You wouldn’t want the users to have a problem in recognizing your brand.

Research has shown that blue remains the top favorite color among both the sexes and blue is also supposed to have a calming effect on your mind. ( Hint: Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr etc are all blue.)

If your product is inclined more towards the male gender, you might want to go along with brighter and stronger colors, and if your product caters to the female gender, use more tints in your product website and logo as they are more receptive towards such colors.

A popular theory known as the Isolation effect states that the thing which stands out from the rest is often remembered the longest from the group. Hence always make sure that the logo and website does indeed stand out from across the group.

Common concepts regarding colors:

RED: Love, passion, exciting, adventurous etc. It often reduces analytical capability .

BLUE:  Calmness, trustworthiness, power, professionalism and remains the most accepted color of all.

YELLOW: Curiosity. Very limited admirers of the color.

ORANGE: Comfort, comfort, celebration and is usually associated with good value and trust.

PINK: Softness, innocence and also has a calming effect.

WHITE: Purity, simplicity and leads to boredom. A complete white interface or surroundings forces the mind to wander off.

Source: Logo Company

  Colors can help you and your website, your products and your ideas. Color can also prove to have a negative effect on the viewer as well as the user. A lot of research does go into choosing the colors for your website/logo/product as it can weigh in your favor or even against you and your product. Choose the kind of colors according to the effect you want the website/product to have on your viewers.

Featured Image Credit: cowgirlinteractive.com

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