In the online world, design is everything and your looks mean something. The first thing a user notices about a website are its colours, layout, and elements like logos and fonts. All of these design principles set a tone for the website and its function and user judgement is almost instantaneous.
While you may be, understandably, focused on your content and social media strategy, it can be easy to let some design and colour scheme flaws slip under the radar. Now it’s time to pay special attention to the colours you are using and ask yourself if they’re conveying your desired message.
Abiding by simple principles
One of the most important design principles to remember is CRAP – Contrast, Repetition, Alignment and Proximity. This easy to remember handle for design was initially used in print publications but is just as vital to web design today. The principle considers all design aspects but makes a good point for choosing colours, specifically in contrast and repetition.
As many colours have certain responses, such as red for stop or green’s association with nature, your website’s colour scheme needs not only some uniformity but also contrast to avoid becoming predictable or mundane.
Having one main colour to greet the user will capture their attention initially while contrasting colours will guide their eyes to different aspects of the page and ultimately lead to clicking or tapping different links to explore your site.
Too much contrast can be detrimental. Using different shades and accompaniment colours is best practice as it will maintain a flow but will not look disjointed. This is repetition in action and complements contrast.
Choosing your scheme
Often the hardest part is just getting started and choosing your core colours. They must correlate with your message and ethos, represent your brand and be memorable. There are a number of online resources and tools that can help with choosing and deciding on a colour scheme, aimed at both newcomers and those well versed in design. Tools like Adobe’s free application, Kuler, is easy to pick up and use with simple codes to enter into your Adobe programs so you can get started on designing.
There are plenty of other options too, just one quick Google search throws up numerous other design tools that free and easy to use.
With colours and ideas in tow, you can begin having fun with the schemes you like and create the best website visually for you and your company.
Image: OnlineComeTeacher
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