How to Use Colors in Web Design

In this article, we are going to learn about the Colors that are used in Web Design. Talking about colors, that is an important part of web designing and other aspects too. With the help of a good combination of colors, we can convey our message to the users, that is what a website is all about, what its purpose is, and what it wants to serve or sell. So We will see some important concepts regarding colors and also see some of the most frequently used terminology regarding colors.

Use of Colors in Web Design

Psychology of Color

Color psychology means how we feel and think when we see the colors, There are lots of colors that can represent different emotions and messages. It’s quite important to think about how end users will be affected by the colors that were are picking for a website. Here we have to think about the users who will visit the website and what kind of feeling we want them to have, since there are tons of colors and many wrong combinations of colors can be bad for a design.

• Red: Excitement, passion, urgency
• Blue: Trust, tranquillity, professionalism
• Green: Nature, growth, health
• Yellow: Energy, optimism, attention-grabbing
• Purple: Luxury, creativity, spirituality
• Orange: Friendliness, enthusiasm, affordability

Color Harmony

Picking colors that look good together is important for website design. The goal is to choose colors that match and make the right feeling. There are a few main ways to get colors that go well together:

• Analogous: In this we use 3 or more colors next to each other on the color wheel, like blue, purple and pink. This makes the colors flow together nicely.
• Complementary: For the complementary, we pair opposite colors from the wheel, like red and green. This makes things stand out from each other. But be careful because opposites can sometimes clash.
• Triadic: Choose 3 colors spaced evenly around the wheel, like red, yellow and blue. This gives a bright, balanced look.
• Monochromatic: Use different shades of the same base color. This can give a simple, clean style. Make sure to use enough contrast between the shades.

The best color schemes blend harmony and contrast. Test different combos to find what fits your brand. Also consider how colors affect people with vision needs.

Understanding Color Terminology

When discussing color, there are some color terminology used frequently used, we should also have some understanding about that.

• Hue: The pure color at various wavelengths of light. For example, blue or yellow.
• Saturation: The intensity or vibrance of a color, from muted to pure. Higher saturation means more vivid color.
• Brightness: How light or dark a color is. Also called lightness or value.
• Tint: A hue mixed with white to lighten it. Pink is a tint of red.
• Tone: A hue with gray added to mute it. A blue tone.
• Shade: A hue mixed with black to darken it. Navy is a shade of blue.
• Primary Colors: Red, blue, and yellow. All other colors can be mixed from these three.
• Secondary Colors: Green, orange, and purple. These result from combining two primary colors.
• Complementary Colors: Colors opposite one another on the color wheel, providing strong contrast.
• Warm vs. Cool Colors: Warm colors like red, orange, and yellow elicit excitement. Cool colors like blue, purple, and green seem calming.

Accessibility and Color Contrast

When we choose colors for the website, we have to make sure that the contrast if sufficient for the website to looking visually appealing. Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) provide specific contrast ratio recommendations. We can use some online tools that can help us to understand the accessibility standards.

• Consistent Branding: If you’re designing for a company that already has a brand, use colors that match what they already use. Using the same colors on the website, logo, ads, etc. helps people recognize the brand. Use the main brand colors, secondary colors, and accent colors in your design. Look at the brand’s style guides to get their color rules right.
• Typography and Color: Its quite important for Colors and fonts, that both should work well together for easy reading. For the safe side dark text on light background, or light text on dark background will be a very good choice. Headlines can use bold, bright colors to get attention. But body text is best with colors that aren’t too strong, to make reading easier. Make sure text and background colors contrast enough. Avoid soft, hard-to-read text. Use color carefully, mainly to highlight important text parts.

How to Use Color Palletes in Web Design?

Now in this section we will discuss some steps, that how we should use the color pallets in web design.

• First of all we have to determine the overall color scheme for the website that we are going to build. So that we can under stand the look and feel that we want to express. We can chose from various colors schemes like monochromatic, analogous etc.
• Now when we selected a appropriate color scheme, we can use online some online tools to generate the color pallets, or some websites provide some rebuild pallets that we can choose according to our design. Make sure don’t use too many colors , that could lead to a bad design if properly not applies, be in the range of 3- 4 color.
• we will now import that color palette to our project so that we can use it iteratively.
• Make sure to use the main brand color for the key elements like for the headlines, buttons, and navigations etc. and use the secondary color for the accents , backgrounds, borders etc.
• We have to make sure that our content visibility is good, for that we have to use proper contrast between the text and background colors. We can use some reference from the web accessiblity standards for the contrasts.
• Always be consistent while using colors accros the page, means keep the headlines and buttons colors the same color, it will create a unity in the design.
• Now we will have to test our design on difference screen or devices, so that it should look good on all devices, if there need any adjustment it can be done in early stage of designing.

Common Pitfalls and Bad Practices

Since colors can make a website look beautiful and standard, but improper use of color can damage the user experience, so for that we must avoid some bad practices while designing a website.

• Using Too Many Colors – We absolutely don’t want to use too many colors, since that can be quite overwhelming and noisy. We should aim for simplicity most of the time. We can start with one primary color and choose a handful of harmonious accent colors.
• Insufficient Contrast – Text can be hard to read if it doesn’t have enough contrast with background, here contrast simple means that the foreground should differ from background like it should look good, We must that colors combos that we are choosing meet the accessibility rules.
• Overuse of Bright Colors – Using strong, saturated colors everywhere can hurt the eyes. Use bright colors carefully to highlight important stuff. For big areas like backgrounds, use softer versions of colors.
• Clashing Colors – Pick colors that go nicely together. Colors that clash are uncomfortable to look at. Learn color basics to avoid bad combos.
• Ignoring Brand Style – Not using a brand’s colors makes the website feel disconnected from the brand. Study their guide and use their colors.
• Inconsistent Palette – Using many color schemes across a site is disjointed. Define one main palette and use it consistently.

Conclusion

In conclusion, for using colors in web design, we have to learn some basic color terminology, rules, and accessibility guidelines. We should consider the brand’s colors and test color combinations that go nicely with the brand. We must take care of contrast for easy reading, avoid some bad practices, and finally we can have a good design.