Research suggests that people form an almost instant opinion about a website based on how it looks. With this in mind, it’s important to make a good first impression. Did you know that colour used in your small business website design can improve user experience? It also influences emotions, and impacts decision-making.
By choosing the right colours, you can enhance a website’s usability, encourage engagement, and ultimately drive conversions. With colour being so noticeable from a first look at your website, it plays a big part in your business growth.
So, what’s the psychology behind colour, and what are practical tips for selecting the perfect colour palette for your brand? Let’s explore the role of colour in website design and how you can use it to your advantage.
What makes colour so important in website design?
Colour has the power to shape user experiences and influence behaviour. Playing a psychological role, its purpose on your website goes way beyond aesthetics.
Research published in Behaviour & Information Technology suggests that visual appeal can be assessed within 50 ms, suggesting that web designers have about 50 ms to make a good first impression.
According to ResearchGate, 94% of first impressions are design-related. This means that there is a massive focus on the user journey and establishing your brand look and feel.
Let’s have a look at how colour plays a part in this.
Brand identity
Whilst building your visual identity, you can use colour to help you stand out. When you think about big brands, you always associate them with colour.
For example, picture Facebook (blue), McDonald’s (red and yellow), or Apple (clean, minimal white). Using these colours helps to show the brand personality and makes it more recognisable to customers.
User experience (UX)
Navigation is an important factor of a website. Contrasting colours make the user journey smoother, such as highlighting buttons and call to actions. If a website is easier to navigate, then the user experience is improved.
Emotional responses
Colour can evoke emotions and therefore influence behaviour in regards to how customers respond to your business. Different colours convey different messages, such as blue often conveying trust, and red creating excitement or urgency.
Conversions
Colour can create more sales. Studies have shown that strategic use of colour can improve conversion rates. For example, a red CTA button might encourage urgency, while a green one might feel more reassuring.
So, how can the psychology behind colours influence user behaviour? Let’s delve into what colours you could use for your small business.
Using the psychology of colour in web design
If you’re wondering how you can use this information to your advantage, I have you covered.
As we know, colours have psychological associations that influence how people perceive a website and interact with it. To understand how you want to convey your brand identity, reflect on your business goals and look at how colour associations align with those.
Here are colour connotations to help your small business website design.
Red connotes bold, passionate, and urgent
Red is powerful and attention-grabbing, but it’s important to use with good balance. If used too much, it can feel aggressive or overwhelming.
On the whole, it evokes strong emotions like excitement, passion, and urgency.
It’s especially good for making promotional banners and CTA buttons when you want your audience to act quickly.
Best for: Sales promotions, entertainment, food and beverage industries.
Blue conveys trustworthy, calming, and professional
Blue is associated with trust, stability, and professionalism. If used too much, it can make a website feel cold or impersonal.
Use tactfully to instill confidence in your audience. In this way, it’s commonly used in banking, finance, and corporate websites.
Best for: Corporate businesses, technology, healthcare, finance.
Take a look at the use of blue in Adjust Web Design, a chiropractic marketing agency.
The overall effect of the blue colour scheme is a sense of trust, expertise, and clarity. The combination of different shades adds depth while ensuring a cohesive and visually appealing design. This strategic use of colour helps create a website that is engaging, easy to navigate, and aligned with the needs of potential chiropractic clients.
Green means balanced, natural, and reassuring
Is your business eco-friendly, a wellness website, or in the financial sector?
Green is usually used in this way, and also symbolises growth, health, and nature. This colour also promotes feelings of calm and reassurance.
Best for: Environmental brands, health and wellness, finance.
Yellow is optimistic, energetic, and attention-grabbing
If you’re wanting to position your brand as cheerful and friendly, you could use yellow. This colour exudes warmth and positivity, perfect for an uplifting feel.
However, too much yellow can be overwhelming or hard to read. To avoid this, you can use it as an accent colour rather than a dominant one.
Best for: Children’s brands, travel, creative industries.
Black is seen as sophisticated, modern, and luxurious
Are you looking to show elegance, power, and sophistication? Black is often used in luxury branding, fashion, and photography websites.
You don’t want to use it too much as it can feel heavy or uninviting. For good UX, you can pair with lighter colours for contrast for better navigation and accessibility.
Best for: Luxury products, fashion, high-end brands.
White means simple, clean, and modern
Are you picturing a minimalist design for your small business’s website?
White creates a sense of space and clarity, and it makes websites more readable. This is because it improves accessibility when using a white background with dark text. This colour also keeps websites looking fresh and uncluttered.
Best for: Healthcare, tech, minimalist brands.
So, how can I use colour effectively in website design?
Now that you’ve had a think about what colours reflect your brand image, you need to be strategic to make a powerful impact. Here are some key principles to follow:
Align colour with brand identity
Who are you marketing to and what colours would they like? For example, a youthful brand might use vibrant colours, while a corporate brand might prefer muted, professional tones. Reflect on how your audience will resonate with your brand personality and values. This takes me perfectly to the next point…
Consider your target audience
Knowing your audience is key to building your brand. When it comes to different demographics, certain colours may appeal more with different target audiences. For example, health-conscious users may be drawn to greens and earth tones.
Stick to a cohesive colour palette
It’s important to stay consistent with your use of colour. Using too many colours can create a cluttered, confusing experience. Instead, stick to a well-balanced palette.
- Primary colour: This should be the dominant brand colour which is good for accessibility.
- Secondary colour: A complementary colour that adds variety and makes content readable with the primary colour.
- Accent colour: Used sparingly to highlight key elements like CTAs, buttons and banners.
Use contrast for readability
For good UX design, you need to ensure that content is easily readable and navigable. You can do this by using good contrast colours so that important elements stand out.
For example, black text on a white background is the easiest combination for accessibility.
Avoid low-contrast combinations like light grey text on a white background.
By using high-contrast pairings like dark text on a light background, your customers will be able to find the information they need easily.
Use AI to select and refine your colour palette
If you’re unsure about the best colours for your small business branding, AI can help.
AI-powered colour palette generators analyse design trends, industry preferences, and user psychology to recommend the most effective colour combinations for your website.
Once you’ve chosen a palette, you can refine it further by testing different options. A/B testing, for example, allows you to experiment with variations, such as CTA button colours, to see which ones drive the most engagement.
Key takeaways
- A well-balanced colour palette helps usability and improves navigation through highlighting CTAs and consequently shapes user experience.
- Colour psychology is a powerful tool to use for influencing user behaviour and can initiate purchases by increasing conversions
- Different demographics relate to different colours and you can test what customer groups resonate with by using an A/B testing approach.
