Believe it or not, the colors you see on ads, billboards, company logos, and other marketing materials—websites included—do more than just make them look nice.
As far as color psychology–a subfield of behavioral psychology–is concerned, every single color is associated with human emotions, values, and attitudes, and that’s what marketers and designers of all persuasions take advantage of when doing their work.
Most web designers these days have a clear understanding of how to apply color psychology to their web design solutions. In fact, knowing the behavioral associations that color psychology makes is now a must for web designers.
It’s essential for people who design websites for a living to understand why red is the go-to color if you want a site or page to grab the attention of people. Red, according to color psychology, is ideal for creating a sense of urgency. So if a business is holding a sale, there is no better way of turning heads and making people want to go to their store—online and otherwise—than to shout it out on billboards and web pages in big, bold, and red letters or backgrounds.
Orange is also pretty good at grabbing attention and creating a sense of urgency, which isn’t a surprise since orange is a marriage between red and yellow. Like red, orange is also commonly used in call-to-action buttons, which is essentially the one part of a web page that needs attention.
Yellow, orange’s other parent, is quite perfect for evoking a sense of optimism. After all, it is the sunniest color of all.
Websites selling fun things like children’s toys could use more yellow for a cheerful vibe that will draw in more customers. Some people even say the sight of yellow makes them feel younger. However, don’t overdo it with this color because too much yellow can prove to be overwhelming.
By now, we all know that green is the color that is most closely associated with the environment. Anything that is in any way connected to the environment and conservation almost always uses green, which happens to be very easy on the eyes and easily processed by the brain. Color psychology, however, also associates green with decisiveness, a trait that businesses would very much like to project.
Then again, when it comes to being easy on the eyes, it’s the color blue that takes the cake. It is, after all, the coolest color in the entire spectrum, in more ways than one. Aside from being cool to look at, blue is also associated with calmness and serenity. Many people find blue to be a very relaxing color, and it’s even said to lower blood pressures and heart rates. Blue also happens to be associated with qualities such as reliability, security, safety, trust, and intelligence.
If you want to know more about the behavioral associations that color psychology makes and how they apply to web design, then you must check out the infographic below.
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This infographic was created by our partners at My Biz Niche. Let us know what you think in the comments below!
