Webmasters, maximize your web site’s appeal by incorporating effective use of color into the web site design. Color has psychological power. Humans subconsciously associate symbolic meanings with colors.

A web site’s color palette has the power to affect on-line visitors’ emotions, perceptions, and interactions. The right colors can help welcome visitors, soothe them, invoke their trust, and make them more tempted to buy.

Here are some web design tips to help you make more effective use of color in your web designs.

Web Design Tip #1)

Think of color as on-line window dressing. Real world brick and mortar businesses use attractive window displays to help draw passer-buys’ attention. Choosing the right color palette gives that same enticing appeal to on-line web site designs. It’s what binds your web site’s design together, giving it that professional store-front sparkle.

Misused, colors can have the exact opposite effect. Colors may unintentionally irritate site visitors, much like a bullfighter aggravating a bull by waving a red cape.

Web Design Tip #2)

Color choices should appeal to your targeted audience. The most effective color choices for a particular web design will not necessarily be personal favorites.

As a web designer, you are designing to impress your targeted audience. Help them more easily interact with your web page by choosing web design colors with this goal in mind.

Web Design Tip #3)

It is harder to read text on a computer monitor than on paper. Carefully consider which colors will make reading text on a computer screen easier. Unlike the human eye, web browsers can only display up to 256 colors. Some browsers are only set for 216 colors.

If you want your web site design to appear exactly as designed to all potential viewers, make sure you incorporate only browser safe colors from the smaller 216 color palette in your web design.

Web Design Tip #4)

Black on white is the easiest color combination to read. While it may not be the prettiest color choice, black on white causes far less eye strain. Visitors tend to think negatively of sites that are difficult to read. Avoid this mistake by choosing the background and text color combinations wisely.

Alleviate unnecessary eye strain and poorly chosen text and background combinations that appear tacky or cheap. This happens with some unimpressive color combinations like yellow on blue.

Web Design Tip #5) Learn the subconscious messages colors are sending.

Black suggests excitement and speed and demands attraction. Why else would a woman need a little black dress? Black is the favorite color choice of web designers for displaying text. But, black may have a very bad effect when used as the background color. Think . . . black . . . mourning and death.

Blue symbolizes wisdom, confidence, and loyalty. It frequently is associated with stability and depth. Associate blue with sky’s the limit. Professional businessmen generally prefer wearing black or blue business suits. Blue is the second most popular color used in web site designs. It tends to evoke a sense of professionalism and stability.

White represents truthfulness, purity and devotion. That’s why brides usually choose to wear a white wedding dress. It’s the most refreshing and superlative color and considered the best background color choice on a web page.

Red symbolizes energy, action, confidence and passion. Red is the most emotionally vivid color, often worn by women whenever they want to feel confident and passionate. Remember the song, “Lady in Red?”

Orange is a warm color used to symbolize warmth and cheer, strength and ambition. Think of orange as a bright warm sunset.

Green symbolizes growth, harmony and fertility. Green is the most compatible color with eyes and has a great healing power. Associate the color of green with garden, grass, and trees.

Yellow symbolizes wisdom, joy and happiness. It enhances concentration. Think of yellow as the color with a sunny disposition, the equivalent of a yellow smiley on your page.

Pink is a more subdued and quiet color and symbolizes sweetness, softness and innocence. Think of pink as a sweet baby girl. This might be an effective color choice for a web design targeting a female audience or one trying to sell baby girl items.  But it would be a very poor design choice for a a web site trying to sell professional business equipment.

Brown symbolizes politeness and richness. Remember brown symbolically as dark rich soil. Brown can be used to effectively mix feeling into a web site’s background.

This was a simple overview of colors, and how color choices can impact a web design’s overall effectiveness. Part two in this series will focus more on color combinations and their effects on web site design.

Just remember, colors have significant psychological power. By knowing and understanding their symbolic meanings, you can harness that power to more effectively target viewers’ emotions and perceptions and ultimately their interactions and buying decisions.