Colour in website design is often overlooked and misunderstood. You may be surprised to hear it isn’t solely about branding…there are other important aspects which are not often considered.
By having an understanding of colour, you can develop a website that offers an enhanced user experience reducing bounce rate and increasing conversion, while acting as a differentiator against competitors.
This blog will help you understand the multiple purposes of colour in website design and how you can utilise it to act as an enhancer of the user experience.
More Than Branding
Colour within website design can positively or negatively affect all aspects of the user experience. Therefore, it is essential to consider the multiple influences it may have when in the website design process.
Have you considered the effect of the following for your own website?
Consistent branding
Most importantly, as expected, the rest of the subsequent steps are obsolete if the website colours aren’t aligned with the brand. This is required to instil consistency, and perceptions of professionalism, and acts as a memory aid in situations of brand awareness and recognition.
Colour psychology
Understand the psychology of colour and how this impacts your messaging. Different colours evoke different emotions therefore should be considered during the design process to ensure that the desired messaging is interpreted by the user.
Creativity vs functionality
Be aware of contrast to ensure creativity doesn’t outweigh practicality. It is common for websites to utilise a low contrast between text and background. Although this can achieve a modern aesthetic, it can reduce visitor interpretation and readability.
Accessibility
Consider using accessibility tools to aid those who are visually impaired. There are many accessibility tools that allow users to alter the contrast and website colour, preventing design choices negatively impacting the user experience.
Test and monitor
Once colour has been selected and incorporated throughout the website design, it is essential to continually test and monitor the website with different users to evaluate how they interpret your site and make changes when necessary.
Dark Mode Rising
An ever increasing impact of colour on website design that must be considered is the use of dark mode.
As more users are turning to dark mode to reduce eye strain and conserve battery life, it’s important to consider how this can impact website design as dark mode changes the colour palette of a website, often altering the visibility of certain elements.
Make sure to test your design in both light and dark mode and make the necessary changes to optimise your website and provide a seamless experience for users regardless of their preferred display settings.
Consider Colour
By following these recommendations within the website design process you can achieve a fully optimised website design that utilises colour to enhance the absorption and understanding of information in both light and dark mode, providing the visitor with an excellent user experience. Remember it is important to continually monitor your website design and use of colour to ensure it is consistently being understood and interpreted as intended by visitors. This will prevent design and colour errors from preventing your conversion-based website success.
Design Made Easy
However, many firms do not prioritise colour within their website design due the time and effort required for successful consideration, implementation, monitoring and adaptation. To simplify and streamline the process it is useful to delegate this responsibility to a third-party. Many WaaS (websites-as-a-service) providers have the expertise and knowledge of colour psychology and the effect on web design, aiding the design process.
For example, WaaS provider Creatify always considers the use of colour as part of their website development and maintenance plans, and provides clients with monthly reports that convey insight into website performance. It is easy to evaluate what elements of the site are underperforming and then make as many changes as necessary at no additional cost as part of their unlimited updates policy.
