When designing your site you probably didn’t give the psychology of colour much thought. You chose colours that you liked and that looked nice together.
That’s fine but different cultures see colours differently, for example in China red is seen as a sign of luck but in most other countries red is a sign for danger and sometimes even death!
It’s important that when you design your site you take into account cultural differences. In fact, even if you have a site that only attracts people from one culture – every colour has its own set of positive and negative connotations.
It’s important that the colours you choose match with the perceptions you want people to have about you and your company.
For example on the WassOnline gaming community site the colour red is used to signify the passion of the members and show the strength and power that members enjoy. Of course, like all colours, red also has negative connotations but it’s positive ones fit in with the message the site wants to convey.
Two of the biggest sports brands on the planet Nike and Adidas both use black as their main website colour. This is no coincidence and is most likely because black can be associated with style, sophistication and modernity.
Here are some of the positive and negative connotations of the main colours:
Blue
Positive: tranquillity, calmness, cleanliness, strength
Negative: depression, coldness, fear, obscenity
Red
Positive: passion, strength, power, love
Negative: arrogance, danger, anger, evilness
Green
Positive: nature, fertility, wealth, safety
Negative: envy, illness, inexperience, greed
Purple
Positive: royalty, mystery, pride, sensuality
Negative: profanity, exaggeration, confusion, mourning
Black
Positive: sophistication, style, modernity, power
Negative: absence, evil, death, remorse
Orange
Positive: warmth, energy, enthusiasm, playfulness
Negative: warning, arrogance, fire, aggression
White
Positive: purity, peace, innocence, simplicity
Negative: coldness, cowardice, unimaginative, emptiness
Yellow
Positive: happiness, optimism, hope, intelligence
Negative: cowardice, dishonesty, greed, illness
You might not link all of these connotations to these colours but you can be sure that some people do. As part of your marketing strategy you need to evoke emotions with your audience.
Check out how designer clothing brand Bench used the perception of colour in an advert:
Choose your colours carefully and they will help you connect with the exact emotions you are aiming for and lead to more conversions and a more successful website.
June 19th, 2008 at 12:35 pm
My website is nearly entirely red, I better get that changed. With colours playing such an important part and red being a danger colour in most countries as you said… why does Proactol have so much red bolding on it?
June 20th, 2008 at 12:38 am
Great post, Paul, you have collected some nice info here. Loved the video!
June 20th, 2008 at 2:40 am
Hi Royalled,
Try not to get too over-sensitive about the colours. The main thing is that your main design colours are conveying the image you want them to. The reason Proactol uses red bolding is because the red conflicts with the greens of the main site colours and that makes it really stand out and get attention.
Yes red can be seen as danger, but it also has positive connotations too like all the colours. The main purpose of coloured titles and bolding is to get attention and thats why red works well for that because it stands out so much.
June 20th, 2008 at 9:28 am
I am rather blue after reading this – I need a re-design too!
June 23rd, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Oh Gee, you’re scaring me to death. To top it off I have very little sense of colors. I might wear a purple necklace on a red sweater. I’ll just need my daughter to help me. She’s a graphic designer and knows her colors.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:40 am
[...] potential customers you dedicated time and effort in creating your site. You can achieve this by showing true colors which suit your site and products, distinct and clearly defined categories, which not only provides [...]
July 10th, 2008 at 10:55 pm
Ecommerce Michigan Ecommerce Base Business Home Online Opportunity…
I didn’t agree with you first, but last paragraph makes sense for me…
August 23rd, 2008 at 8:35 am
Nice blog, thanks.
August 25th, 2008 at 4:36 am
Cool blog
Thanks, webmaster.
August 25th, 2008 at 8:25 am
Amazine site
Thanks, webmaster.
August 27th, 2008 at 8:25 am
[...] your site attract shoppers if it would suddenly become scaled up to a real life store proportions? Are your colors good enough? Does it have products visitors can compare and choose the [...]
September 6th, 2008 at 6:05 am
This is a beautiful piece…….no doubt!!!
Hi all, great information here about colors and good thread to comment on. I have always found the color therapy a hard concept to grasp but still i believe that this is one hell of a tip which is always & always valuable because sooner or later you realise that it works. The writer of this post must be very passionate about colors coz without the passion, everything will just fall apart.
Wish you good luck for your future endeavors,
Ellen gates
http://www.forexfreedownload.com
September 9th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
[...] found interesting articles at MoreNiche’s blog – Does your website show your true colours? – talking about psychology of colour. If you don’t know what’s MoreNiche here’s [...]
November 5th, 2008 at 3:27 am
Enjoyed your site very much! Thank you! Keep up a good work!
)
December 22nd, 2008 at 11:15 pm
recognition you, apathetic location, added to favorites.
March 11th, 2009 at 3:45 am
Haha ^^ nice, is there a section to follow the RSS feed
April 15th, 2009 at 6:01 am
Not that I’m impressed a lot, but this is a lot more than I expected for when I found a link on SU telling that the info here is quite decent. Thanks.