How Colors Affect Our Emotions
Colors have a profound impact on how we feel. From the colors of the logo of your favorite local fast food chain, to even the color of the shirt you’re wearing, color impacts our emotions, even when we don’t know about it. Now, this isn’t just artistic theory—it’s backed by psychology research.
Red often creates feelings of urgency and excitement, blue tends to promote feelings of trust and security, and yellow can generate feelings of optimism and clarity, while green often connects with ideas of growth and health. These reactions happen mainly without us even knowing. A healthcare website using calming blues or greens can help visitors feel reassured before they even know about the services offered. Similarly, a fast-food restaurant using reds and yellows can stimulate appetite and create a sense of urgency to order.
Visiting a website is no different. When you visit a website, your brain processes colors before you even read a single word, triggering emotional responses almost instantly. Understanding these basic emotional connections helps designers create interfaces that align with a website’s goals and the feeling they want visitors to experience.
Understand Color Combinations That Work (And Why)
A color scheme for any website goes beyond picking colors that look nice together—it’s about selecting combinations that reinforce your message and guide users through your site.
Complementary colors (those opposite each other on the color wheel) like blue and orange create high contrast that draws attention to important elements.
Analogous color schemes (colors that sit next to each other on the color wheel) create harmony and are easier on the eyes. This approach works well for content-heavy sites where you want users to feel comfortable reading for longer periods.
Monochromatic schemes use variations of a single color, creating a sophisticated, unified look that’s easy to manage. This approach can be particularly effective for building brand recognition, for example, Facebook’s various shades of blue.
Balance is key though. Follow the 60-30-10 rule, or a framework to balance designs. 60% of the interface uses a dominant color, 30% uses a secondary color, and 10% uses an accent color for important elements. This creates visual hierarchy without overwhelming users, and generally helps keep your site “clean” and professional.
White space (or negative space) is just as important as color. It gives the eyes a rest and helps direct attention to colored elements. Too many colors competing for attention can create confusion and overload users.
Following a color scheme is great in practice, but not from a real world experience. Websites, other than maybe your own, have a brand that they need to follow. For example, what if the brand has orange as the dominant color? It may be a bit too intense to have 60% of the website orange. What I did in this scenario is that I made white the dominant color with orange being the accent. This made the site remain readable, while also making the client happy with the results.
Practical Applications for Website Categories
Different types of websites benefit from specific color approaches based on their goals and the needs of the audience. Here are some examples:
Ecommerce sites typically use colors strategically to encourage purchases. Limited-time offers often appear in attention-grabbing reds or oranges to create urgency. Product photos appear against white backgrounds to show accurate colors.
News and content sites prioritize readability with neutral backgrounds and save bold colors for categorization or highlighting breaking news. Doing this helps reduce eye strain for extended reading for extended periods of time while providing clear visual organization of different content types.
Business and professional services sites often employ blues and greens to convey trustworthiness and stability. These sites typically use more subdued color palettes with strategic pops of color to guide users toward contact forms or service descriptions.
Creative industry sites like design agencies or artists’ portfolios may use more adventurous color schemes to demonstrate creativity and innovation. These sites can break conventional color rules because their audiences often expect and appreciate visual experimentation.
Health and wellness websites benefit from calming blues and greens that create feelings of tranquility and healing. Many supplement these with clean white space to convey cleanliness and professionalism—essential qualities in health-related fields.
The most effective approach is studying successful sites in your category while considering your specific brand identity and user needs. A/B testing different color schemes with real users can provide concrete data about which colors drive the behaviors you’re seeking, whether that’s longer time on page, more sign-ups, or increased purchases.