Psychology of colors: Light colors and Dark colors for Websites

Color is a huge part of life, right? It totally changes how we see the world. Colors hit our brains directly, affecting our emotions. (Color Psychology: Does It Affect How You Feel?) They play a big role in influencing people every day, even if we don't notice it because we're so busy. (The Influence of Color on Human Behavior: A Deep Dive - iMotions)

Each color has its own emotions and meaning. Even when we don't consciously think about it, colors can trigger feelings.

When we talk about colors for web design, we mean everything a visitor sees when they first interact with our site – logos, backgrounds, images, buttons, you name it.

Getting the colors and emotions right in web design is what makes conversions happen.

Every color carries a specific emotion. Take red, for example. It's got the highest wavelength among all colors. (Red has the highest wavelength) This high wavelength is why red is so visually striking and can grab attention so quickly.

A study in the Journal by Emerald Insights, Satyendra Singh discusses how color impacts customer decision-making. It turns out, customers form an opinion about a product in just 90 seconds, and a whopping 62-90% of that opinion is determined by the product's color.

How color psychology actually works?

Every color has its own wavelength that affects human mood and behavior. (affects human mood and behaviour) Our eyes take in color, sending signals to the hypothalamus, which then communicates with the pituitary gland, and so on, eventually leading to hormone release that triggers moods and emotions.

Using the right emotions is pretty much what color psychology is all about.

What colors should I use?

There are basically a set of colors we see and use all the time. Some combinations just look good, but they might be the very reason your website is sending the wrong emotional signals. (website is hitting to wrong emotions) Let's dive into some common colors and how they can impact your site.

Red:

Red is the most dominant color in the spectrum. Besides its scientific properties, red also symbolizes energy, passion, power, excitement, aggression, and danger.

Red prompts action and can increase breathing and pulse rates, creating a sense of excitement.

It also symbolizes passion, youthfulness, and eagerness, making it ideal for food, fashion, makeup, and sports brands. It's also a good choice for dating websites.

Red has a duality to it. It can be a fun color to play with, but its shades can also come across as sophisticated and professional. For a fun vibe, think bright, energetic reds paired with playful fonts and graphics. For a professional look, consider deeper, richer reds used sparingly as accents against neutral backgrounds, perhaps with clean, minimalist design elements.

Fun Red Combination: Imagine a bright cherry red button on a white background, or a vibrant red banner with playful illustrations. This could be paired with a clean, sans-serif font in black or dark grey.

Professional Red Combination: Think of a deep burgundy red used for headings or borders on a charcoal grey website, or a subtle crimson accent on a cream-colored page with elegant serif typography.

Emotions Triggered:
Light red: Joy and love
Dark red: Rage and anger, leadership and courage
Pink: Romance and feminine qualities
Rusty reds: Fall and change

Coca Cola is a brand that embodies youthfulness, fun, and adventure. As a food and beverage company, they've embraced red as their primary color.

Blue:

Blue signifies calmness. It symbolizes trustworthiness, success, seriousness, knowledge, power, professionalism, and healing. It's often seen as a sign of stability and reliability.

Darker shades of blue are often used to convey luxury. Lighter blues are great for refreshing products and services like drinking water or water sports, evoking calmness and serenity like the sky or ocean.

Blue is the color of knowledge, trustworthiness, professionalism, and healing, which is why it's suitable for creating medicine and healing websites, business sites, lawyer websites, and school and university sites.

Blue is rarely used for food or in food packaging because of its calming effect; it tends to suppress a person’s appetite. (suppresses a person’s appetite)

Luxury Blue Combination: Think deep navy or royal blue paired with metallic gold or silver accents, perhaps on a website for a high-end watch brand or a luxury travel agency. This combination exudes sophistication and exclusivity.

Professional Blue Combination: This could be a classic combination of medium blue with white and grey, often seen on corporate websites or platforms focused on finance and technology. It conveys competence and reliability.

Emotions Triggered:
Light blue: Care, depth, stability, and faith
Dark blue: Intellectual, authority, trust, and integrity

Kaiserpermanente uses blue as its primary color, with secondary and tertiary colors being purely shades of blue.

Green:

Green is the color of peace, tranquility, and nature. It projects feelings of calm, rejuvenation, affluence, and optimism.

It's mostly associated with money, nature, animals, and health. (associated)

Lighter shades of green are more optimistic and associated with growth. They look great with warmer colors. Websites aiming to reflect relaxation, freshness, and honesty can use light shades of green.

Darker greens represent stability, safety, and affluence, so websites associated with finance can implement darker shades.

However, in certain contexts, green can imply decay or toxicity, like the color of fungus. Designers should be mindful of this, perhaps by avoiding overly muted or sickly green tones for health-related sites unless specifically intended to represent natural remedies or organic products.

The Greens Combination: This could involve pairing a fresh, leafy green with earthy browns and creams for a natural, organic feel, or using a vibrant emerald green with crisp white for a more modern, luxurious look.

Emotions Triggered:
Yellow-greens: Sickness and discord
Dark green: Ambition and prosperity
Teal Green: Emotional health and stability
Olive green: Peace and Harmony.

At first glance, juvenatemedical seems to be dominated by blue, but there's a hint of green. Despite not being very prominent, the green adds a soothing, natural feel.

Yellow:

Yellow is the color of light, optimism, happiness, brightness, and joy. It's stimulating and makes everything feel light and sunny. On the other hand, it's associated with caution.

It can also be linked to a healthy mind, free from depressing thoughts. Kids love yellow (think school buses). It's best suited for e-commerce websites selling products like kids’ apparel and toys.

Bright yellow is perfect for sites designed for children as it grabs their attention.

Darker shades are associated with wisdom and curiosity, making them suitable for sites that want to project authority and intelligence.

Yellow is also the most fatiguing to the eye because it reflects a lot of light. This is why using yellow as a background for a website is generally not recommended. The high reflectivity can cause visual strain over time. However, yellow can be used effectively as an accent color for calls to action or highlights, provided it's used sparingly and with good contrast against a darker background.

Joyful Yellow Combination: This could be a bright, sunny yellow paired with sky blue and white for a cheerful, energetic feel, or a softer pastel yellow with light grey and pink for a more gentle, optimistic vibe.

Emotions Triggered:
Light yellow: Caution and trepidation
Dark yellow: Happiness, joy, and freshness

Lemon, Lipton, Freshness.

Orange:

Orange is a combination of yellow and red. It evokes feelings of friendliness, warmth, approachability, enthusiasm, creativity, energy, and playfulness.

It can also signify sophistication while still being attention-grabbing.

It's vibrant, energetic, friendly, and inviting, making it ideal for websites that need a sense of movement and energy, like those for sports teams.

Creative websites wanting to showcase their creativity often opt for orange, and it's suitable for websites dealing with gadgets. The blend of yellow's optimism and red's energy creates a dynamic and engaging feeling.

The Orange Family Combination: This could be a vibrant coral orange paired with deep teal for a modern, energetic look, or a softer peach orange with cream and light brown for a warm, inviting feel.

Emotions Triggered:
Yellow-orange or gold: Prestige and wisdom
Red-orange: Pleasure, energy, health, and desire
Dark orange: Change or distrust.

Magento

After picking your color(s), it's super important to place them correctly. Otherwise, you might end up on the list of worst web designs. This means thinking about how colors interact, ensuring good contrast for readability, and using color to guide the user's eye through the page. Avoid common mistakes like using too many clashing colors or not having enough contrast between text and background.

It's not like you have to use a color as your primary just because it's listed here. Start painting your whole website in your main color.

The examples above prove that just a touch of these colors can make a site look beautiful and attractive.

You can look up various color combinations online to make your website more creative and appealing to visitors.

So, those were some bright colors and their psychology. Let me know your suggestions and questions in the comments below.