Use of colour on your site
You should be careful of the colours you use on your site as colours convey emotions and can have different psychological affects on your visitors.
Red is a very dominant colour which creates tension and is often used to convey love, passion and strength. Red can also have a negative affect as it can represent danger, aggression and anger. Red is the first colour that the human eye sees, it will overpower any other colour on the page so you should use it sparingly. It is perfect for error messages and details which you would like visitors drawn to, like 'Buy Now' buttons.
Blue is a much more tranquil colour. It symbolises freshness, calmness, trust and loyalty. It can be used to convey confidence and is probably the safest choice of colour on a site. On the other hand it can be seen as cold, lonely, conservative and depressing.
Green is a refreshing colour signifying nature and the environment. It also represents envy, greed and jealousy.
Yellow is a very rich colour which stands out, it symbolises joy and happiness. It can also convey dishonesty.
Orange symbolises ambition, endurance, creativity and enthusiam. it is often liked by younger generations but can also be seen as an attention seeking colour and sometimes can be seen as cheap.
Purple is a mysterious colour often used to symbolize royalty, luxury, and wisdom. It also represents mourning, arrogance and cruelty.
Pink is the most gender specific colour representing feminity and softness. It can be used effectively on websites directed at women but can also convey weakness.
Brown is most seen in nature but is rarely used in web design and can be seen as dirty.
Grey is a neutral colour which will work well with any other colour. It enhances and intensifies its surrounding colours so should be used in conjunction with other brighter colours.
White is another neutral colour symbolising purity, simplicity and clarity. White is the best choice of background colour as text and images will stand out from it.
Black is associated with elegance and class but also fear and death. It is also often connected to magic and mystery. Black should rarely be used as a background colour and works best against a white background.
You should also take into account that colours can have different meanings in different cultures and religions. For example the colour white in Western cultures represents peace and purity, yet in Eastern cultures it is associated with mourning.
Warmer colours such as reds and yellows will stand out and dominate a page while cooler colours (blues and greens) will recede so make good background colours.
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