Choose and Use the Best Colors, The Psychology of Color

Are you using the best colors for your web site? When choosing colors for your web site there are three main areas that should be addressed.

• The psychological effect of colors,
• The effect on the readability of your site, and
• The complementary choice of colors for your background, graphics, links, and text

These are all areas that must be well satisfied to create an effective and professional web site.

Listed below are a few characteristics of color that should always be considered when designing your graphics.

• Colors have an effect on our emotions within 90 seconds of viewing.
• Color choices can motivate, impress, and persuade your prospect to buy from you.
• Colors not only intensify the item, they greatly influence our behavior.
• The effects of color differ among different cultures.
• Color choices alone are sending a specific message to your viewers.

Given the fact that people respond more to non-verbal cues than verbal cues, it's all-important that you choose the corresponding colors for the emotional trigger you want to trip.

The following colors are associated with certain emotions or qualities:

• White - Suggests truthfulness, purity, clean, devotion, mild, and contemporary. White is the best color for a background color on the web. For business it can be refreshing and sterile.
• Black - Suggests elegance, boldness, power, authority, seductive, evil, sophistication and classic. Black is the ideal choice for text on a light background. It is hard on the eyes when used as a background on web sites.
• Red - Suggests strength, sex, excitement, passion, speed, danger, aggressiveness, and demands attention. In business it is associated with debt. Red is the most emotionally intense color. It stimulates a faster heartbeat and breathing.
• Blue - Suggests security, trust, reliability, coolness, faithfulness, belonging, and dignity. Blue is the most popular color. It is the second most popular color. In business it suggests fiscal responsibility and sanctuary.
• Green - Suggests abundance, health, fertility, freedom, healing, nature, growth, jealously, and cool. In business it suggests status and wealth. It is the easiest color on the eye.
• Brown - Suggests effectiveness, politeness, richness, and helpfulness. Brown is the color of earth, and is abundant in nature.
• Gray - Suggests earnestness, authority, and practicality. In business it suggests traditional and conservative.
• Pink - Suggests softness, sweet, femininity, well-being, innocence, and nurture.
• Purple - Suggests dignity, spirituality, royal, luxury, wealth, authority, mournfulness, and sophistication. In business it is upscale. Purple is favored by the artistic.
• Orange - Suggests playfulness, pleasure, cool, warmth, cheer, vibrant, strength, endurance, and ambition.
• Yellow - Suggests sunshine, warmth, cheer, happiness, cowardice, and jealousy. In business it is appealing to intellectual types and is good for accents. Yellow enhances concentration, increases metabolism, and is the most difficult color for the eye to take in.
• Gold - Suggests expensive, and prestige.
• Silver - Suggests cold, scientific, and prestige.

Whenever you begin to choose your colors, think about your target market. What emotions do you want to evoke? Give some thought to the current emotion of your prospect and to the message you want to send. Then choose your colors.

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