Remember when you were younger and your parents gave you the privilege of re-painting your bedroom? The joy you felt and the power you now possessed with the ability to paint those boring, egg shell white walls any color you wanted! You thought about each color and, perhaps subconsciously, what feeling it brought on- did you want a yellow room to be associated with cheeriness and joy or a blue room full of tranquility and calmness? With website design, color selection can mean much more than simple aesthetics.
Color Combinations Invoke Different Feelings
What impression do you want to give to your target audience? What do you want them to feel? Feelings of trust and community can be driven from a site that uses warm colors. It is important to keep this in mind as the main colors of your site will likely set the mood for a user before he or she even begins reading any of the text on a page.
Readability
Make sure there is contrast between your text color and your background color. The goal of a website is to communicate to a users, potential clients, or current clients. Making a user strain to read the type would be like opening a store and keeping all the items up on the top shelves.
Consistency
Once you’ve selected your website colors, you want to keep them consistent throughout your site. This should be a more obvious rule but it is one we feel is worth mentioning. If your website links to a third party site, you should also co-brand the header and website colors to create a more fluid experience for your users.
Using the right colors on your website can make a subtle but important difference to your audience. When seconds count, use everything in your power to support your brand message.