Color is one of the most important elements that contribute to attractive and effective web design. It creates mood, provides emphasis, and gives web design services another way besides words to help visitors use their websites and applications. This type of nonverbal communication and overall atmosphere can be critical to website and app success, considering the limited space available on mobile apps.
Designers need to understand the importance of color and how to use it most effectively to create applications that offer the greatest amount of function and user-friendliness.
Creating the Best Color Scheme
Choosing the best color scheme for any app or web design involves much more than simply picking a few colors. Different colors generate different feelings and moods, so it is important to understand this idea and work with it. Cooler colors are generally more preferable in online design, although warmer ones can be effectively used to create importance or guide the user.
Another consideration is that color schemes may also need to reflect brand colors. Generally speaking, color studies reveal that most users prefer simpler palettes with only a few colors, as opposed to more complex ones using many different color choices.
Choosing the palette is one part of selecting application colors. After this has been accomplished, the actual color scheme itself must be determined. Designers should become familiar with the color wheel and the various standard color schemes that make the best choices. Monochromatic and analogous are most popular, while complimentary schemes are great for icons and buttons. Custom schemes can always be used, although web design services must be careful to ensure their choices generate a positive reaction from users.
The Effect of Contrast
Another important way that web design services can utilize color in a design scheme is by taking advantage of contrast. Whether using two different contrasting colors or using lighter and darker hues in the same monochromatic scheme, darker or brighter colors and hues create emphasis. Any color that stands out from the rest is useful in attracting user attention and showing where to go and what to do next. Contrast also increases the ability to read text on small screens, making any web or app design more user-friendly.
Color for All Audiences
Besides brand colors and other associations, app and web design should also consider the audience and the colors that may be enjoyable or helpful to them. Choices should be based on attractive colors for the target audience; however, issues like color blindness which is more prevalent in men than in women should also be taken into consideration. This may not be as much of a concern for some designs; however, it is a detail that many designers overlook.
The big challenge that all web design services face when developing a successful website or app is finding ways to make the site as user-friendly and functional as possible. Color choice plays a huge role in doing just that. By using the right color scheme for each brand and audience, designers can increase reading ability, attract attention as necessary, and improve the overall usefulness of their web design, thereby adding to the app success!
