Colour is an extremely powerful tool that influences people’s feelings & behaviours. Understanding colour psychology can help strengthen your brand, guide visitors towards your website & even encourage sales. Studies show that people decide whether or not they like a product in 90 seconds or less and that 90% of that decision is based solely on colour. Research also shows that colour can increase brand recognition by 80%.
1. Women don’t like grey, orange, and brown. They like blue, purple, and green.
Studies on colour and gender confirm that women primarily preferred primary colours with tints over earthy tones.
Contrary to popular belief, only a small percentage of women like pink. In order to attract female visitors to your website, use colours other than pink — like blue, purple, or green.
2. Men don’t like purple, orange, and brown. Men like blue, green, and black.
Colours like blue, green, and black are commonly associated with male gender while at the same time they had a strong aversion to purple, orange, and brown.
3. Blue is the colour of trust.
It’s no mere coincidence that some of the world’s biggest social networking sites – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Tumblr – and even tech brands – Dell, IBM, HP, and Intel – have blue logos. PayPal & PayTM also prefer the colour blue.
This could probably be because the colour blue brings with it a subtle message of trust, transparency and serenity. If these companies had instead used colours like red or orange, they probably wouldn’t have had the same level of conversion.
Word of caution: Although blue is pretty much an all-round great colour, it should never be used for anything related to food. While on one hand evolutionary theory suggests that blue is associated with poison, dieters have been known to use blue plates to restrict the amount of food intake.
4. Red screams alert!
Red is a fast-paced, intense and powerful colour associated with demand and aggression. In the business world, it is termed as the “call to action” colour.
5. Green symbolizes harmony!
Green is the easiest colour for the eye to process & has a calming, harmonizing, effect. It works great for science, tourism, medicine, human resources, environment, and sustainability.
In conclusion, consider the feelings evoked by specific colours in your target audience before designing a website. Notions borrowed from colour psychology can also help designers and digital entrepreneurs optimize an already existing website and unlock its full potential.