Hi all

 

I'm a newbie to the forum I hope I've posted this in the most appropriate section.

 

I am a graphic and web design student in her final year, thus writing my dissertation. For my subject I've decided to investigate how colour may influence a viewer visiting a website.

 

If you could spare me a few moments to answer my questions it would help me out enormously!

 

So...

 

When visiting a website do you pay any particular attention to the colour scheme? I.e. how well thought out it is and how it fits in with the overall theme of the website and its purpose?

 

Have you found that web designers tend to stick to pastel colours when designing female orientated websites? Or does anything go?

 

What would you consider to be the 'safest' colour scheme which will work with practically any website and why?

 

Thanks very much in advance!

 

x

Hi all

 

I'm a newbie to the forum I hope I've posted this in the most appropriate section.

 

I am a graphic and web design student in her final year, thus writing my dissertation. For my subject I've decided to investigate how colour may influence a viewer visiting a website.

 

If you could spare me a few moments to answer my questions it would help me out enormously!

 

So...

 

When visiting a website do you pay any particular attention to the colour scheme? I.e. how well thought out it is and how it fits in with the overall theme of the website and its purpose?

 

Have you found that web designers tend to stick to pastel colours when designing female orientated websites? Or does anything go?

 

What would you consider to be the 'safest' colour scheme which will work with practically any website and why?

 

Thanks very much in advance!

 

x

 

I do pay very close attention to colour schemes. The right scheme can really make even the most dull sites. Everyone knows moods can be dictated by colours.

 

I would disagree with the quote "web designers tend to stick to pastel colours when designing female orientated websites" As I have seen plenty of "feminine" sites using bold reds and blues.

 

In my opinion, a safe colour scheme would be monochromatic with maybe one or two colours for contrast. I couldn't comment really what colour would be classed as safe, as with all my designs, it depends on the brief/what the site is for. (You wouldn't want to design a football site with pastel pink)

I suppose you can't go wrong with the primary pallet, and maybe even the secondary. But one you hit the tertiary colours, then some are more specific.

 

Hope this helps.

i think it goes hand in hand with the content and the purpose of the website, eg. if the focus of the website is photography/art/clothing etc, i prefer a neutral (white/cream/light) scheme with all the colour and focus coming from the products themselves. Ive seen many sites that go over the top with crazy colour schemes and graphics and when it takes away focus from the stuff that actually makes you money, then it can sometimes be counter-productive... of course, louder colour schemes are more striking and people will remember them more so its finding the right balance

 

If its for your dissertation, get a survey/questionnaire done and post it on forums like this. Im sure we'd all be happy to help and you get to collate some stats which tutors love!

Welcome to WDF!

 

Personally I don't pay much attention to colours, instead my eyes are usually drawn to headings and sub headings and the actual content because that's what I'm on the site for!

I think colours play a big part.. after all they do in our lives! Tests have been done with 2 identical bowls of porridge.. one had black (tasteless) food die in and the other none.. and the majority said the white one tasted better!

 

Also with things like red for danger, blue for calm etc throughout life! So all this echos in design.. what would you rather browse a nice blue and white forum like this or one a sickly gold colour with bright red buttons lol

I think blue is one of the most neutral colours, particularly pastel blues.

 

Most of the sites I visit (particularly forums) use pale blues, even this WDF one does, most likely as it's the easiest on the eye and is not immediately repulsive. Where the colour is not trying to take the focus away from the site, but instead become transparent and inconspicuous without being monotonal (like grey would alone) and let the content speak for itself, and hopefully to encourage people to become involved (in forums, say). A splash of colour amongst the greys, whites and blacks that are otherwise vital for forums/messageboards. Even blue is used as the default colour for hyperlinks.

 

Now I think about it, why are most smileys/emoticons yellow? Because they work well with blue (complimentary colours)? I'm unsure.

 

Not sure if it's any use, but a good site on customising and experimenting with colour schemes is: http://kuler.adobe.com/# < Adds a little science to it, too, when you can choose "rules" like analogues, triads, complimentary, compounds, mono, etc. Also shows which are the "most voted" schemes, too (however, do people really go through the many thousands of schemes and vote for them, I think not! So not sure how truly representational the voting system is.)

I usually don't pay much attention to colours on a site I'm visiting, unless it's particularly bad. 99% of the time, I'm there for information, so I don't analyse the design at all. However, they do have a subconscious effect, and I'd be more likely to bookmark a site I found visually appealing.

 

Re the pastel colours... tbh I don't go to many female oriented sites, but my thought would be that using pastels would be a lazy decision based on a stereotype. The right choice would depend on the specific project and target market, you can't just say pastels are going to appeal to everyone with a vagina.

 

Agreeing with Timo about white and blue being the safest. Your eyes are least sensitive to blue light, so it's a choice that gives a bit of colour without being overwhelming. Then again, it's way overused.. you run the risk of being forgettable. To be honest, I don't really see the point in the question, not from a designer's perspective. There are too many other factors involved in colour choices to make this a meaningful question, otherwise we'd all be using the same colours on every site.

I think colors are extremely important when it comes to designing a website. For me, I come up with a color scheme first, then put in everything else. It makes it much easier for me than to just start the layout with no idea of what colors I'm going to be using.

 

Bad colors can break a website, while good colors can make a website look very good and memorable. There are plenty of places to get some good color palettes.. I use colourlovers.com. I get a bunch of pallets and bookmark all of them in a folder so if I ever need some color inspiration I just go to my bookmarks.

 

Colors do depend, however, on what the content has. Pink is feminine.. but there really aren't masculine colors as much. Web design portfolios, in my opinion, should have strong or prominent colors, while an online magazine should have a simple color pallet with a mostly neutral colors. It all depends on the situation.

 

The reason blues, especially light blues, are so good is because there really is no strong alternative. Light red is.. pink. Light green is ok, but blue is still calmer and easier on the eyes.

Colours can make or break a website. After we have decided on the general page structures, we usually spend days tweaking the colours and doing a few various options before presenting to the client. We always look at existing brand guides before doing this and take great consideration of what target audience and product/service we are trying to sell.

 

The "safe" colour combos we use are white/black/grey/blue and white/black/grey/red, sometimes with an accentual colour.

 

A great tool for coming up with cool colour combos is http://kuler.adobe.com/

 

Best of luck with your studies!