How To Choose Your Website colors

How To Choose Your Website Colors

By Jason OConnor 2005

Color is often overlooked in the business of optimizing websites for better returns on investments. Website salës can be greatly affected by simply changing its colors. Ever come across a website that uses some funky combination of print and background colors? If you ever want to experience an eye-twisting headache, try reading yellow print on a blue background. The reason you see black type on a white background so much is that it is the best color combination for reading, both on and offline.
And since it is even harder to read text on a monitor than it is on paper, we must all be especially careful with the colors we choose for our websites, or suffer less-than-optimal site traffïc and repeat visitors.
Color choice should also be dictated by other, less obvious goals, when designing or re-vamping a website. It's important to realize that different colors invoke different emotions, are associated with specific concepts and say different things in each society. For instance, green often times is associated with freshness or monëy, which is fairly obvious if you think about it. But every color does this, and some of the emotions and concepts are more subtle. For example, white means pure, easy, or goodness and purple can be associated with royalty or sophistication. What's more, each color carries with it both positive and negative ideas. The emotions and concepts that you associate with specific colors may differ from other people's associations, but there are themes that run throughout each color. Hëre are some:
Red:Positive: Sense of power, strength, action, passion, sexualityNegative: Anger, forcefulness, impulsiveness, impatience, intimidation, conquest, violence and revenge
Yellow:Positive: Caution, brightness, intelligence, joy, organization, Spring timeNegative: Criticism, laziness, or cynicism
Blue:Positive: Tranquility, love, acceptance, patience, understanding, cooperation, comfort, loyalty and securityNegative: Fear, coldness, passivity and depression
Orange:Positive: Steadfastness, courage, confidence, friendliness, and cheerfulness, warmth, excitement and energyNegative: Ignorance, inferiority, sluggishness and superiority
Purple:Positive: Royalty, sophistication, religionNegative: Bruised or foreboding
Green:Positive: Monëy, health, food, nature, hope, growth, freshness, soothing, sharing, and responsivenessNegative: Envy, greed, constriction, guilt, jealousy and disorder
Black:Positive: Dramatic, classy, committed, seriousNegative: Evil, death, ignorance, coldness
White:Positive: Pure, fresh, easy, cleanliness or goodnessNegative: Blind, winter, cold, distant
A major goal of marketers is to invoke emotion in their audience. We know that if we can cause some kind of an emotional reaction in the people we are marketing to and communicating with, we have a better chance of compelling them to buy from us. The battle between logic and emotion that rages in each of is usually won by emotion most of the time. By choosing the colors of our websites and online media with deliberate care, we are purposefully trying to invoke a specific emotional response that will increase salës. So pick your colors carefully.
Not only do colors evoke emotions, but they can communicate messages or concepts too. For example, look at ClickItTicket.com to see how color is used to communicate the new affiliation between Oak Web Works, LLC and ClickitTicket.com. The blues of Oak Web Works's logo swirl into the reds of ClickitTicket.com's logo. This can be interpreted as a melding of the two organizations, which is what the words underneath say, "in affiliation with". Also, the red of OakWebWorks.com indicates action and passion, two essentials for people who want to attend theater, sporting events or concerts.
Another online ticket website, BestShowTicketsLasVegas.com, has a different color approach. Its main colors are blue and purple, giving the site a comforting, secure and sophisticated feel. The main header on each page has all the colors in the rainbow in it, a collage of images, with the word `Tickets' in large, white font. Much of the site is white too, which gives it a clean feel.
As a general rule of thumb, when Oak Web Works designs websites, one primary color and one secondary or complimentary color will be chosen. These colors are based on the specific audience and market of our client and the messages the client wants to communicate to the rest of the world. If more than two or three colors are used, things tend to look a little messy, and the power of any one color is diluted too much, so we most often stick with two colors.
When I am not sure exactly which colors or combinations to use, I often start trying different things, then take a step back and ask myself what my chosen colors are conveying to me. After designing many websites over the years I have realized that going with my gut has often worked when I'm in doubt. You would be surprised at how creative and accurate your intuition can be.
However, if the client already has an established brand, we will always make sure to match the colors of the website with the original colors of the company. It is not wise to have print collateral material one color and the website a totally unrelated color. All marketing channels need to remain consistent, with one face only.
Since website visitors all have different platforms, different monitors, and different settings for their screen resolutions, the colors you choose for your website may not always be rendered the exact same way on your site visitors' monitors. That's why there are "Web Safe" colors that have a much higher likelihood of looking the exact same regardless of the user's computer, monitor or settings. Many graphics programs, including Adobe Photoshop, have a feature that allows you to choose "Web Safe" colors only.
Keep in mind however, that the sophistication of technology today allows for Web designers to be able to stray from the "Web Safe" colors more and more. So don't be overly concerned if you choose to use "un-safe' Web colors, chances are that most of your audience has the computers necessary to view your site the exact way you intended.
Whether you are designing sites for clients or designing your own business website, your color choice is vital. Be sure to try different colors, different shades, and different combinations before you decide. It's a lot of fun playing with colors but every choice you make comes with a set of pre-defined societal meanings and emotions, so choose with deliberate care.
About The AuthorJason OConnor owns and operates Oak Web Works, LLC - The synthesis of Web marketing, design, and technology. Jason is an expert at Web design, programming, e-strategy, and e-marketing. Call or email today for a frëe site consultation.

Navision_Financial Management

Frees You to Focus on Your Business
In 1494, the Italian monk Luca Pacioli wrote the world’s first book on accounting in order to “give the trader, without delay, information as to his assets and liabilities.” Five hundred years later, fast and easy access to bottom-line information is still what you need to run your business.
Today, however, the increased pace of business has intensified the need for efficient financial management even more. Therefore, the last thing you need is a business solution that slows down operations by placing new demands on your organization.
Far from inhibiting work, Microsoft Business Solutions–Navision adapts and evolves to match the way in which your business operates. It helps you discover opportunities and motivates users to do more and to learn more.
Free to Grow
When change is required in your organization, Microsoft Business Solutions–Navision makes the transition smoother. It adapts and evolves to match the way your business operates.
You can customize the design within minutes by changing the appearance of forms, adding additional fields and tables, and creating user-specific menus.
You can automate many of your financial practices and procedures according to your needs. You define the level of control that you want by setting up business rules. For example, you can specify payment terms and discounts for individual customers and vendors.
Furthermore, you can handle the full range of legal requirements and currency issues inherent in international trade, including euro business. You can operate and report to authorities in the currencies of your choice.
Free to Discover
Microsoft Business Solutions–Navision makes it easy to access the financial information you need to spot trends and gain insight into your business activities. You capitalize on your knowledge of how your business works by discovering opportunities, which otherwise might have been difficult to identify.
You can examine individual transactions and information about particular events quickly and easily. You can drill down on the fly to investigate a specific amount, or you can use highly specific filtering criteria to find exactly the information you need.
See All the Angles
The Dimensions feature enables you to view information in a more sophisticated way. You tag general ledger and budget entries with company-specific dimensions, which help you get more out of your data. You can use dimensions to:

• Monitor performance


• Investigate relationships


• Take advantage of trends

Dimensions help you get the most out of your information. The possibilities are endless because it’s easy to add new dimensions, and there’s no limit to how many you can add.
Microsoft Business Solutions–Navision also takes the complications out of foreign trade and opens your eyes to the opportunities available in new markets. Each customer or vendor gets the level of service you want to offer. You can receive and make payments in any currency (regardless of the currency normally used for a particular customer or vendor).
Free to Do More
Microsoft Business Solutions–Navision offers you much more than just accounting tools. It helps you understand what figures represent, and it makes it easy for you to see the activities from which the numbers originated. Microsoft Navision stimulates your curiosity and makes your work more inspiring.
You delve deeper into your work because the information you want is at your disposal and access to it is straightforward. You can drill down to information quickly and set filters easily. Microsoft Navision encourages you to look further than account balances.
Account schedules allow you to use the data in your general ledger to help drive your business. You can use a range of predefined reports or your own customized company-specific reports. The financial information generated in this way can then be presented on a Web browser or distributed by e-mail, so that managers and employees, network partners, and investors can stay informed about your company’s activities.
Ask Your Partner
To learn more about Microsoft Business Solutions Financial Management–Navision, contact your local Microsoft Certified Business Solutions Partner. They have the expertise necessary to design a solution that fits your specific business needs. Or, visit our website at:http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions.
About Microsoft Business Solutions
Microsoft Business Solutions, a division of Microsoft, offers a wide range of integrated, end-to-end business applications and services designed to help small, midmarket, and corporate businesses become more connected with customers, employees, partners, and suppliers. Microsoft Business Solutions' applications optimize strategic business processes across financial management, analytics, human resources management, project management, customer relationship management, field service management, supply chain management, e-commerce, manufacturing, and retail management. The applications are designed to provide insight to help customers achieve business success. More information about Microsoft Business Solutions can be found at www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions.
Address:
Microsoft Business Solutions Frydenlunds Allé 6 2950 Vedbaek Denmark Tel +45 45 67 80 00 Fax +45 45 67 80 01 http://www.microsoft.com/BusinessSolutions

© 2004 Microsoft Business Solutions ApS, Denmark. All rights reserved. Microsoft, Great Plains, Navision, Visual Studio, and Windows are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation, Great Plains Software, Inc., FRx Software Corporation, or Microsoft Business Solutions ApS or their affiliates in the United States and/or other countries.  Great Plains Software, Inc., FRx Software Corporation, and Microsoft Business Solutions ApS are subsidiaries of Microsoft Corporation. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, and events depicted herein are fictitious. No association with any real company, organization, product, domain name, e-mail address, logo, person, or event is intended or should be inferred.