Role of Colour Theory in Web Design
A website plays a strong role in developing the ROI of your business, and that’s why it should be well-designed. Successful web designing refers to giving your viewers an aesthetically pleasing experience. To design an effective colour palette for a website, you first need to understand colour theory.
If you understand the colour theory of a website, that will help you create a palette that aligns with the brand values and targeted market. With my web development experience, I am sharing some crucial points of colour theory in web design.
Understanding The Basics Of Colour Theory
The science & art of utilising colour for producing visually appealing & harmonious experiences is known as colour theory. I recommend that every designer follow the colour wheel when designing a website. Colour wheels help designers to produce an aesthetically beautiful website with well-balanced colour schemes.
Colour plays a necessary role in web designing since it can evoke emotions, develop visual impact & influence the users by grabbing their attention. With balanced colour theory, developers can build an engaging atmosphere. To enhance the overall user experience, an understanding of colour theory is necessary. In the section below, I am sharing my knowledge of key terms of colour theory that every designer should know.
7 Key Terms You Should Know About Colour Theory
I prefer to consider over 16 million colours when designing a website. Since there are lots of options, I have an infinite number of possibilities. Understanding the basic colour characteristics & terms helps me to make decisions for designing an effective website.
Colour Wheel
Colour when is an effective tool that helps me to visualise the interlink between the colours in the schematic & standard way. The basic colour wheel contains 12 colours, whereas traditional theory lists them as blue, yellow, and red. Mixing primary colours gives Colours like Purple, Orange and green, which are known as secondary colours. To develop tertiary colours, I combine yellow-green, Blue-green & so on!
Colour Relationship
When I work on any project, I usually rely on the fundamental colours that I have listed below to help my industry people.
- Monochrome- It consists of multiple tints, saturation & shades of identical colours.
- Complementary- It is based on the 2 colours from the other side of the colour wheel.
- Analogous- This features 3 colours that are next to each other on the colour wheel.
- Triadic- Utilising 3 colours at the points of a triangle drawn within the colour wheel.
As per my experience, complementary & analogous colour schemes are the best options for designers to work with.
Colour Warmth
Colour warmth is divided into 2 sections, either cool or warm. Hues that involve a higher amount of red & yellow are known as warm colours. It evokes a sense of happiness, passion & heat but, at the same time, brings a feeling of aggressiveness. I prefer to use this to design alert messages.
On the contrary, cool colours are those which involve a high amount of purple & blue hues. These colours' warmth is referred to as creating a soothing & relaxing vibe. However, sometimes I prefer to use neutral colours such as grey, black & white to opt for a harmonious palette. This is how I balance out the colour scheme & add contrast to my designs.
Understanding Colour Systems
The 3 basic colour systems I follow are CMYK, RGB, & HEX. The RGB colour system is interlinked with light. The maximum value of all basic coloured light produces white light, whereas zero colour produces black light.
CMYK is also used in print designing where the colour value is 0, which produces white colour, whereas the maximum value of 100 creates black. At the same time, HEX colour systems use Six-digit, 3-byte, hexadecimal descriptions of colour.
Shades & Tints
Usually, I create tints by adding white to any colour. A higher amount of white colour develops lighter tints, whereas adding black develops different shades. The darker the shades, the more black they contain. To achieve a monochromatic vibe, I combine shades & shades & tints of the base colour.
Understanding Saturation, Hue & Lightness
The level of similarity between the 2 colours is known as hues, whereas the colour intensity is described by the saturation and lightness is defined by the term how bright the colour is compared to becoming pure white. To balance the lightness, I suggest customising the lightness parameter in the editing software to produce different tints and shades.
Colour Contrast
This is an essential element in the web designing process. If contrast is too low, then users may have issues differentiating between the elements; for improving the readability, I recommend trying the white background and dark text colour to keep the pages organised & clean. I also prefer to experiment by reversing the colour and using the light text over the darker background. Balancing the contrast is necessary for improving the readability & content hierarchy.
Improve Your Web Design Skills By Understanding The Colour Theory
Colour theory is a broad subject, and I have given myself lots of time to gain expertise in it. From my point of view, colour theory gives insight into the science & depth of human emotion. Learning the basics of colour theory can significantly boost the productivity and success of any web designer.
The above-discussed colour theory elements are highly important for developing any website. I would say that web designers should focus on these specific prospects to raise their web designs. If you are looking for an expert service provider, you can contact my team. SpiderWorks offers web design services in Dubai tailored to every business requirement
SpiderWorks, the top web design agency in Dubai, focuses on creativity, user experience, and website functionality. SpiderWorks ensures that the online presence of any business is enhanced by designing an engaging website. Do you have any questions regarding colour theory and want to know the best practices for web design? Let me know in the comment section.
