Using a Smart Color Scheme – Essential in Smart Web Design

Filed in Building Websites on Jun.28, 2010 By Keith Lunt

Getting a smart colour scheme is essential for getting a smart website. Get it slightly wrong and it can be a disaster. Change it slightly and it is an absolute winner!

The colour scheme of your website defines the success of the look of the site more than any other element in the design. It is this combination of colours that is on the screen that gives the right balance. Not enough and too plain and the site is boring. Too many and too contrasting and the site will be shocking. Likewise, just choose a few colours that do not go together well and it is a disaster.

A design I have been working on recently showed this turnaround very dramatically. The customer had chosen a shade of green as the main background area and the site laid out nicely, but it just did not look right so I suggested a slightly lighter shade of green. And this seemingly minor change took the site from dismal to very smart and clean looking and suddenly a site to be proud of.

And this is because layout aside, certain colours work well in bulk and certain colours do not. A black background can be very striking and contemporary looking as can certain greys. But the wrong grey will not work and becomes dirty and strange looking.

I do not intend going into complicated lists of colour shades that do and don’t work together because it is not just the colours but the exact shades that matter. Dark and mid blues can work very well on a website and the more paler blues work equally well on other websites, but they all have their own complimentary colour palettes to work with.

You can look around in every day life from decor, logos, other websites and printed matter to see various colour combinations in use. And whilst doing this, think of how the colour palette is being used. Certain colour palettes suit lively and bright situations. Yellow and greens combined can work well, but the brightness is often associated with workers in emergency situations where they need to stand out!

Looking at nature, look at the plants with their green stems and the colours of their flowers that look so attractive on top. You might find a nice blue shade on clematis or white on lilies. This might give you some ideas for colours and highlights.

Choosing the colour scheme for your website is very difficult. If you have already had a logo designed then that at least does give a few colours that you are going to be starting with, but it is highly possible that you will need to investigate other colours that you can add to the screen to form highlight and to break up the screens.

Trying to work out the colour scheme is no easy job, but it is likely that if you are not 100% delighted with the look of the finished website then one or more of the colours need changing slightly. Choose a smart colour scheme for your website and you will end up with a smart looking site.