What is the main difference between a black and white newspaper and one that uses colors? It’s a stupid question really but it underlines one important aspect: colors make the difference. People are pre-programmed to respond to colors, especially to some combinations which have a stronger effect than others. Take the blue-orange association. Almost all people have a positive response to it because their sub-conscious creates a link between these two colors and the relaxing image of a sunset. Many U.S. hospitals took advantage of this fact and use light tones of blue or pink for the uniforms of the nurses because patients tend to calm down and relax when they see those colors.
Web designers have a great arsenal at their disposal in order to create great Web pages, and a big part of this arsenal is formed by colors. What most of them don’t know
though, is how to influence on a subliminal level the people that read their Web pages. The first and most important criteria on you select your colors is your audience. Is it a Western audience, an Eastern one, is it composed of younger people, older people, males or females? All of these things factor in when you make the color choices for your site.
If you create a Web page that is meant for a specific group of individuals, be very careful of the cultural differences involved. The meanings of colors vary from culture to culture. What is OK in one culture may be tabu in another one. The symbolism is also different. For instance in the Eastern cultures the mourning color warned at funerals is white whilst in the Western ones, black is the color of choice. So if you find yourself creating a page for an Asian audience, don’t use a lot of whites, because it could be disturbing.
The same principle apllies to age differences. Children and teenagers are suckers for bright intense colors so if your page is in shades of grey and mellow color you will score points with the parents but loose your intended audience in the blink of an eye.
As long as money dictate the way things happen around the world there will also be class differences. Studies have shown that working people tend to prefer colors that are tangible, that can be referred to by simple common names such as blue, red green, yellow and so on. Wealthier people, and people with a higher level of education tend to prefer colors which are more exotic like taupe, azure, mauve, lila etc. Think about this for a minute before making any misplaced comment about what I’ve just stated: why do think Walmart has a logo that is bright red?
Last but not least the age old question of men and women. When was the last time you went into a single man’s living room and had the surprise of seeing it decorated with shades or orange and yellow? The cold hard truth is that, from this point of view men and women weren’t created equal. Women are more color sensitive, and as this wasn’t enough, western men are also more likely to be color blind. Men in general prefer cooler colors such as browns, greens, blues, while women are more attracted to warmer colors such as reds and oranges.
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