Painting The Canvas Of Your Website

I recently visited a Goth site that had dark purple letters on a black background. It felt Gothie, but the copy was so hard to read that I gave up after a few words. Another site had an almost fluorescent orange background. It was so bright that it hurt my eyes. I left as fast as I could hit the Back button. While the creators of these sites may think they looked great, in reality they chased people away. What good is having a website if people leave after just a few seconds. Whatever these people were trying to accomplish, it failed. If people leave your web page before they can read your copy or look at the products or services you sell, then the site is useless, no matter how great you think it looks.The first thing you need to do is decide what colors will best fit the theme of your site. You can then use these colors when you, or a website designer, create your site. A Goth site may include black, dark red and purple, while one for Renaissance Faires could use earth tones and a florist may want pinks, reds and purples.Here are some common responses that people feel for several colors.

• Black - seriousness, darkness, mystery, secrecy, power, elegance, death, evil, formality.
• Blue - trustworthiness, success, seriousness, calmness, power, professionalism, health, tranquility, knowledge, integrity.
• Brown - earth, nature, tribal, primitive, simplicity, stability, masculine qualities.
• Green - money, nature, animals, health, healing, life, harmony, ambition, greed, jealousy.
• Grey - neutrality, indifference, reserved.
• Orange - comfort, creativity, celebration, fun, youth, affordability.
• Pink - softness, sweetness, innocence, youthfulness, tenderness, romance, love, friendship.
• Purple - royalty, justice, ambiguity, uncertainty, luxury, fantasy, dreams, romance.
• Red - love, passion, rage, anger, joy, sexuality, danger, warning, excitement, food, impulse, action, adventure.
• White - innocence, purity, cleanliness, simplicity, goodness, virginity.
• Yellow - curiosity, playfulness, cheerfulness, amusement, caution, joy.

Once you decide on a main color for your site, you need to select other colors that you can use. After all, you don't want a monochrome site, that would be very boring. You can choose colors that have the same hue, such as various shades of green, or you can use complimentary colors, like green and red. Just remember to selections shouldn't be an annoyance to your visitors.You can easily select the colors you want by visiting one of the following links. Some of these sites will help you pick a main color while others will show you what will work well with that central theme.

• Visibone - http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/big.html
• MoreCrayons - http://www.morecrayons.com/
• Color Scheme Generator 2 - http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html
• Color Schemer - http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html
• Defence Mechanism - http://www.defencemechanism.com/color/
• Slayeroffice - http://slayeroffice.com/tools/color_palette/
• YCOLN Design Services - http://www.ycoln-design.com/WebColorCharts/WebColors.asp
• Color Blender - http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/tools/color-blend/

After you have chosen the colors you want to use, I'd suggest trying them out on a sample page. See how they work together. If they look good to you, then add some text to see how easy it is to read. You can change text color if need be. I've seen various sites use white, red or beige text, and it worked very well. If you are going to have pictures or artwork on the site, you should also put several pieces on your sample page. Make sure that the pictures show up well and don't blend into the background, or that the colors in the artwork don't clash with your site.I've found that it's a delicate balancing act between my vision of a site and what it looks like in reality. Always keep usability as one of your key measures when designing a site. If people find your site hard to use, look at or read, then they will leave quickly, never come back and won't tell anyone about your site. Or they may submit your site to one of those website that lists terrible sites. There's just some publicity that you don't want.So think about what you want and use the sites I've listed. You'll find that choosing the colors for your site is fast and easy and you'll get a site that's more in tune with the feeling you want to convey.