When the printing press was first used, everything was in black and white. Then colour printing became available and people preferred it. The same happened with television.
Websites have almost always been in colour because colour monitors have been affordable long enough for them to have been used for design since the web began.
Which means that the vast majority of the people coming to your website will see it in colour?
In turn, this means that the colours you use are critical to give the best possible impression to your website visitors.
Colours mean different things in different countries.
So if your site is appealing to an international audience, you will have to be especially careful about the colour scheme you choose to avoid sending out the wrong signals.
For instance, in the Western world black is a colour associated with mourning whereas in China, white is the colour most associated with mourning. Quite a difference.
But even without the issues of cultural differences, different colour schemes are best suited to different industries.
You wouldn’t expect a relaxation site to use bright primary colours – it would be much more likely to use pastel shades for its logo – whereas they would be more appropriate for a company offering things like safety signs and equipment.
Likewise if you are likely to have a gender bias in the visitors to your site then you need to consider the way they are likely to react to the colour scheme you use. Some colours are more female, others more masculine and you may need to make sure that you’re sending out the correct signals to your intended visitors.
Text colour is also important.
Studies have shown that most of us read text more slowly on a computer screen than from a printed page.
This means that you need to be especially careful about the colours you use for your text.
As a general rule – even if your graphic designer claims differently – you should use dark text on a light background.
Tests have shown that “reversed out” text – light text on a dark background – is considerably more difficult to read. Some advertisers have used this to their advantage by placing words that are legally required in reversed out text so that the majority of people reading their advert are likely to ignore those words.
Colour clashes should be avoided.
Certain colours just don’t go well together – red text on a green background is a prime example.
If you’re not sure, you need to check with your graphic designer.
You also need to check that any colours you choose will work for people who are colour blind – this kind of accessibility testing is not only a legal requirement, it’s a sensible approach to make sure that your website is as accessible to as many people as possible.
The other thing to test is that your colour scheme works well on the small area that’s available on mobile devices. More and more people are viewing sites on phones or tablets and this need to be taken into consideration when you’re designing your site.