Website colour schemes

There are a lot of new website designs coming out now with the release of Xara Web Designer and many of them are top notch.

Some horrify me and other design aesthetics aside, it's often because they incorporate very garish primary colour schemes.

I tend to view bold primary colour schemes as being highly attractive to children, less attractive to adults. Toy manufacturers choose bold primary colours to appeal to children and products oriented towards adults go for a more subtle colour scheme.

For me in 99/100 cases, bold primary colour = RUN!

Kuler : http://www.adobe.com/products/kuler/ is an interesting tool to be looking at when that primary colour pallette beckons!

I'm no colour expert but I have certainly noticed that the colours that appealed to me at 19 (some may know of those cars you can buy with every panel a different colour) and now at (achem!) where I recognise my preferred pallette has moved towards pastels and shades.

So my suggestion is that before you launch into a web based colouring book, think about using colour and how colours will be perceived by your target audience.

I'm not saying don't use primary colours. I am saying be very careful how you use them - the result may not be what you had intended.

I'm sure others will chip in with some good avice and pointers about the use of colour. Perhaps a good topic for an article Gary?

Paul

(Of course, it's always a great leveller to have the opinions of people who don't know the website is yours)

Hi Paul

Fraid I have to agree with you. I have seen some very nice looking site created with the program but some are garish. Bad colours or too many colours, unnecessary flash :D (I know your opinion on flash) and pages too busy.

I have been playing around with the program for 2 weeks now, the first was spent on getting a grasp on the buttons, and this week is starting to rebuild my existing site. The program makes it easy, but I make it hard. I have very little artistic or graphic ability you know, and I envy the people that create great site and great art in xtreame. I will include a picture of what I have done so far, give your opinion on what you think, (as if I really care what you think :D)......frank

(It's hard to see since it is a small gif file to keep the size down, but the buttons change colours on the mouse over and the text goes green on the mouse down, which you really don't see since it is so fast; I am trying to work with basically just two colours, I will see how it works out)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Seagull

give your opinion on what you think, (as if I really care what you think :D)......frank

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Hi Frank,

Well, definitely not a primary colour scheme in sight!

I suppose it's a bit OT for the thread subject, but here's a starter:

Think about who your target demographic is - who might be looking to come and stay? Why are they coming to stay? what do they want from the area? What would you look for if you were looking for a place to stay? Check out the competition online!

Your design won't appeal to a younger audience - it's not contemporary and looks very traditional. The views of your property which should entice people are dominated by the text and framing.

Here's a small traditional hotel in the UK that I think does the job well. The front page says all the right things and is easy on the eye: http://www.arlingtonbournemouth.co.uk/

Mods: Maybe there should be a category somewhere "Help me design my website" so people can get advice about the right way to go.

Paul

Also see Color Palette Generator

And Photo Color Schemer

Or to import color schemes from a website URL, Color Scheme Importer

(Freeware)

Back again Paul

You brought up a good point about which sort of audience you are trying to target. In my case (thank you for using the word traditional and not boring), you actually hit it spot on for what I am trying to do. I believe I am targeting the people I want and I am also trying to get a very traditional look site like an older septia photo, you might say; but it is still early days and it needs a lot of work encore.

At the end of the day, what determines how successful a site really is, is how many people actually find it and use it. Google does not find sites by colours schemes or tastes. When I visit a site, yes, a good design is nice but more important for me is can I find the information that I am looking for, is it easy to navigate and I don't like a page where a person tries to include everything including the family sink.........frank

For all those who want the perfect colour scheme for your site, here's a site that might help: Colors on the Web. ;)

To extend that, within that site is a nice little flash wizard that lets you enter a color and comes up with the combos that are described in the article.

http://www.colorsontheweb.com/colorwizard.asp#wizard