"The Desktop Global Marketer" (tm)

   A free on-line newsletter of Sidereal Designs, Inc.,
   for Internet Entrepreneurs, and those who are
   considering becoming one.
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                 May 21st, 2000

In this issue: "Your web pages are in every sense an
advertisement, and color choices are no less important
than in print or television advertising, and most of
the same principles apply. In addition, there are some
issues in regard to color on the web that require
special attention."


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Marketing with Color

Anyone who has paid the slightest attention to advertisements
understands that color is terribly important. It does more than
make the advertisement pleasing to look at, although that's
important; it also focuses attention and sets mood, two essential
components of effective advertising. People who research the
impact of color claim that something like 75% of the initial,
unconscious reaction to a person or environment is determined by
color alone.  (http://www.ccicolor.com/research.html)

Your web pages are in every sense an advertisement, and color
choices are no less important than in print or television
advertising, and most of the same principles apply. In addition,
there are some issues in regard to color on the web that require
special attention.

Rule number one of course is to remember that your web site is
not for your pleasure; it's for selling to your market. You might
like to have it done up in your favorite colors, but restrain
that impulse! Consider your demographics - are they old? Young?
Male? Female? Do they have a particular ethnicity? Are they
highly educated?  All these things have known implications for
color preference. 

For example, men tend to prefer more saturated colors while women
tend to prefer pastels (http://www.colormatters.com/khouw.html.)
Children like bright, contrasty colors; more sophisticated
audiences tend to prefer subtle variations. Different cultures
interpret colors differently; in some white is the color of death
and mourning, whereas in the U.S. black has that traditional
role.

Within U.S. culture the following ideas (and the corresponding
emotional responses) tend to be evoked by colors:

red: urgency, passion, heat, love, blood
yellow: warmth, cowardice, brightness
green: nature, health, cheerfulness, environment, money, vegetation
blue: truth, dignity, power, coolness, melancholy, heaviness
purple: wealth, royalty, sophistication, intelligence
black: death, rebellion, strength, evil
white: purity, cleanliness, lightness, emptiness
(see http://www.ergogero.com/FAQ/Part5/2Meaning.html)

Warm colors tend to invite approach, and cool colors distance.
This can be used to emphasize or de-emphasize material. Bright
colors can be used to generate excitement, subdued shades
reflection. Do you want to sell used cars or sell yourself as an
Eminent Authority? Your color scheme can bias the perception
either way. Remember however that color responses are always
determined in context; whether black produces an impression of
strength and power or of evil and fear will be determined by
context - the color will lend emphasis to the effect if it is
used in appropriate context or mitigate it if it is contrary.

These things are all well-known in the world of marketing, and
apply equally to the web. However, the web has some special
considerations. First, the "window" of regard in the web browser
is relatively small. This means you need to be more attentive to
the interaction of colors which will be visually in the same area
of attention because you cannot separate different regions of
regard as effectively. Generally this implies using fewer colors.
The rule of thumb for web-work is three colors, exclusive of
colors in images. Two colors used for the theme, and one for
accent. All rules of thumb are meant to be broken, but don't
break this one without a reason.

Another consideration is "browser safe" colors. It turns out that
there are only 216 colors that can be displayed by all browsers
on all computers. If you use any other color, at least some
browser/computer combination will have to approximate it by a
technique called "dithering" in which regions of the desired
color are simulated by using various percentages of pixels in
different colors that can be displayed. This is not too
objectionable where there is a lot of texture, such as in an
image, banner graphics, and the like, but for large areas of
solid color the effect can be quite unpleasant and should be
avoided. There is a link to a chart of the 216 "safe" colors on
our "useful stuff page" at http://siderealdesigns.com/stuff.shtml.

There are some standard color designations that have evolved in
the web; for example, a particular blue for links and purple for
visited links. People tend to rely on these for recognizing a
link for what it is. It's fine to use a different link color
scheme, but only where it's perfectly obvious what's a link and
what isn't. In a navigation bar it's fine, in text don't risk
confusing emphasis with linkage.  Finally be especially careful
about the luminance contrast, as opposed to color contrast, in
your links. Ten percent of all men suffer from some form of color
blindness. If you're not careful your links will look like gray
on gray to them and they will be unable to navigate your site!

Because the web is a young medium and was initially driven by
what could be done rather than what we wanted to do, fashions in
web design have been rather synchronized, and the experts on good
web design will all tell you why the current fashion is The Only
Way To Do It.  At the beginning all we had was "Russian pages"
with black text on a middle gray background. Then we got color
and backgrounds and went wild with pages that looked like circus
tents. "Use color to attract attention," said the experts. In
reaction we came into a period in which austere pages with white
backgrounds and minimal color accents became mandatory. "Focus on
the message; do not distract with pretty design," said the
experts. Now we are into a period in which the experts tell us,
"Use regions of color to accent ideas and focus attention." 

This expert says, "Figure out what the next web fashion trend is
and stay one jump ahead." :-)

Best,

Jamie
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Sidereal Designs, Inc. "Making The Web Simple."   http://siderealdesigns.com