Color that clicks
Here’s why color really IS important to your design!
Who among us doesn’t like color? Well, perhaps the color blind, but as a graphic designer, I love a colorful world! More importantly, there’s the thing of too much or too little, and few people know the difference. Even worse, most people think it’s a matter of psychology.
The vast majority of the conversation around color psychology revolves around personal anecdotes, hunches and a bunch of people talking non-sense about something that is backed by very little, and I mean little, scientific research. But still, it elicits strong opinions and even companies arbitrarily declaring the Color of the Year. But, why? It has been shown over and over that it really has to do all with personal taste and feelings towards it, your experiences, cultural backgrounds, ethnicity, mood, and a myriad of other factors that really put a dent and obscure whatever scientific effort is being conducted towards it. To put it simple, the very notion that some colors bring specific emotions in you is as accurate as me reading the future from the palm of your hand — and I dabble from time to time into reading tea leaves.
Let’s take a look at the little research that has been conducted in this regard, in marketing and branding and how it affects our perception.
There has been an enormous effort to try and classify our response to color, even when it comes to brands. The truth is, it’s almost impossible because our response to a brand is contingent to our experience with it, so not very much with color. However, there have been studies made in regards to color and its role in purchasing and consumer interaction.
There is no 1–2–3 formula when it comes to choosing color, it has more to do with the context of what you’re designing and the mood you want to set. These elements combined is what makes a client click and ultimately get your user to do what you intend them to do. Let’s think about this, if you take away this context, there is no evidence that would tell you that making a button one color over another will make people click that button more.
Gender also plays a huge role when it comes to color, some studies show that men prefer bolder brighter colors and women prefer more softer, toned down palettes, food for thought when you try to define your product’s color palette. (But, that’s material for my next article!)
Psychologically speaking, there is no evidence that one color over another will make people click one button more than the other, however, there is a design principle that will. Hierarchy and contrast.
Consider the image below.
The one on the right increased the click-through rate exponentially, and it’s not related to anything psychological or esoteric, it’s a lot simpler. After you are done with your Communication 101 and typeface hierarchy, the thing that is more memorable, is that which sticks out like a sore thumb. The one on the left is the same button, but because all the page is geared towards the same palette, it gets lost, it blends and becomes part of the background. A sharp contrasting color on the other hand, sticks out and makes it very difficult to avoid.
This can be accomplished by using contrasting colors, by picking an analogous palette, a complimentary one or even a combination of both. The trick is to play with colors to create a background base and then establish your color hierarchy, making color then a powerful accent that is going to drive your calls to action. This pinpoint effect is something you need to consider when designing your next digital experience, as it will guide your user to the action areas you want them to.
In the end, we have been trained to associate color with feelings, and while it hasn’t been proven scientifically, each color has been branded to an emotion. Non-designers out there sometimes don’t understand this, so it’s easier to explain with a quote from Taylor Swift: “Red is such an interesting color to correlate with emotion, because it’s on both ends of the spectrum. On one end you have happiness, falling in love, infatuation with someone, passion, all that. On the other end, you’ve got obsession, jealousy, danger, fear, anger and frustration.”
