OK, I know we mostly talk about tactics to optimize our site for the engines, but what do you guys think about the psychology of color? I've been reading article after article written about it and nothing really definitive has jumped out yet. I've heard and read many times that casino's use certain colors inside to make people want to spend money.

With that being said, has anyone heard of certain colors on a website that would move a person's mood to spend money? Sure, getting people to your site is one aspect, but once they are there, it's all about the selling. So I'm trying to cover all angles.

Any input or thought would be much appreciative.

(And wahoo to scrub warehouse !!!)

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Rono
online marketing

Yes, I consider color when making a web site and for packaging my product.

I remember some of the following from Marketing 101 and learning about auras. Colors affect us. They can stimulate our appetite or suppress it. They can make us happy, angry, excited, or sad.

For example, the color blue is great for developing trust.

Here's an example of how to use color on a web site.
On my web site I used the color red for the area "Order Today" which is right above information about the Sale. Red reflects energy and can motivate a person to take action. I would like them to take action by ordering my product.

Orange has been shown to make people hungry, to stimulate their appetite.
The advertising banner on top of my page uses orange for their headline title.
It may be used to make people want to learn more about history.

I used yellow as a background color because it has been shown to symbolize Hope. A person should have Hope that we will be able to help them.

Green signifies growth.
I also used a striped green / yellow background.
I Hope that my business will Grow.


Black can mean power and sophistication.

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Sincerely,
Melanie
Genealogist for your family history.

This is a fabulous site to learn a bit about colour. Flash - but very informative, while also very cool and even fun!!

http://www.mariaclaudiacortes.com/colors/Colors.html


Not about colour psychology, but useful for playing with colour schemes, colour useability, etc., are the following sites:

http://kohaistyle.com/scripts/quickcolor/

http://www.pixy.cz/apps/barvy/index-en.html

http://www.colorschemer.com/online.html

http://www.colormatch.dk/

http://color.twysted.net/


Don't blame me if you spend the rest of the day playing with colours and get nothing else done!


LaryL

Great info Melanie, thank you! I love the idea of Red for the ordering page. I've "read that red" does cause people to react to a situation, so using red with something like a blue that earns trust sounds like an test. It's just making them contrast well, which leads me to LarylL's post....

LarylL....I know you said not to blame you, but I just spent over an hour messing with those sites! Those are great links and they have earned a place in my bookmark collection. And I'll only blame you for allowing me to have fun with color. hehe..

Soon, Sundays will be back to the fun in which I love...FOOTBALL! GO COWBOYS! (I know I'll probably get some flack for this, but I'm true blue...and silver.

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Rono
online marketing

Very interesting... I added this thread in the sticky of the newbie acronyms thread .

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OK, so blame me, just don't say I didn't warn you! I need to get back into them myself, have a couple of domains to create websites for. And the Flash site does give a lot of useful information about colour meaning, emotion, attitude - the psychology that was the question that started this thread.

Great info, Melanie. I don't remember all of that from marketing 101 - just that colour matters, not much about which means what. Which is why I have a bunch of colour sites bookmarked!

Neat that you've added it to the sticky, Jocelyn. I'm a big believer in what owlcroft wrote about in his article - the objective is not SERPS or pagerank for their own sake, but persuading people to participate in the site objectives i.e. purchase something, learn something, take some action - whatever. So design that is attractive and useable matters, which includes colours that help to create the right mood or frame of mind in the user.

LaryL

There is a page about outdoor signs, "Signs That Sell", that has a deal of useful information on color psychology based heavily on work by The Color Research Institute.

Indeed, though the focus of the article is outdoor signage, much of the information there is applicable, with only a little thought, to web-page design as well.

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Eric Walker, webmaster
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The Induction Site - the internet resource on the world's greatest way to cook
http://theinductionsite.com

Pretty neat sites. Thanks for giving out the information.

Hi Larry.
Well, maybe the fact that colors matter was introduced in Marketing 101 and their meanings in the Product Managment course. I had to design packaging in the later course, so I know it was discussed then also.

The Marketing classes were my favorite, I had great professors.

Hello, I noticed this link from a earlier post...

Does anyone know anything of color combinations????


Thanks,

KJF

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Kyle J. Firner
Search Engine Marketing
Search Engine Marketing & Optimization Specialist