Web design involves numerous skilled disciplines from type to layout & colour. Colour is especially important because it provides the first impression to the user. The correct colours can create a good user experience, whereas inappropriate colours can have a negative impact.

To make a good website, the web designer needs to know how colours affect people. Subconsciously, people react to colours and associate them with different feelings and emotions.

Colours do not only bring up emotions and feelings that could influence how a site is received but they can also be cleverly used to direct users to specific bits of your web site.

Each colour imaginable can be used on the web now, so picking the correct colours can be a huge task. Here’s a swift summary of how some colours can evoke certain reactions.

Red is associated with strength, fire, blood & lust. If it is used sparingly on a light background, it can be used to make the most of & highlight certain points.

Blue is the most frequently used colour for websites & it can denote confidence, loyalty & royalty. The darker shades of blue often mean strength whilst the lighter end can be used to express fantasy & dream. Blue is a very popular corporate colour, so it is often used on business websites.

The colour green can be used to represent feelings of durability, safety & harmony. It is also a striking colour to use to emphasise calm & relaxation.

Standing for joy, happiness, warning and energy, yellow has a similar effect to red, although it's not as popular. It can be used to emphasise areas of a site. However, if it's used too much, it can be overpowering.

Brown can express honesty and trust in a design. It can be linked to ageing, warmth & comfort. Orange is associated with enthusiasm, creativity & stimulation. It is used in designing for the web to portray friendliness.

Purple's darker shades can be truly deep & luscious. It is associated with royalty, spirituality, arrogance & luxury. The lighter end of the purple spectrum can stand for romance & delicacy. However, it's a colour that is not used very often on sites.

In conclusion, the role of colour in web design isn't just to make the website look nice, it can provoke feelings and emotions in the web user. Choosing colours that agitate the site user can have detrimental effects on your web site, whereas cleverly picking the correct colours may mean that the web site lives up to the user's expectations. If your site meets these expectations, there is more chance that your user will return to your website again and again.