What color combinations do you like best?

Hey there,

I would like to know what color combinations do you like best, prefer or think is most liked by people visiting a community.

What colors, how many colors do you think is accepted on a site that to have a good design?

Thanks

In my opinion, it kind of depends on the type of community. I would say that 3-4 colors would be the most with a few exceptions for ads and things like that.

Something that is friendly, family oriented, light hearted would probably be best with lighter colors.

Something that is business or serious then probably dark colors would be my preference.

Something video game, cartoon, child oriented would probably be best with bright and attention drawing colors.

I think the answer to this goes a bit deeper than what you or I might think is good. Basic web design theory says you want to run a 3 color, color scheme. primary and accent main colors with a 3rd highlight color.

With that in mind, then you ask what 3 colors..and the answer to that is not so simple. You can do a kick ton of research on the topic. Color theory and how it relates to the online experience is really kind of a science.

One of the things that i do is go around and look at sites that are of the same topic as the one I am developing. I specifically look at information based sites ( blogs etc ) I look at social pages and the color in the head banner. I pay real close attention to commerce sites, but break his into 2 categories. Small fry sites, and then big corporate sites. I also look at demographic information do I think the site will draw more woman, what colors do they like? will I draw more men? what colors do they like? the same goes for age break downs, what a 20 yr old likes is probably not what a 60 yr old likes.

Even after doing that I will develop a buyer profile and the people I want to target, and then seek out other sites that they may be visiting and buying from. After all of that there usually is a pattern of color choice.

Thats how I go about it anyways.

I use mostly Cyan or Blue.

I just use mostly only the colors that fit on the theme, make sure you check the name for the website, so I have in my name Sun so I use a sun logo and you need to think about that theme or a name to use the correct colours for it. Thats what i suggest.

As S4 said, it is an interesting subject; there are college degrees in communication gathered around it. The idea is to give the right message to the right people in the right emotional tone. So the color combination, fonts, logo and general art, will create an image that says who you want your site to be for the reader.

There is research done in the effect of color over emotion, for example this:

http://www.cinc.org/archives/2014/pdf/0977.pdf

looks at the heart rate when a group of women are exposed to different colors.

Do I pay close attention to this every time? Well... :rasta:

Almost I used 3 colors.White, Blue and orange. That the better item for me.

I have seem mostly blue and red colors on top ranking forum sites.
I personally like the blue and white color combo, it looks professional and nice.

My best. And I try to make another with combination of them.