Emotion Evoke Combo Software (Nelson Long)

            Influence with Design – A Guide to Color and Emotions

Nelson Long    $37.00                                                     

Seeing red. Feeling blue. Green with envy.

Popular idioms show that people have long associated colors with the emotions they evoke. People associate red with anger (or lust), blue with depression, and since at least Shakespeare’s day, green with jealousy. (He referenced the color green in relation to jealousy at least three times in his works.)

UX designers can utilize color to great effect in order to influence people’s emotions as well as their actual behavior. Color has the single greatest effect on how people perceive designs, yet too many designers do not spend the necessary time and effort to properly create color palettes for their projects.

That results in a lot of wasted effort and color palettes that aren’t necessarily influencing a desirable response to a product. And in a worst case scenario, colors can turn people off even when everything else about a design is optimized.

Are There Positive and Negative Colors?

There’s a common idea out there that some colors are inherently positive or negative. Most often, warm colors (yellow, red, and orange) are considered to be positive, while cool colors (blue, green, and purple) are considered to be negative.

Still, those associations aren’t hard and fast rules. For example, red (a warm color), can evoke feelings of rage or danger (consider Holly Golightly’s monologue about the “mean reds” in Breakfast at Tiffany’s), while green (a cool color) can evoke feelings of growth and new beginnings. This is one reason why color psychology and color theory is so complex. There are seemingly endless factors that can influence how a color is perceived and how it affects human behavior and thought.

Cultural differences can also have a profound effect on color meanings. In many western cultures, white is largely associated with purity and peace, and yet in some Asian countries, white is associated with death and mourning.

Psychological Effects of Colors

Warm colors tend to be invigorating and lively. They are typically energizing and can add life to a design. Rather than blending into the background, warm colors “pop” on the screen or page and tend towards being in the forefront of a design.

One interesting thing to note with warm colors is that two of the three primary colors (red and yellow) are warm, with orange, a secondary color, being a combination of the two. This means that for the most part, warm colors are purely warm, i.e., primary, and cannot be mixed from other colors.

Cool colors are more likely than warm colors to be perceived as calm. That’s not always the case, though, especially since green and purple, which are secondary colors, are created by combining a primary cool color (blue) with a warm color (yellow to create green and red to create purple). This means that while those hues are considered “cool,” they can take on some of the characteristics of their warm aspects.

The calming blue of the Whitetail gin website gives an impression of relaxation.

Green, particularly lighter and brighter versions, can be associated with life and positive energy. Purple, especially when it’s brighter (like fuschia) or lighter (like lavender), can be a very lively color.

Brighter values (such as the bright purple and fuschia) give cool colors more energy.

Neutral colors (brown, tan, gray, white, and black) tend to take on the characteristics of the colors they are combined with, though they can also subdue or enhance those effects. For example, combining warm colors with white can create a design that appears lighter (in terms of weight, not just in terms of overall vibrancy) and carefree. Combining those same warm colors with black can make them appear more intense and dramatic. Combining cool colors with black can make them more mysterious, while combining them with white can make them more calming and relaxed.

Effect of Color on Consumer Behavior

Color can affect a person’s mood or thoughts, but can it also affect their behavior?

Yes, absolutely.

Marketers have long relied on color to influence consumers to take certain actions. It’s why signs in shop windows meant to grab passerby attention are often yellow, and sale prices are often denoted in red.

Many of these choices are based more on tradition than hard science, but that in turn has created an expectation among consumers. When they see a red price, they assume that whatever they’re looking at is on sale or clearance. When they see a yellow sign in a window, they take a moment to read it because they expect it will include pertinent information (yellow is one of the colors most visible to the human eye, so it naturally draws attention).