Obvious Diversion

I have noticed on occasion some sites choosing their palette by finding a base color and deriving two or more additional colors from it that are roughly the same color in a lighter or darker shade. I often find these sites pleasant to look at but difficult to use over time. Sure, all the colors match, but nothing stands out. The separation between sections is weak as they all blend from one to the next. On a return visit to any site I’ve bookmarked, I scan until the point where I find something that interests me, and then I stop to read. Homogeny of color makes scanning difficult and those sites who use shades of the same color get passed over because it isn’t easy enough to distinguish changes. It’s almost like the wallpaper of a mid-priced hotel room: pleasant to look at, but not really compelling. It serves it’s purpose in the hotel, but it’s destructive to the usability of your site.

My request is that we find some contrast. In designing and delivering information of any worth, contrast is necessary. There are a ton of color wheels on the web and learning the basics of a color wheel can go a long way in helping you carve out some techniques for yourself. My goal here isn’t to tell you any specific way to seek out colors for your site, but to simply request that you explore. For me, finding the colors that work on any given project takes time and experimentation. I generally go through a number of iterations, slapping colors next to each other just to see the results, observing the success or failure of choices made in the past, going for a walk when I get frustrated, and mixing and matching and comparing until something feels right. In the end, I hope that the colors I choose, whether complimentary or contradictory or outright caustic, convey an overall design that’s appropriate for the project while allowing each element it’s appropriate weight in the world of a page.