How do designers choose color themes?

Have you ever logged onto a webpage and been absolutely pleased by the color palette applied on the page?
Well, that doesn’t just happen by chance. There’s always a team of UX experts who, after much deliberation, decide what color should be allotted to the smallest of elements. So how do they do that?

Before we talk about the various factors that are taken into account when choosing a color theme, we must know that in all scenarios like the ones we will be talking about, there are three groups involved — The Clients, The Designers, The Customers.

Here are the main factors and scenarios that influence the color theme of a website:

1. The Client knows what they want. This is one of the simpler arrangements a designer might come across. Organizations have a vision for themselves and when they know what they want, it becomes the job of the designer to deliver the closest possible version.
   If the client wants the use of the color “blue”, then that is what the designer will do.
2. Brand Image. A lot of companies have a certain brand image offline, and it would only be natural if the firm wants its website/app to look similar to its product or service.
   The reason why this becomes an easy choice is that brand image is very powerful and people actively relate the company logo to the company’s product. A good example would be how “pizza company with a red logo” makes all the people reading this blog think of the same brand even though the name is not mentioned.
3. Industry. The kind of service a company provides becomes a major deciding factor when a color theme is to be allotted to a company’s digital platform. This has a lot to do with Color Psychology.
   Various studies over the decades have proved that color affects mood, behavior, and even our perception of something. And businesses have been very active in incorporating this into the way they design their products/services.

For example, a hospital website with colors red, purple, orange would feel very uncharacteristic and uncomfortable since these aren’t very “gentle” colors and more of something you’d expect to see on a restaurant’s website.
What you expect from a hospital’s website is a soft mix of gentle and pale versions of colors like pink and blue.

Another way is to incorporate colors that are directly linked to your business. For example, an agricultural website uses green because, well, plants are green!

A suitable combination of these 3 factors helps the designers choose a Primary Color Palette that the investors or the clients will like, while also enhancing User Experience.

Now a design firm may choose to add or remove a few steps to their process. WTM Design Lab puts a great emphasis on Client Workshops. These are mainly series of meetings we hold with our clients with a goal to understand their brand proposition.

With these workshops as our basis, we commit to in-depth research and come up with several variants, one of which eventually goes on to be the product that matches our client’s vision for their business.

Have a design project, but not too sure? Schedule a 30-minute call with our design experts here.