web development

How to Boost Your Sales Through These Colour Psychology Tips

Posted on by Mario

web design tips

I have to admit, as a person, I’m not into colourful things. I always love black and black is the only colour I love. However, in the business world, it doesn’t work like that. Colour is the face of a business that represents its “personality” and “uniqueness”. If you are a business owner, I’m sure you know the meaning of colour for your business, especially when it comes to web design or logo design. Colour is the characteristic of your business that can differentiate you from other companies in the same industry. The set of colours used in business may be the same and identical; however, there is the psychology behind the meaning of colours and depending on what you choose; it can determine your business success. For that reason, if you are just starting out a business and building your website, you should make use of this colour psychology that can help you attract more customers and increase sales. How? Keep reading this article to find out!

What is colour psychology?

Before we dive deep into more information about colour psychology, let’s start with the definition first. Colour psychology is the science of how colour affects human behaviour. Although this lacks scientific evidence to back up the theory that colours affect human behaviour, there are key facts of colour theory that cannot be denied. In a peer reviewed journal article, Satyendra Singh determined that it takes a mere 90 seconds for a customer to form an opinion about a product and 62-90% of that interaction is determined by the colour of the product alone.

Where should you use colour?

Colours are omnipresent. They are used everywhere. For that reason, you need to understand where you should use the colours for your business and since we are talking about colour use in web design; you should use the colour scheme of your website that includes the tint of headline type, backgrounds, popups, borders, hero graphics and buttons.

Use the right colour in the proper way

Colour is tricky sometimes. Each colour has different meanings and effects. That’s why you should use it properly, at the right time for the right purpose and the right audience. For example, your business is selling toys for kids, your ideal colour scheme would be bright yellow, bright green, bright blue and a little bit of a red for some important part like contact details to make sure the buyers find them easily. If you are selling beauty products focused for women (yes, skincare stuff can also work for men, but that’s not the point in this example), then the colour scheme that works well for your products is a set of purple, soft pink, light purple and a little bit of white for the text can work too. However, keep in mind that it also depends on your products. If your beauty products are from the same brand with the same colour and let’s say the product packaging’s main colour is blue, then you can’t use colours like pink or purple. Use blue and expand its colour scheme with blue as the main focus colour so you can adjust your product well to the design. If blue is the main colour, you can use a set of dark blue, light blue and white. Doing this will help you maintain consistency for your brand and help your audience recognise you.

Colour and its effects

Now we get to the part where colour has its meaning and effects on other people. Colours have direct or indirect impacts on each person who sees that. These are the meanings of colours in general:

  • Black means mystery, elegance, death, evil, power, mourning
  • Blue means sadness, calm, loyalty
  • Green means abundance, nature, freshness
  • Yellow means happiness, concentration, hope
  • Red means passion, anger, danger, love
  • White means purity, cleanness, innocence
  • Purple means royalty, luxury, wealth, sophistication
  • Cream means elegance, purity
  • Grey means conservative, formality

Ever came into a room and immediately felt relaxed? Maybe a place like Spa can remind you of the feeling of relaxation and freshness. Perhaps the place is coloured in green, blue and a little bit of white? Yes, colour has THAT kind of effect on people. For that reason, business owners make use of colour psychology to determine which colour is suitable for their business and values. Remember, colour matters because your business matters; therefore, choose wisely.

Make Your Website Unforgettable with These Effective User Experience and Usability Tips for Web Design

Posted on by Mario

web design tips

Have you ever been in a relationship with someone that no matter how good looking, kind and rich the person is; you still felt empty as if it was not good enough? I have, and it was not that the person I was with was imperfect – I am also imperfect myself. However, something is definitely lacking. When you are dating, it is not just about looks, wealth and personality – it is the shared activity that must not be overlooked. Yes, when it comes to maintaining a relationship, shared activities are the ones making the relationship unforgettable because shared activities are done and experienced together in order to create meaningful memories that can always be remembered. Looking at this that way makes me believe that the same way of thinking can be applied to web design as well. When it comes to a website, it is not just about how it looks like, but it is more about how your website makes visitors feel. Did your website provide useful information? Did the visitors find what they are looking for on your website? Did the visitors feel encouraged to buy your products? Or did they feel happy after visiting your website? Whatever it is, at the end of the day, what matters most is how you make them feel and how unforgettable your website is to them. I know it seems hard to think that way because creating a magnificent website like that is almost impossible for businesses. Don’t worry! After months of researching, I found that it is also not impossible to create a website that is unforgettable for your website visitors with user experience and usability in mind. How? Keep reading to find out!

Make the website simpler but unique

Sometimes less is more and more is less – and it’s true. While the look and feel of your website is important, most visitors are not coming to your site to evaluate how stylish the design is. Instead, they are coming to your site to complete some action, or to find some specific piece of information. There are some unnecessary design elements that make the website too complicated to remember. Make it simpler and unique but not too plain. For example, colours. Colours if used and chosen properly can make your website easily recognised and remembered; however, don’t use too many colours for your website’s design as you might lose your business’ true colour if that happens. Also, the typefaces you choose should be legible at the very least. A common recommendation is to use a maximum of three different typefaces in a maximum of three different sizes. As for graphics, only use them if they can help a user complete a task or perform a specific function, not just randomly use them.

Organised visual elements

When you are optimising for usability and UX, there is only one goal that should be prioritised. The goal is to lead visitors to complete a desired action but in a way that feels natural and enjoyable. Visual hierarchy entails arranging and organising website elements so that visitors naturally gravitate toward the most important elements first. Ask your web designer to adjust the position, colour, or size of certain elements, so that you can structure your site in such a way that visitors will be drawn to those elements first.

Make navigation easy

Not many may notice this, but navigation is kind of the most important part of a website. It basically leads visitors to the right place on your website to encourage purchase decision (the end result). Having intuitive navigation on your site is crucial for making sure that visitors can find what they are looking for. For that reason, a visitor should be able to arrive on your site and not have to think extensively about where they should click next and clearly, moving from point A to point B should be as easy as possible.

When you have done the three tips above, everything would be so much easier later. Trust me, when you don’t have too many navigation options on a page, it will be easier for your visitors to find stuff on your website. When the colours used for your website ‘branding’ are balanced and unique, it would be easier for your visitors to notice your business colour patterns and in the future, your website would be easily recognised and always remembered.

A Guide to Website Speed Optimisation You Can Advise Your Web Developers About

Posted on by Mario

web development tips

After years of living, we can’t deny the fact that what’s inside this Earth moves in a very fast pace. As time goes by, almost everything in this world is designed to be fast and easy. Remember when we used to look for a taxi if we don’t have much time to take a bus? I admit, life back then was very difficult, especially for me who lived in a very small village in my hometown. Even though I have a car, if the car is used by my parents, I have no choice but to take other transportation if I need to go somewhere. However, the hardest part of taking other transportation back then was the part where I had to find it. Living in a small village has its advantages and its drawbacks as well. While the air is cool and calm there (no pollution, no big buildings), taxis and buses are rare to find. Imagine if I was in hurry and no transportation passing the area. Sometimes I would call the taxi company but they always told me to wait for their call as they were also looking for the nearest taxi in my area. Thankfully, not long after that, my suffering finally met its end. Online transportation is now available in this world. Calling for a ride has never been this easy and fast before. I can get a ride in no later than 10 minutes. Thinking about this reminds me of my job. As a person who works for a web development, web design and SEO agency, I often have to face difficulties when it comes to website errors. Well, not really me, technically, since I am a content writer, not a web developer, but say, if there was an error in a website speed, I was also indirectly affected because people would get a hard time finding the content I have written, right? Therefore, we need to pay attention to details when it comes to website. Think about the last time you encountered a slow-loading website. You might have closed out the browser tab entirely or felt less inclined to patronise the site once it finally loaded. Don’t worry; if you have a business with a website as well as hiring a web developer, I’ve got a solution for you in this article. Keep reading to find out!

Before we begin this guide, first there is something you should do; find out if your website is really slow. One way to find out if your website is slow is to open a new private browser tab on your computer or mobile device, then type in your URL. Use a stopwatch to find out how quickly (or slowly) it loads. While his isn’t the most scientific approach, it’ll give you a general idea. If your website takes 10 seconds to load by your count, you know you have some work ahead of you. Once you are done with the testing, you have to…

Optimise image loading

Ever seen that circle spinning around when the image is loading? Oh, we all hate that. The easiest website speed optimisation tip for images is to upload the smallest possible version of your image for your site. For example, that your blog pages are 700 pixels wide. You would want to restrict your images to that width for optimal speed. However, make sure the images are not too small either. Test different image sizes on your site first to make sure they render appropriately on all screen sizes. After this step is done, start…

Optimising Javascript

Unless you know how to code, you will need a developer for this process. Javascript can prove fragile, and changing the wrong thing might break your site. Javascript allows you to put interactive elements on your website. For example, many forms work off a combination of Javascript, CSS, and HTML. If the Javascript has too much weight or is not optimised for speed, browsers will struggle to load and render it. That’s why it is important to keep communicating your needs to your web developers so that when you find troubles in your website, you can advise your web developers to fix it especially when it comes to coding and Javascript. Now let’s get to the next part.

Check your plugins

If there are too many plugins on your website, it will likely slow down your website in the long run. The browser has to understand what all those plugins mean and how to assimilate them with your website itself. Too often, business owners and marketers install every plugin that looks like it might do something fancy. Worse, when they deactivate those plugins, they don’t delete them from their WordPress installation. For that reason, communicating this with your web developer is very important.

Page speed is one of the most important considerations when it comes to optimising your website. You want your visitors to get your content quickly and navigate to different pages as easily as possible. Remember, consumers have short attention spans. You don’t want to give them a reason to exit your site before accessing the important content on your website.