How to give the User a little "color" to see how the website colors?

Most Web pages are made up of bright backgrounds (usually white) as well as black text, but there are also a handful of websites that belong to dark colors or brightly colored pages.

But have you ever wondered why some pages are in sharp colors and some are white when background?

There is a strong correlation between the user's "motivation". If the motives of the user to use a service, simple in the second division, one is a "utilitarian" motivation, and the other is "pleasure" motivation, then:

Utilitarian motivation for low arousal and high brightness design

Efficacy is defined as a useful feature or state in which the user seeks efficacy. For example, every time you use a computer, you may have a utilitarian motivation behind it, such as helping you to settle the accounts faster.

Research shows that consumers who are utilitarian motives are more likely to have positive cognition in low arousal environment than in higher awakening environments. Arousal level refers to the external environment how to stimulate our feelings, such as white is easier to create a low ring (less than stimulate our feelings), and red is easy to create a high arousal environment (strong).

For example, many of the users of Google are motivated by utilitarian motives, such as searching for information, observing letters ... So Google sites and applications mainly white, for users, the body is in a low arousal environment, not easy to stimulate people's perception, the use of Google services will be more relaxed and comfortable.

But what happens if you change Google's background to another color, like red?

Red will result in an irregular physiological response (our innate response), such as increasing the heartbeat and breathing speed, and making the user feel nervous, exciting, and excited. And the feeling of nervousness (like the effects of red) makes time seem slower. You will not want Google design is red color, because it will make you nervous, and find information for a long time!

and relaxing, the best color is blue hue, low saturation color (dark blue) and high brightness (the higher the white composition), this color will reduce the rate of heart and respiration, people feel calm, relaxed.

Like the IBM logo, it's now blue. The benefit of reducing stimulation and relaxing is to make it more likely that people will recommend your site, while helping to create a sense of speed, which seems to make the waiting time seem to go very fast.

Hedonic motivation for high arousal, bright design

Hedonism is defined as the pursuit of pleasure, especially the pleasure felt in our senses.

Research has shown that hedonic consumers are more likely to be happier in a higher environment than in a low arousal environment.

For example, a nightclub is a really high arousal environment designed for the hedonic experience, where there are brightly colored lights, music and drinks that satisfy your taste buds, so the nightlife pages usually use a combination of stimulating dark colors.

Many fashion and apparel brand sites are also used in black, taking Chanel's web site, the black of the Web page is very clearly targeted at pleasure-driven shoppers, showing products with large photos and conveying small factual messages, which is normal because users only want to enjoy the product and Web experience.

But what if the owner of the clothing store has to go to new orders every week? They may be more suitable for low arousal tones if they are able to be efficient and not distracted by underground orders.

In short, the combination of high brightness and low evoke color is suitable for utilitarian web sites; conversely, bright and high evoked color combinations are suitable for hedonic sites.

Website Hue selection depends on the user's motivation

In some cases, the line between utilitarian motives and hedonic motives seems less clear. Is Facebook a pleasure-oriented task or a utilitarian task?

Reading dynamic messages and viewing other people's personal data will give you a sense of pleasure and entertainment, while messages and activities will provide you with purposeful needs for effective use.

Therefore, the second division of utilitarianism and hedonism does not necessarily apply to every single situation. But for now, Facebook still wants to make it easier for users to stay on top of time and stay as long as possible (see the more ads the better), so use a low-arousal design.