Builder Designs | Intelligent marketing for home builders

We all knew from a very young age that color is an important part of our lives. We associate colors in many ways that invokes emotion and interest. Remember choosing the perfect Crayola that would go with the construction paper? Choosing the right color combinations gave us a sense of self although being so young, we didn’t understand that many other people perceive color differently. We appreciate color but contrast is really what really grabs us and gives us a sense of balance. This rule applies to all design and is significantly important in web design.

8 percent of men and .5 percent of women are colorblind or have some color deficiency. That adds up to be about 28 million people world-wide. How many of those people do you think are online? As web designers, using contrast is just as important, if not more, as choosing a good color palette.

Contrast is the perceived difference in colors that are in close proximity to each other. It makes web content functional and accessible to every viewer. User friendliness and accessibility is a top priority of many in creating websites; in turn, many designers make color decisions based on contrast.

Testing design layouts in grayscale will significantly help designers use the right contrast and color. There are many tools on the web that help convert websites to grayscale such as graybit.com. There are some questions to ask when evaluating a website to make sure that the right contrast is being used. Can you read the text? Are the architectural elements prominent? What is different or doesn’t work when you see the design in grayscale?

Web designers need to make a commitment to working with contrast first, making it a priority when choosing that perfect color combination. There are many good color tools out there that help with choosing a palette like Color Scheme Designer. If a design works wonderfully in grayscale it will look just as solid in color, as long as the combination matches the same level of contrast. A good website to check your color contrast is Checkmycolors.com. This workflow can be very effective, allowing the designer to concentrate on the design and hierarchy of the page elements instead of getting too occupied in making color choices.