Definitive guide
How color influences design effectivenes
The Role Of Color In Creating Visual Hierarchy
Color is one of the elements of design that play an important role in creating a visual hierarchy, whether it be for a poster, a billboard, or a website. There are actually many things one needs to consider when designing creatives for a company. But we’ll only cover here the role of color in the overall design, as well as, an overview of visual hierarchy.
What is Visual Hierarchy?
Visual hierarchy is meant to make a design easy to digest to direct people’s attention to what is more important in the content. The overall aim is to provide an appealing design while ensuring a pleasant experience for its end users.
Several elements make up a design’s visual hierarchy. These are alignment, color, contrast, repetition, size, style, texture, and whitespace. These elements are used in a way that would be most beneficial in achieving a goal or conveying a message to the end user.
Normally, the elements are arranged in a particular pattern or order that conforms to or goes against the behavior of the user. These factors pertain to the user’s eye movement, particularly reading patterns and perception.
Reading patterns are influenced by culture or location. Global research leader Nielsen Norman Group said in a 2019 report that there are four ways people scan textual information especially online. These are the commitment pattern, F-pattern, layer-cake pattern, and spotted pattern.
While perception could be affected by grouping design elements in a certain pattern following the principles of Gestalt Psychology, by using consistent or repeated elements in a design, or by using a particular approach such as minimalism or center stage.
Knowing these patterns is necessary when thinking of how creative materials such as posters and websites should be designed. On top of all these, there are also rules to consider in design that particularly pertain to its composition. The rules are balance, emphasis and scale, grid, odds, and thirds.
All of these considerations are then integrated into the visual hierarchy of the design. Generally, there are three levels of visual hierarchy: primary, secondary, and tertiary. Each layer conveys a decrease in the emphasis given to a particular information or content in a design.
a. Primary
This level is the highlight of a design and occupies the topmost part of it. This is often the header or found in the header area where large visuals and the most vivid colors could be seen.
b. Secondary
This level is a supporting visual to the primary level and occupies the layer immediately after it. This is often the middle layer. This does not take eyes away from the primary level but augments it while having its own emphasis on its content.
c. Tertiary
This is the last layer and occupies the bottom of the design. This contains content that is the least important in a design.
With that said, let’s now move on to the general importance of color in design and its role in the visual hierarchy.
Color As An Important Element Of Design
Color, despite being an element of art, ironically has a Science behind it when it comes to design. Color Psychology is often used by marketers in their campaigns to attract and engage customers and by designers to encompass or embody the identity of a product or company.
This is actually the reason why companies serious about succeeding in their business goals create a Communication and Design Manual that includes a color system. The color system is aligned with the company’s values and comprises or makeup their branding or identity.
Why? Colors evoke emotions and affect perception. According to Positive Psychology, a study showed that there are 27 distinct emotions and that each one has a corresponding color attributed to it. There are, however, only eight primary emotions. These emotions and their corresponding colors are as follows based on the study made by Dr. Robert Plutchik in 2016:
- Acceptance – Yellow Green
- Anger – Red
- Anticipation – Orange
- Disgust – Violet
- Fear – Green
- Joy – Yellow
- Sadness – Blue
- Surprise – Blue Green
In the visual hierarchy, a study from the Behavioral Design Academy revealed that Cyans prove the most attractive (10.6%) next to Magenta-Reds (9.7%), Green-Cyans (9.7%), Reds (9.6%), Magentas (9.3%), and Cyan-Blues (9.2%). While the least attractive are Yellows (5.0%) and Blue-Magentas (5.0%).
This data is a good resource for businessmen when it comes to planning the design of their creative assets, most especially their websites. It is then best to use Cyans as a primary color of the design, such as a website’s buttons, graphics, or backgrounds. But, of course, this is applicable so long as it matches the identity of the company, its products, and its services such as carwashes, churches, cleaning companies, doctors, healthcare, and therapists to name a few.
Here are some inspiring color-influenced designs to make it easier to appreciate the role of color in the visual hierarchy. This listing, arranged chronologically according to a color’s attractiveness to end users, also serves as a guide in choosing the most suitable color for a website based on brand identity:
Speaking of branding, here are some references new business owners might want to check on the topic:
- Do’s and Don’ts In Designing A Business Card
- Choosing A Domain Name
- Selecting A Brandable Domain Name
In gist, it is important then for one to have a basic knowledge of Color Psychology as it proves most helpful in determining which ones suit a company’s or product’s persona and most suitable in designing its creative resources or materials. Moreover, it will determine its placement in the visual hierarchy. So let’s talk more about this.
What is the role of color in creating a visual hierarchy?
Here are some of the most important roles color plays in creating a visual hierarchy for any design:
1. Color helps identify the core elements of a design
Using color combinations, most especially complementary ones, aid in highlighting a particular area or content. If a company’s website uses a black-and-white scheme, the testimonials of customers may use a box with a black background to highlight a company’s credibility through social backing. While its surrounding area (top, bottom, left, and right) are white to maintain consistency with the theme. This could be done alternately, such that all that needs to be emphasized in the content have a black background surrounded by white spaces. Additionally, incorporating visually appealing backgrounds can also enhance the overall design of a website. Freepik, for example, offers a vast collection of beautiful free backgrounds that can be used to add depth and texture to a website’s design. These backgrounds come in various styles and colors and can be easily incorporated into any design scheme.
2. Color creates the ambiance of a design
It is often advisable to use a palette of a particular color to create attributable emotions in the users of a design. This, for businesses, conveys the kind of environment or organization they have. A welcoming environment is often felt through earthen colors by using a palette of greens to browns.
3. Color reinforces connectivity in a design
Assigning a particular color to the background and supporting it with a complementary or contrasting color aligned to the company’s branding or identity creates not only a sense of consistency but also reinforces connectivity in the design. By connectivity, this means there is a smooth flow in viewing the design and it can be seen as one cohesive whole—it makes sense and it is appealing to the eyes.
4. Color directs the user’s experience and influences a customer’s purchasing journey
Say a website’s color scheme is classic black and white since a company’s logo is similarly colored. But the logo also has red at the center of its design. The company’s color scheme is then added with red through the color of the call-to-action buttons, graphics, or font. These red-colored elements are then distinctly placed in the design to serve a particular purpose (conversion goals).
For example, a red-colored button that says “Shop Now” is placed at the upper right-hand corner of the screen aligned with the black-colored menu to achieve the company’s intended purpose for the website.
In A Nutshell
Beauty speaks for itself. Its a given that not all business owners have the talent for design nor the eye for excellent tastes in design. But being aware of the basic concepts of visual hierarchy and the role color plays in it helps equip entrepreneurs better understand and appreciate the quality design necessary to achieve their business goals.
FAQs
What is the best marketing strategy for my business?
The answer to this is really on a case-to-case basis because there is no one size fits all effective marketing strategy for businesses. The success of a marketing strategy is highly dependent on marketing research–that is if you are really listening to the needs of your target market and are really addressing them. Traditional offline marketing strategies such as billboards, radio, and television prove to still be effective globally according to statistics. While Search Engine Optimization comes in second, overall, and first for online campaigns. If you need help in strategizing your SEO efforts, I highly recommend you check out, “SEO Audit for Explosive Growth,” after you read the complete guide on it.
What are cash flow management practices that effectively help small businesses?
Close monitoring of cash flow and regular financial projections are two of the common best practices that result in having a healthy cash flow. This is on top of having a basic grasp of Accounting and Financial principles in business. Another aid to having good cash flow management is through technology. Getting a financial adviser is a recommended practice as well.
What are the ways a small business can measure success?
Patriot Software Founder and Chief Executive Officer Mike Kappel shares that the primary way of measuring business success at any business level is seen through the financial statements. He said customer satisfaction comes next in measuring business success. Other ways he recommended are checking on a business’ scope of market share and undertaking regular performance reviews. While Targetwise Chief Executive Officer Chelsea Segal points to employee performance and peak business hours as other indicators of success. When it comes to your website, you can measure its success by conducting regular site testing and debugging on top of analyzing site performance and analytics.