Research has shown that reaction to color is immediate and emotional, and it can have a direct effect on a customers choices when they are shopping at a Web site, for example. With that in mind, your color choices could make or break your company’s plans. Luckily, there is research available that points to the right colors to use in each situation.

Color Choices

Bondi Blue
A universally popular color that experts believe conveys trust and has a calming effect. This is the color of the original iMac.

Metallic silver
The color was recently named the “Color Choices of the millennium” in an online survey conducted by Colorcom.

Bright colors
Bright coloros, such as yellow, imply urgency and may spark customers to buy a product.

Conservative colors
Conservative Color Choices like dark green are associated with reliability. Although they don’t create excitement like brighter colors do, they can complement more daring hues and are often safe choices for backgrounds.

Global considerations
Designers must consider their global audience when choosing Color Choices for their site. For instance, purple is symbolic of death and crucifixion in predominantly Catholic Europe.

B2B design: The user comes first

B2B and B2C Web site design should start from the same place: the user. The biggest disconnect in B2B design is between the goals of the designers and the goals of the users. Designers should be looking to reduce training time, task time, error rates, and the amount of re-learning for infrequent users. When creating an effective B2B e-commerce site, marketingers, designers and technologists need to answer these questions:

1) Who are the users and what are their capabilities?

2) What are their goals?

3) What is their context? Where are they when they are online?

4) What stopes must users take to accomplish their goals?

The answers to these questions should drive the design. For example, if a user is in a B2B context trying to reconcile purchase orders, help him find the purchase orders, then facilitate comparison and support whatever resulting action he might want to take–such as sending a memo indicating noncompliance.