Colour Theory

In order to make a good website, I need to use colours effectively to make it look appealing to my audience. The first thing to know is how to combine colours together.

Colour Combination
This is the most important part of Colour Theory, and comes into what colours look good together. How many to use then? Lets just say it's better to use too few than too many colours. Using too many makes the page look cluttered and harder for the reader to find what they want because it looks so busy. Using too few however, means the page looks boring because there is nothing to look at. The best idea then, is to use three colours:

Primary Colour: This is the main colour and will take up most of the page, while setting up the tone design of your site.
Secondary Colour: This is the backup for the Primary, and is a colour very similar to it
Highlight Colour: This is a colour used to emphasize certain areas, and so is therefore the opposite the the primary, and won't be used much. It is common to use a complimentary or split-complimentary colour for this.

This is a colour wheel, and is used to select the best matching or complete opposite colours.

Analog Colours

Analog colours are ones which lie either side of another- they are often found together in nature, and work very well together. A Secondary Colour is usually an Analog Colour.

Complementary Colours

These are colours which are directly opposite each other, so they contrast and stand out against one another. It is best to use a complementary colour as the highlight colour, because of this reason.

Split Complementary Colours

Split complementary is a colour and the analogous colours to its complement colour. They give you a high level of contrast, but not as extreme as a complementary colour.

Triad Colours

These are three hues equidistant on the colour wheel (three complete opposites). They suit for a colourful but well balanced scheme.

For my website, I am using a dark blue background (Primary), a lightsih blue colour for the navigation bars and boxes (Secondary) and a light orange for any important areas (Highlight). This is because I have followed these colour rules and have chosen colours which work effectively with or against one another. My colour choice connotes a respectful, professional tone since dark blue is often assigned with The Navy or RAF, and it keeps with my website's theme of an Armed Forces Charity. This also suits my audience because they are most likely to be in a service or supporters, and the associated colour is not too contrasting and is easy on the eyes. This therefore gives my website a relaxed, but also professional feel because it is there to help wounded so needs to be taken seriously, but has to make the audience relaxed while they read all the information.