Think Deeper About Using Colors on the Web

A colorful website, as opposed to a black and white one, is usually designed to visually stimulate the senses. The use of color is also seen as a way to subtly accent the static content of a web page, and is commonly crafted to appease visitors, potentially converting them into customers.

Although a perfectly executed color scheme can do wonders for a website, a color scheme that is poorly planned can result in a drastic decrease in a visitor-to-customer conversion ratio, possibly due to an almost instinctive exit from the site.

Is there a reason for this second-nature retreat? Do does the simple use of color really affect whether we stay, or go? The answer might be closer than you think.

Ned Kock, a professor at Texas A&M International University who is well-known for his work relating the field of evolutionary psychology to how humans interact with modern-day technology, has proposed a theory that may explain why humans prefer the use of certain colors on a webpage over those of black and white.

In a paper published in 2009, titled "Information Systems Theorizing Based on Evolutionary Psychology," Kock theorizes that the way we view, respond, and react to the colors displayed on a webpage may be linked to the behavior of our hominid ancestors.

Based on Darwin's natural selection theory, Kock argues that humans are alive today because of the actions of our more than two million year old hominid predecessors. Kock states that at some point in our evolutionary process, hominids began to forage for brightly colored fruits because these fruits contained vitamins and minerals that helped fend off disease. The hominids that were able to locate and consume the most nutritious fruits received the nutrients needed to survive.

Kock says, using other sources for references, that the psychological trait used to locate the vibrant fruits was passed down through the interrelated genes of the remaining hominids. The trait was then acquired by the next generation of offspring, and assisted with this offspring's - as Kock puts it - "ancient task performance," which is the ability to forage for brightly colored fruit.

The hominids that received this trait inherited the competence to pinpoint the distinctive fruit and reap the healthful benefits in order to secure the continuity of their species. This process, over millions of years, led to the successful transfer of traits from generation to generation, and eventually reached our current stage of life.

Basically, throughout the course of evolution, our primitive requirement to locate fruit based on color - yellow for bananas, green and red for apples, and purple for grapes - is now ingrained in our subconscious. And these subconscious desires to associate bright colors with survival and nutrients could be linked to how well we perform a task associated with a webpage, or any medium of technology.

I, for one, agree with Dr. Kock's theory of relating our past actions to our present thoughts; thus, influencing our present behavior. I truly believe that the simplest things from our past, whether they happened two million years ago or two days ago, can have the most profound influence over the way we think, act, and feel in the present.

Who knows? Maybe this theory is a minuscule explanation for why we are beginning to prefer a more color-focused web over a black-and-white newspaper. We still eat fruit, don't we?

Article first published as Think Deeper About Using Colors on the Web - A Fruitful Explanation on Technorati.com.