Document professionals know that customer communication is a top priority, and websites often serve as a main portal for this communication. But website users have certain expectations, especially when it comes to color and design. Paying attention to these preferences when creating or modifying your webpages could mean the difference between a customer enjoying their online experience with you or experiencing some difficulty - or even worse, becoming frustrated. And if your website isn't enjoyable to navigate, it's highly possible that a competitor's is.
So we know that online color selection and website design make a significant impact on color communications. But when it comes to color and TransPromo, have we considered everything? A recent report from EDSF shows that certain colors and designs impact gender and age group and that the simple choice of website background style impacts your customer's online viewing experience.
And as TransPromo documents become more interactive with recipients online, web-based communication using color and design becomes just as important. In a recent industry article, "TransPromo 3.0: The Next Generation," co-author Andy Plata writes, "This ease of interaction will help overcome many of the obstacles that marketers currently face in trying to reach recipients with their TransPromo campaigns. It will also vastly improve the recipient's TransPromo experience by providing them access to information about products or services they may need. This ease of interactivity will result in much higher response rates to TransPromo campaigns."
A new report* from the Electronic Document Systems Foundation (EDSF), "Color Preferences in Web Design," investigates color preferences in web design within a diverse sample population and suggests that an understanding of usable colors will be a vital part of creating websites. It offers some helpful insights for those looking to take their interactive TransPromo communications to the highest level possible.
The research results found that among the over 200 participants:
- Black text over white with blue hyperlinks is preferred. In excess of one-third of the group preferred a white website background with black text. Twenty-seven percent of females surveyed prefer a white website background with black text, with 12% of women preferring blue hyperlinks, compared to 40% of the males surveyed who prefer a white background with black text, with 26% preferring blue hyperlinks. When looking at preferences for the color of links on a webpage, 18% of the total group surveyed prefer a white background and black text with blue links.
- Gender affects color preference. The study indicates that there are differences among men and women when it comes to preferences for web colors. The study acknowledges that men and women are going to design, find attractive or utilize web color space differently.
- Age affects color preference. When comparing choices in color between age groups, there was a considerable difference. The study says that the two favorite preferences in color combinations were dominated by two distinct age groups, with the older sample preferring white or light backgrounds with dark text, and the younger sample preferring black (dark) backgrounds with white or other colored text.
Indeed, web design and color choice is important for an effective, cross-media TransPromo campaign to reach the right recipients. In fact, an overwhelming majority of survey respondents found this color research beneficial in terms of designing marketing communications and bolstering the ongoing argument that there are certain expectations of the user's experience on a website.
Brenda Kai [brenda.kai@edsf.org] is the executive director of EDSF, a charitable foundation dedicated to preparing the next generation of professionals for the document management and graphic communications marketplace by granting scholarships to students and research grants to colleges and universities and by building awareness about industry careers and recognizing innovative educators and educational programs. For a downloadable PDF of this report, click here or visit www.edsf.org and click "Research and Publications" for the EDSF Industry Library. The report is listed under "EDSF White Papers."
* The EDSF report, "Color Preferences in Web Design," is by The Department of Industrial Technology Graphic Communications Program at the University of Northern Iowa. The report is a result of the EDSF research grant and mentor program. An EDSF grant was awarded to the Department of Industrial Technology Graphic Communications Program at the University of Northern Iowa, where Dr. Carl Nelson Blue and undergraduate students Ty Welu and Chris McGee collaborated to conduct the research.
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