🎨 Colour Psychology in UX Design and Branding

🎨 The power of colour in first impressions

Humans make snap judgments, and colour is often the first thing our brains register. One study found that up to 90% of quick product judgments are based on colour alone (Amra & Elma). We don’t even realise we’re doing it – it’s that fast. Colour also bypasses language; you don’t need to read a tagline to sense what a palette is saying. That’s why it’s often described as the “silent salesman” of design.

Think of financial brands: most lean on blue. PayPal, Barclays, Monzo, Revolut… the list goes on. Blue is associated with trust, security and calm, which is exactly what you want when people are handing over bank details. It isn’t just tradition – it’s strategy.

By contrast, red is rarely used in finance, but it’s plastered over fast food chains because it makes us feel urgency, energy, even hunger. Our pulse literally quickens in response to red, and companies like McDonald’s and KFC know this.

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💭 When colour actually changes behaviour

It’s tempting to think of colour psychology as a bit fluffy, but there’s plenty of evidence it makes a measurable difference. HubSpot ran an A/B test where they swapped a green call-to-action button for a red one. Everything else on the page stayed the same. The result? 21% more clicks on the red button (Adobe Blog). Another experiment by Dmix with around 600 participants found that changing a green button to red/orange-red boosted conversions by a whopping 34% (Smart Insights).

The interesting bit here is that red doesn’t always “win”. In both cases, the surrounding palette was dominated by green or neutral colours, so the red stood out. It wasn’t magic – it was contrast. Put a red button on a mostly red website, and you’ll get the opposite effect. The real principle is not “red beats green” but “contrast captures attention”.

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♿ The accessibility layer

Beyond clicks and conversions, colour has a huge impact on usability. Designers often forget that not everyone experiences colour the same way. Around 1 in 12 men and 1 in 200 women have some form of colour blindness (NHS). That means your carefully chosen accent might look muddy or invisible to a decent chunk of your users.

This is why accessibility standards like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) exist. According to WCAG, normal body text should meet a contrast ratio of at least 4.5:1 against its background to be readable, and for higher standards (AAA), it’s 7:1 (MDN Web Docs). It might sound technical, but in practice, it’s about making sure your grey placeholder text isn’t so pale it disappears, or your “success” green isn’t unreadable against a white card.

Good design = inclusive design.

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🌏 Culture complicates… everything?

Here’s the curveball: colour meanings aren’t universal. In Western contexts, white is linked with purity and weddings. In parts of East Asia, it’s the colour of mourning.

Even generationally, interpretations shift – Gen Z often associates bright pastels with playfulness and digital-native culture, while older audiences may see the same palette as immature or unserious. So, when building a brand or app for a global audience, you can’t rely on one colour code meaning the same thing everywhere.

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🛠️ Pulling it together for UX and branding

So what do we actually do with all this? First, stop thinking of colours as decoration. They’re tools. Every hue in your palette should have a purpose – whether that’s building trust, signalling urgency, or simply making text legible. Start with the emotion you want to convey, then test, test, test. A/B experiments on call-to-action colours can give you hard data on what works for your audience.

Second, design for inclusivity. It’s not enough for your palette to look slick in your mood board. Check contrast ratios, consider colour-blindness, and build functional colour tokens into your design system – error states, success states, warnings – so your interface speaks a clear visual language.

Finally, keep context in mind. A “winning” palette in fintech may flop in entertainment. A red CTA might soar on one landing page and tank on another. Colours don’t have universal powers – they work in relationship to their surroundings, your brand personality, and your users’ cultural lens.

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Colour psychology isn’t just a fun design trivia fact; it’s baked into how people feel, trust, and act. Blue reassures, red excites, yellow energises – but the science shows it’s contrast, context, and culture that really make the difference.

Next time you’re nudging a hex code in Figma, remember: you’re not just picking what looks nice. You’re engineering an emotional experience.

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