Color Families

One of the most important concepts of Color Theory in UI Design is Color Families. There are multiple color families, which one can directly use in their designs. Color families are created based on different sections of the color wheel. Most of the secondary color families are formed from the top three color families. We have already seen two of these top color families called the “Warm colors” and “Cool colors”, and another one is “Neutral colors”. 

Apart from these, there are some popular color families based on UI trends. So let’s explore some of them:

• The Fiery Warms: These are the colors which are having warm tones, and symbolized Fire, energy, and warmth. For example, Red, Pink, Yellow, and Orange these colors are good examples of Fiery Warm colors.
• The Soothing Cools: These are the colors which are having cool tones, and symbolized water, ice, and calmness. For example, Blue, Green, and Purple these colors are good examples of Soothing Cool colors.
• The Neutral: Neutral color family includes white, black, gray, and brown colors. The general use of neutral colors is text, background and to maintain balance on the screen. There is always a dedicated color palette for neutrals including different shades of these colors. 
• The Funky Fluorescents: These are the highly saturated, neon colors that become popular with the latest UI trend called Brutalism or Neubrutalism. Fluorescent colors go really well with the dark theme, as the contrast looks great and is not very harsh to the eyes. Neon colors are formed by increasing brightness and leveling up the tones. 
• The Subtle Pastels: Pastel colors are very pleasing to the eyes, these are formed by lowering saturation and a little tweak to brightness. Pastel colors look very amazing with clay morphism and aurora UI themes.

Bonus point: 

Always avoid using pure white(#FFFFFF) and pure black(#000000) is that ui design. The reason for this is that, white has the highest level of light(100%) and black on the other hand has the lowest level of brightness(0%). 

Both these colors have a peak contrast, this can be very harsh on eyes. So it is better to go with pale white and dark gray instead of using pure white and pure black.

Colors in a design set an appropriate tone and brand perception. It is often believed that choosing the right color palette is the designer’s aesthetic preferences and sense of beauty which have a major role in the selection of colors for UI screens. Colors are associated with many different emotions, cultures, and contexts and they make an impact on viewers’ moods and behavior. In this article, we’ll cover all about Color Theory for UI Design. 

Picking the right colors helps to increase conversion for your product as well as its usefulness. One can leverage the online tools available that help in generating amazing color palettes, rather than starting from scratch. As a designer, you can always tweak and make changes as per your need using those pre-defined pallets. To do this, one should have good knowledge of the concept of color psychology and color theory for UI Design.

Let’s get started!

Color theory in UI Design completely revolves around “The Color Wheel”, which is a base to start creating color palettes. 

To understand color harmony a little better, one needs to be aware of some terminologies. Most amazing color palettes have a proper balance of these terminologies, knowing them helps tweak and create more enhanced and balanced palettes.