How Colour Saturation Psychology Affects Your Website's Mood
- kmunn87
- Oct 7
- 6 min read
Ever landed on a website that felt energising and exciting, then visited another that
immediately made you feel calm and relaxed? The secret isn't just which colours they used. It's how they used them. Colour saturation psychology explains why bright, saturated colours energise whilst muted pastels calm, and using the wrong tone can completely change how your site feels.
There are three fundamental dimensions that actually control how colours make us feel: hue (the colour itself), saturation (how pure or muted it is), and brightness (how light or dark it appears).
Get these right, and your website creates exactly the emotional response you want.
THE SCIENCE BEHIND COLOUR SATURATION PSYCHOLOGY
Research published in the journal Psychological Research examined how people respond emotionally to different colour properties. Participants viewed colours whilst researchers measured both their emotional ratings and physiological responses like skin conductance and heart rate.
Results suggested that saturated and bright colours were associated with higher arousal and that pure, vivid colours activated our nervous systems, making us feel more energised and alert. On the flip side low saturation colours (those muted, pastel tones) create calmer, softer feelings.
Brightness also plays a crucial role. Brightness (sometimes called lightness or value) indicates how light or dark a colour appears. It's the amount of white or black mixed into the hue. Studies show that brightness combined with saturation creates either a soft feeling (bright and low saturation) or a hard feeling (dark and high saturation).
THe results also showed that these three dimensions don't work independently, but instread interact. For instance, the research found that highly saturated blue created the most positive feelings, but this effect disappeared when saturation was low. It's not just about picking blue. It's about picking the right kind of blue.
WHY COLOUR SATURATION PSYCHOLOGY MATTERS FOR YOUR BRAND
It Controls Energy Levels High saturation colours create excitement, urgency, and energy. Think of brands like McDonald's with their vibrant red and yellow, or Spotify's bright green. These saturated colours signal "pay attention" and create a sense of action.
Low saturation colours communicate sophistication, calm, and reliability. Luxury brands often use muted tones because they feel refined and considered. Financial services use them because they signal stability and trust.
It Sets Expectations Your colour choices tell visitors what kind of experience they're about to have. A children's party planner using highly saturated, bright colours signals fun and excitement. A therapist using those same colours would feel completely wrong because visitors expect calm and safety.
It Affects Conversion Behaviour Research shows that colour can increase brand recognition by up to 80%. When your colour saturation aligns with your brand message and target audience expectations, people trust you more and are more likely to take action.
It Differentiates Your Brand Look at your competitors' websites. Are they all using the same saturation levels? If every yoga studio in your area uses soft, muted pastels, a moderately saturated palette might make you stand out whilst still feeling appropriate for your industry.
UNDERSTANDING THE THREE DIMENSIONS
Hue: The Colour Itself This is what we typically think of as "colour." Red, blue, green, yellow. Research shows hue does affect arousal, with red creating higher arousal than blue or green. But hue alone doesn't tell the whole story.
Saturation: Purity vs Mutedness Saturation measures how pure or intense a colour is. A fully saturated red is vivid and pure. As you decrease saturation, you're essentially adding grey, making the colour more muted and subdued. High saturation demands attention. Low saturation recedes into the background.
Brightness: Light vs Dark Brightness is how much white or black is mixed in. A bright pink contains lots of white. A dark burgundy contains lots of black. Brighter colours generally feel lighter and more approachable. Darker colours feel heavier and more serious.
HOW TO USE COLOUR SATURATION PSYCHOLOGY ON YOUR WEBSITE
Match Saturation to Your Brand Personality
If your brand is energetic, youthful, or playful: Use high saturation colours. Think fitness brands, children's services, creative agencies, or any business where excitement and action are central to your identity.
If your brand is calming, sophisticated, or trustworthy: Use low to medium saturation. This works for therapists, financial advisors, luxury services, or any business where trust and calm are priorities.
If your brand balances both: Use varied saturation strategically. Your call-to-action buttons might be highly saturated to demand attention, whilst your background uses lower saturation to avoid overwhelming visitors.
Create Visual Hierarchy Through Saturation
The most saturated colours on your page will naturally draw the eye first. Use this strategically:
Make your primary call-to-action button the most saturated element
Use medium saturation for secondary information
Use low saturation for background elements and supporting text
This creates a clear path for the eye to follow without needing to rely on size alone.
Consider Your Audience's State of Mind
People visiting a gym website are probably seeking energy and motivation. High saturation supports that goal. People visiting a meditation app are seeking calm. Low saturation delivers that feeling immediately.
Think about what emotional state your visitors are in when they arrive, and what emotional state you want them to be in when they leave.
Test Brightness Alongside Saturation
A highly saturated, bright colour (like a vivid yellow) feels completely different from a highly saturated, dark colour (like a deep navy). The combination matters:
Bright + High Saturation = Energetic, youthful, attention-grabbing
Dark + High Saturation = Bold, powerful, dramatic
Bright + Low Saturation = Soft, gentle, approachable
Dark + Low Saturation = Sophisticated, serious, subtle
COMMON COLOUR SATURATION MISTAKES
Using the Same Saturation Everywhere If everything on your website is highly saturated, nothing stands out. If everything is muted, your calls-to-action disappear. Vary your saturation levels to create hierarchy and guide attention.
Ignoring Industry Expectations Whilst standing out is important, using wildly inappropriate saturation levels can undermine trust. A funeral director using neon, highly saturated colours would feel disrespectful. A children's entertainment company using all muted tones might seem boring.
Forgetting About Accessibility Very bright colours can be difficult to read, especially for people with visual sensitivities. Always check contrast ratios between your text and backgrounds, regardless of saturation levels.
Choosing Colours in Isolation That beautiful saturated teal might look perfect in your colour picker, but how does it work with your other brand colours? Test your palette together to ensure the saturation levels create the overall mood you want.
QUICK WINS FOR YOUR WEBSITE
Audit Your Current Palette Look at your website with fresh eyes. What's the dominant saturation level? Does it match the emotional response you want to create? Use a colour picker tool to check the actual HSB (hue, saturation, brightness) values of your colours.
Adjust Your CTA Buttons If your call-to-action buttons aren't getting clicks, try increasing their saturation (and possibly brightness) to make them stand out more. Conversely, if your buttons feel aggressive or pushy, reducing saturation slightly might make them more inviting.
Create a Saturation Strategy Document the saturation levels for different elements: headlines, body text, buttons, backgrounds, accents. This ensures consistency and helps you maintain the right emotional tone across your entire site.
Test With Your Audience Show your colour palette to people in your target audience. Ask how it makes them feel. Does "energising" come up when you wanted "calm"? That's your cue to adjust saturation levels.
YOUR COLOUR SATURATION ACTION PLAN
Identify the primary emotion you want your website to evoke (energetic, calm, trustworthy, creative, etc.)
Determine appropriate saturation levels for that emotion (high for energy, low for calm, varied for balance)
Apply higher saturation to elements that need attention (CTAs, headlines)
Use lower saturation for supporting elements (backgrounds, secondary text)
Test your palette on actual devices and get feedback from your target audience
The next time you're choosing colours for your website, don't just ask "What colour should this be?" Ask "How saturated and bright should this colour be to create the feeling I want?" That's where the real magic happens.
SUBSCRIBE & FOLLOW
Ready to make your content more brain-friendly? Follow me, on Facebook and LinkedIn or sign up to my blog for more web design psychology tips and tricks from a Squarespace and Wix web designer.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Written by Katie Di Feliciantonio at Made by Katie, a Surrey-based Wix and Squarespace web design studio.
I work with charities and small businesses, offering tailored packages to suit your needs: Mini Websites for a fast, affordable online presence, Bespoke Website Builds for a fully custom website, and Page Makeovers to refresh and optimise your existing site.
REFERENCES
Jonauskaite, D., Abdel-Khalek, A. M., Abu-Akel, A., Al-Rasheed, A. S., Antonietti, J. P., Ásgeirsson, Á. G., ... & Mohr, C. (2020). Universal patterns in color-emotion associations are further shaped by linguistic and geographic proximity. Psychological Science, 31(10), 1245-1260.
Oberfeld, D., Hecht, H., & Gamer, M. (2010). Surface lightness influences perceived room height. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63(10), 1999-2011.
Wilms, L., & Oberfeld, D. (2018). Color and emotion: effects of hue, saturation, and brightness. Psychological Research, 82(5), 896-914.
Kurt, S., & Osueke, K. K. (2014). The Effects of Color on the Moods of College Students. SAGE Open, 4(1).
Smashing Magazine (2025). The Psychology Of Color In UX And Digital Products.
