Color. It's all around us. Everywhere
we look our world is filled with color. Color can capture our attention, can
make us feel certain emotions at times, attract us, repel us, annoy us, entice
us. It's much the same when it comes to web pages.
Graphics, colored text and backgrounds,
pictures, etc. are some of the things that make the Internet so wonderful, but
these same things are also some of the worst aspects of the Internet in given
situations. How can you use color effectively on your site?
You can use colored backgrounds or
patterned tiles or borders to add a little spice to your page. After all, who
wants to look at plain ol' black and white all day long? It's pretty boring,
right? This is an area, however, where what is good in theory doesn't always
translate to being good in practice.
Always, always, always remember: your
background tiles or your cool graphics or color combinations shouldn't be the
focus of your site. (It should go without saying that this is especially true
for Internet businesses.) Rather, these page elements should enhance the
information and/or product or service description/presentation. In other words,
you want your visitor to leave thinking, "Wow! That person really knows
their stuff! I know where I'm buying my next [blank]." You DON'T want the
visitor to leave thinking, "Wow! What cool graphics! Hey...what the heck
was that site about anyway?"
The most common mistake in terms of use
of color, in my opinion, is poor choice of background/text colors. If you use
poor color combinations and render your text unreadable, you might as well have
taken the money you spent on developing your site and started a nice bonfire
with it in the middle of the street. It would seem self-explanatory that text
should, by its very nature, be readable, right? For many of us, it's not
difficult to grasp that very basic concept...that is until we discover the neat
FONT COLOR tag or delve into CSS - then we can become tempted to get a little
too cute.
Myriad pages exist that prove
readability isn't high on many designers' list of priorities. It sounds boring,
but black text on a white background is by far the easiest to read. You can add
color with a conservative border background or through the use of TABLEs and the
BGCOLOR attribute of the TD tag. Just don't go overboard.
I would especially caution against use
of colored text on a colored background; I've rarely seen designers pull this
one off. Unfortunately, too many designers think bright blue and bright red make
a great color combo - WRONG!! Choose your text/background colors wisely; if you
don't, all your effort has been wasted.
I don't think there's anything
particularly wrong with judicious use of colored text or white text on a colored
background; using this set up in a navigation bar, for example, is fairly
common. What I'm cautioning against is using colored text on a colored
background on the majority of your site. Don't discount the negative effect this
can have in terms of your visitors' perceptions of your site.
In closing, I think it's always a good
idea to play it somewhat conservative on business sites as a general rule. If
you're designing a personal homepage, knock yourself out with the neon green/hot
pink color scheme. Don't risk losing business for the sake of having a wild or
"cool" color combo, though. Would you spend hours crafting a great
message for your brochures then tell the person behind the counter at the
printer, "Just pick any colors"? No, of course not; you realize that
the medium is at least as important (if not more so in many cases) as the
message. Try to think in these terms when designing your site as well and I'm
sure you'll stand a much better chance of succeeding!
Written by by
Jennifer Johnson. Jennifer Johnson
is the owner of http://www.getonmessage.com/.
She specializes in providing high-quality banner design at a price small and
home-based business owners can afford. Visit her website today and let Jennifer
help you get your business noticed!
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