Continued from page 1
Graphical Content Backgrounds and other graphics used should fit with
textual content. Think back to bank and game sites comparison. Finding free graphics or making your own is easier when you think about what will fit your site and message you are trying to send.
Do looks counts? In a word: YES. The way your page looks is vital to how effectively it does its job. Think about sites in following contexts:
Plain = uninteresting: If site is too plain, people won't be interested and may not stick around long enough to get to important information.
Busy = disorienting: If page is a riot of images and colors, people may be overwhelmed and visit another site just to give their eyes a rest. Likewise for lots of animations no matter how they are colored or topic of them. They distract eyes from important stuff of your site.. what you do, why you do it, and why you do it online.
Pastels can be positive or negative. Pastels generally are associated with feminine or with babies. Think about colors and meanings associated with them. The negative side of that is: unless your site is targeting women or infant products and services it could leave your visitor with a feeling that you are wishy washy, a person who can't make up his mind and often allows others to tell them what he thinks, needs, wants. In reality that may not be way you are but perception is 100% of total picture here. People don't want to do business with someone who might not be person they need to be dealing with.. they want to know who is in control. Others might try to take advantage of these people thinking that if they are forceful enough they can get more for less than going rate.
Dark colors can also be positive or negative. They can be percieved as shady and dishonest, or used as backgrounds to pull out textual and graphical content of page while blending into background as they are intended to do. Too much dark leaves a person in dark, while a healthy blend of dark and light(light not bright, there's a difference) brings out lighter qualities to a better effect sometimes and adds depth to pages that use one main color in theme.
Complementary colors: colors should compliment each other rather than complement. Putting wrong colors together can be just as disorienting as a busy site and often construed same way. Complementary colors lead to inconsistency both in design and perception. Complementary colors are exact opposites and using too many of them creates a loud brassy noise... who are you yelling at? Why are you yelling? Won't your product stand on it's own value or are you trying to distract from fact that it's substandard but you still want to make dollars? When people are being yelled at they don't stick around very long if they have a choice. Contrasting colors on other hand can compliment each other and give depth to your pages. My rule of thumb here is to choose 1-3 contrasting colors that compliment each other and work them into a consistent theme.
At this point you can see why some sites are weeks in planning before first page is ever made. Even with all that, you still have to live with site as you will visit it yourself at least once a day. Hopefully you'll visit it more often than that but do so at least once. Also after all this planning and careful mapping out just what you want your site to be, you will continually tweak and update look and feel of your page. Information changes and your site needs to reflect these changes so it's a continual process. In addition, some sites need to make seasonal changes as their products or services change with seasons.
Stephanie Cordray is owner of http://www.totalweb-inc.com and http://www.jc-hosting.net . She can be reached by emailing: scordray@totalweb-inc.com . In addition she operates several free resource sites: http://www.writingwise.com http://www.designer-edge.com http://www.v-chatterbox.net http://www.webmastersforum.org
