Blatant Web Design Errors
No matter how much you preach there will always be those hardheads that use the following techniques on web pages. These are blatant design flaws when using color.
Some are exaggerated, but we think you'll get the message.
| Small light text on a dark background | Light colored text on a light background | Any text on a busy background | Text on Yellow Background |
|---|---|---|---|
| We always give the back button to websites that use this technique. It causes serious eye fatigue when large blocks of text are read. Websites that use this mess, sign their own death warrant. | We often wonder what people are thinking when they design something like this. Yes there really is a message here for the 8% of males that are color blind. What do you think? | Do people ever try to read their own stuff when they do this? This may be a little exaggerated, but we have seen them almost this bad quite often. This one always wins the back button prize from us. If you can read this you win a million. | We always give the back button to websites that use this technique. It causes serious eye fatigue when large blocks of text are read. Websites that use this mess, sign their own death warrant. |
| Example Web Pages | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Black Background | Pink Background | Busy Background | Yellow Background |
We give all of these techniques a very quick back button when we encounter them during our surfing sessions. What would your first impression be? Do any of these look professional to you?
If they do you should be designing beer can labels and not websites.
Web Page Width Setting
It would be nice if everyone used the same monitor resolution and set their browser width to maximized. Problem is - They Don't!!
About 35% of our visitors set their monitor resolution to 1024X768. If yours is set to 1280 wide or higher and you design your web pages at 1200 pixels wide or more, better than a third of your visitors will need to do a lot of right scrolling to view your website.
See this Monitor Resolution Example
When designing your website, set your monitor resolution to 1024X768 and set your page width to no more than 1000 pixels.
Review Your Research
Go to your research notes.
In the websites that conveyed a favorable first impression which followed the rules of proper color combination choices?
Could you tell which sites were designed on a higher monitor resolution than yours? How many websites required right scrolling to view their web page?
Did any break the rules and still provide a favorable first impression?
Note: Some successful sites have achieved their stature in spite of their color choices. This is usually accomplished through a high demand for their content or product.
