| The
printed media's classical scheme of black
lettering over a white background doesn't
work well for Web content. Certain colors
produced by the glowing phosphor of PC
monitors are very intense and tend to
assault the eyes with their potency, such
as when you look at snow in bright
sunshine. The above reason is why
many folks will print an eBook to study
it: They can't take the "white
assault" from most monitors.
Application
programmers and savvy web designers are
discovering this harmful quality of
monitors and are compensating by making
the backgrounds of their websites an off
white/gray.
You can
try this for yourself: read a page with
an absolute white background and then the
same page with a very light gray or
pastel background. See the difference?
The
general look and color combination of
your website should be pleasing and
related to the interests of your visitors
however, the areas devoted to text should
not strain their eyes. As an example, I
was at a hardware forum and somebody had
written a couple of bright fluorescent
orange lines on a medium gray background;
it was about all I could take! Just
looking at the 2 lines of text to read
them was painful.
Another
example of a bad choice for body copy is
a dark font over a dark background
because it overtaxes the eyes to make out
the text. The same reason absolute white
is harmful applies to white lettering
over a black background.
White
without a small amount of compensating
color is very stressful on the eyes. If
you ever spend any time at a website that
causes such irritation, you'll lose focus
and get tired on account of the strain of
reading.
All the
elements of your website decoration
should conspire to make the visit a
pleasant one for your customers.
Designing and building a successful
website should take into consideration
all the design elements to keep from
physically irritating your visitors.
by
Francisco Aloy
(C)Francisco
Aloy
|
Articles