White Balance in Web Site Design
Colors are a key element to you web site design and set the tone for how viewers are going to feel when the first see your site. Warm colors will bring happiness to people while darker colors have a way of inspiring intrigue and mystery to sites. Of course depending on your site you will want to bring a certain feeling from your views.
There are some simple rules to color designs, its harder to read colors on white, then it is to read black on a white background. Even colors that fall on the darker side of the spectrum are more difficult to read then black with a white background. It has to do with the contrasting and how easy it is for your eyes to adjust. There is an increase in the comprehension of the content on a site when white space is used correctly.
Our web design needs to take into account the sight abilities all of its potential viewers. People who’s eye sight might not be as good as it once was need a chance to see you website in all of its glory too. Your site also needs to account for the viewers that are using mobile phones on darker settings, in order to save battery life of their phone. This is a pretty common practice in this day in age and it’s important to have content that will still be easy for these viewers to see as well.
Dark backgrounds dull other colors that are around them, so if you have a beautifully bright colored photograph and add a dark background, it’s going to take away from the brightness of your image. This will dull the experience of the viewer and may make them more likely to click away from your site. It also makes it more difficult for the viewer’s eye to adjust to the brights of the image after a glace at the dark background. I know this isn’t great news for people who want that a darker look to their site, but it doesn’t mean you can’t have a darker theme to your site. It just means you have to be more careful with how you pull it off.
Even picture frames are usually set to a white matte in order to separate the darker edges of the frame from the picture. This automatically increases the brightness and ability for the viewer to see the picture in its true color. It also gives the artist more options when it comes to the picture frame because it’s not in direct contrast with the picture because of the matte. Most frames are of the darker variety to contrast the wall and the matte. This space allows for the viewer’s eye to adjust to the color of whatever might be in the frame.
Web designs are made in order to appease the biggest audience possible while making sure the message gets to your audience. The colors have to mean something because they are going to make the viewer feel something which will either make them want to know more or click away. They also need to flow with the message of site is trying to get across. If the viewer is lost in all the colors there is to much noise for any message to get across.