Color matters

While Raine and I are happy with the look of our current blogs, we went browsing at other blogskins available on the Net as an attempt to spruce them up. To our surprise, none, or I should say few of the designs we saw are easy on the eye or fitting for our personal style. We found that many of their creators try to use graphics and match-make colors the wrong and hard way.

Does color really matter? "Research reveals all human beings make a subconscious judgment about an item within 90 seconds of initial viewing and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone." (Source: Web Design Portfolio & Guide)

There are well-designed websites, blogs and forums created by dedicated designers, which will provide great practical guidelines for you to abide by. I may not be a professional designer, but besides loving minimalism and monochromes, I fancy and practice the good use of colors and design for the sites I take care of. So meanwhile, here are some tips for you...

Use browser-safe colors. Avoid harsh oversaturated colors. Use yellow and red colors sparingly. Though pure yellow is the first color the human eye will fix on, it strains the eye more than any other color.

Use colors appropriate to the theme of your site. Use colors found in key photos or graphics on your site for added harmony. Font colors should be contrast with the background color for a better read. Limit your color palette to no more than 3 colors to reduce visual clutter.

Set the font size in the format of percentage because people use a variety of screen resolution sizes. Use san serif fonts - a category of typefaces that do not use small lines or features at the end of strokes. My favorites are Arial, Verdana, and Tahoma, while other popular ones are Helvetica, Avant Garde, and Geneva. They are easier on the eye on screen. Use serif fonts like Times New Roman only on printed materials.

Last but not least, keep it simple!

Color has many overtones and meanings that are different from culture to culture. Like beauty, color is the eyes of the beholder. Though there are rules for color selection, there are always exceptions that will create unexpected pleasant results.