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Which route are you going to ask your visitors to follow?
The green route is only available when you understand exactly what your
site delivers and what your visitors seek.
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Once you have made a shift to the challenge of producing highly effective
pages, not just pretty ones, half of the battle is won. However, that
is not a half that will come instantly.
Know Thy Product and Thy Visitor
When traveling, in order to take the best route it is essential that
you know where you are going. If you have time to burn, you do not need
specifics, but can wander in the general direction of your destination,
getting there eventually. However, if time is a factor, it is essential
that you know where you are going, and plot out the most efficient route.
Designing a Web site is no different. If you are not clear about what
your site offers, or what your visitor will be seeking, chances are
that you will come up with a result that is similar to wandering in
the right direction in our travel sample above. However, if you are
clear about the goals for the site, and know what options will deliver
the best solutions for your visitor, you can plan an efficient trip
for them.
For more information about this process, see Menus
with Beauty and Brains.
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Web-Safe or No?
I still use Web safe colors when I am filling solid areas. I know
that many believe:
a) that there are really only a few truly safe colors,
not over 200 as generally accepted
b) that there is no reason to stick to Web-safe color
now, as most visitors will have monitors that display more than 256
colors.
I discard the first argument, as I refuse to try and design
anything with 16 or 22 colors (I have heard both as the only true safe
color number). There is only so much you can ask of us artistic souls.
The second argument I would love to accept. However, my
experience has been that the results are much more consistent with Web-safe
color. I have read proclamations that we have color freedom, but my
personal experience has been that purples can turn to blue, tans are
often converted to pink, and many other combinations I am just not prepared
to risk. Although the Web safe colors can vary slightly from monitor
to monitor, they do tend to at least remain the original color.
This cell is filled with a JPG background
file, created as described at the right. The color is a lower value
of the green shown in the menu bar above, and is not Web-safe. It is
very important to test your color on as many monitors as possible, even
when using a JPG background color.
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Dividing Page Areas
Once you have your direction, you will plan out your areas. (Again,
Menus with
Beauty and Brains includes a discussion about menu areas.) How will
you divide the page visually into the areas required? Background color
is an obvious choice. The colors of the Web-safe palette can be pulled
into use with the <table>, <td> and <tr> tags to create
well-defined areas. (See left for more on Web-safe color.)
Unfortunately, Web-safe color does not always deliver the light colors
that we usually need to provide a background for a page area. You can
create a graphic file to create a background color to improve your consistency.
Creating a JPG Color Background
In a graphic program, create a small document. Technically, you
can use a 1 px by 1 px document. I find that impossible to work with,
however, and usually create a 50 px by 50 px document. Once the color
is perfected, you can reduce the image size.
Fill the entire document with the desired color, and export to a JPG
file. That's it. Use the file as a <table> or <td> background
(<tr> image backgrounds do not show on all browsers). Before you
go off to celebrate your newfound color freedom, here come the cautions.
This ain't foolproof, folks!!!. A JPG can shift in color just
as a GIF or solid color background can. Test, test, test. I have found
that a JPG background will not shift as often or as drastically as non-Web-safe
color does. Before you fire up your technical knowledge to write and
tell me the scientific reasons why I am wrong (or even sometimes right),
save your time. Science is wonderful, and necessary. When it comes to
color on the Web, all the science in the world will not compensate for
what experience and a careful eye can discern.
Be extra careful with very light color, the perfect subtle way to divide
a page. If you are going to try to use graphic backgrounds to produce
area backgrounds, find someone who can test for you on an LCD monitor.
Light colors often disappear completely, and if your page is dependent
on that color for a useable layout, you can make a serious error.
The final warning will break a heart or two, guaranteed. The color
families that I have had no luck "cheating" with are tan,
beige or taupe. No matter what I have done, my taupes can shift to a
dead gray, or worse, pink. Beiges can go to pink or yellow. Ditto for
tan. If anyone has solved this problem, I am all ears for the solution.
I suspect that my experience is common, however, as I have found almost
nothing on the Web that uses this valuable neutral color family
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