TEmelie - web design blog » web design

Web colors-useful things to know

TEmelie — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 21:11:02 +0000

If you’re using CSS layouts undoubtately you’ve noticed a funny thing happening when you define colors. Instead of the six chatacter codes that you use normally (#3cc99ff) you see just three characters (#c9f). This is called color shorthand and takes advantage of the fact that the browser-safe Web palette uses triplets that are always displayed as doublets. What this means is that the three pairs of characters from base-16 are doubled, so in order for you to write color in a shorthand fashion you remove the characters that are duplicated. For example white transforms from #ffffff into #fff, black from #000000 ends up as #000 and so on.
This characteristic is extremely useful when trying to create a color triad. All you have to do is to simply rotate the characters that make up the color codes. Let’s take for instance orange, purple and sea-green. They are written as #fc0, #c0f and #0fc. See what I mean? In order for you to discover new color triads just pick a primary color and then rotate the characters in such a way that they are in completely different positions in every one of the three bits of color code. It’s as simple as that.

The question that has risen lately regarding the importance of using a browser safe palette is completely justified. Keep in mind one thing though: the web safe color palette was created years back when most monitors only supported 256 colors. What this translates into is that if you use a color that’s not browser safe it could end up looking very ugly on the monitor it’s displayed on.
If you don’t know who is viewing your site, you won’t know they will look for the people reading them so eliminate the risks and use browser safe colors.

The only thing you need to remember is that browser safe or not, ultimately it’s your choice.

Design for attention

TEmelie — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 11:04:42 +0000

Web page designers have many methods of attracting attention to certain events that are out of the extraordinary. In this article I’m going to introduce to you a couple of those techniques.
The first and most widely used is changing the font size of headline. Examples of this can be found on CNN.com before and after the Iraq war. They more then doubled their font size in order to present news of significant importance about the war. From a 20px font CNN jumped to 48px so I guess the change was obvious for everybody.

Before you go and try something like that on your Web page there are a couple of aspects you need to be aware of.
First of all you should think really hard before modifying the size of your font. Is the news really that important, or it’s just something that breaks the normal routine of day to day life. A 30% discount on a certain type of products is great news for some customers but others have no interest in it so I see no reason in stressing them with unbearably huge headlines.
Secondly, determine what the standard font size for your page is and then go from there. Don’t make changes that more than double the size of the font, especially if your current size is something like 8px.
Thirdly, put togheter a plan that takes into consideration the kinds of situations that require drastic changes in font size. In this way you can avoid getting ahead of yourself if something suddenly pops-up on your agenda.
Changing the font size is a great and simple way to get attention but you can also play with things like family, color and style or weight. Serif fonts, reds and making a text bold or italic are small changes that make all the difference.
Besides font modification there are other kinds of changes you can make in other to attract attention.
Images are a great tool. The aphorism “a picture is worth a thousand words” is very true. Google for instance uses pictures to emphasize different holidays or special events.
Modifying your layout is a big surprise for regular customers so is sure bet in the struggle for attention. Animation is guaranteed to attract attention, especially if placed in a in area where normally you would have flat images.
As attractive as these methods may be careful not to get carried away. Making every single line on your pages red or bold or italic will defeat the original purpose of attracting attention and your customers will come to ignore you or even worse move to other pages.

The differences between Men and Women, regarding Web design colors

TEmelie — Sun, 30 Mar 2008 22:47:26 +0000

Not everyone is a great artist. Web designers although are talented individuals may encounter problems in choosing the right color scheme for their website. So what do you do? You could rely on color theory or simply get the best match from the colors needed for your company logo. Even better yet should you choose colors according to your own likes and dislike?

Most Web designers have well formed color opinions that are dictated mainly by the interests of their client. So as this is the case what should you do when creating a site that considers women as the main body of customers? Well, whatever you decide, don’t go into a pink mania. Just don’t do it! Pink is a strong color, and although it has long been associated with women, it doesn’t mean that all women adore it: some love it but some can’t stand it. The best way to proceed is by doing some research and use colors that represent you best as a logo, brand or company.

A recent study has shown that men and women have different favorite colors. When asked what their favorite color was, men chose blue in a proportion of 57% while women opted for the same color only in a percentage of 35%. This fact raises interesting questions because in general web designers default to blue. In case you are a company that means business and imposes respect, this isn’t a problem. The problem is represented by what this color conveys to different genders.

My promo pack finally :)

TEmelie — Sat, 29 Mar 2008 10:38:19 +0000

If you want to try out our services for a low price do it now because the promotional pack will be available for the first 50 clients ( i can’t handle more at the same time, sorry ). This website has a week since it was created and i allready get emails and orders, this is crazy . Before ordering please check out “Hire me” section to see testimonials and my history.

I’m with you … my website sucks!

TEmelie — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 23:05:05 +0000

Emails i recived

—– Original Message —–
From: “Paul W”
Friday, January 25, 2008 9:24 PM
To: “Stoian Adrian”
Subject: Hey i know my website sucks , what can we do about it?

“Current sites: www.get####.net , games.######.net, di######.net, pimp.******.net.
I’ve spent over 10k to develop them and after a short review they suck … it’s true please help me Stoian !!!
”
Paul W – Washington, US

—– Original Message —–
From: “Dirk V. Weib”
Wednesday, January 30, 2008 6:04 PM
To: “Stoian Adrian”
Subject: Need to completely redesign my site

“Oh, my GOD! You have a website? Last time it was under construction rite?
I really need complete redesign of www.#####coles.com website.
I think Will require programming and graphic design i’m not sure , last company charged me 12,500 and the quality is deplorable.
Please get back to me ASAP!
”
Dirk V. Weib – Ohio, US

—– Original Message —–
From: “James Trump”
Sunday, january 27, 2008 12:48 AM
To: “Stoian Adrian”
Subject: Hi Stoian NEED HELP !!!

“I foolishly invested in this website over 5,000 US dollars ( www.movie#####.com ) and what i get is CRAP!
I need urgent help PLEASE !!!
Please tell me what you think Stoian.
”
James Trump – Wiltshire, UK

Your website sucks … why ?

TEmelie — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 02:26:25 +0000

1. Poor graphic design – I say it loud … this could be first reason your website sucks. One of my clients told me that more than 50% of his visitors remained on his website after he redesigned his 90’s website. Awesome effect. Use a good color scheme and a proper contrast between the background color and the text color. Please take a look at this stone-age website ( www.tuiasi.ro ) , good navigation and that’s all. This is the university where I study

2. Too much flash on your website – Too much flash is not good for your SEO and also slow down alot your website for most of users. It also takes some badwidth use it wisely !

3. Bad navigation – Your website must be very friendly to all the users. Make sure all your visitors could see all the sections easy without spending hours ; Try to see all types of menus you can use and see what fits the best. Avoid flash menus from the first time, it is waste of money. Don’t forget also about a “Site map” link on your website, google will love it.

4. Audio & videos which auto start – this scared me one time when I visited a website ( they add a radio link which started without my click – rock music ). Visitors will get pissed off and will never visit your website. Hey wait a minute… if you hired a nice model to represent your company, a video&audio welcome message is more than welcome.

5. Site intros – I’ve never agreed with this. Why should I wait 30 second or more to get in a website I want to see. You really want a intro? … then make sure you have a “skip intro” button because when I’ll land on your webpage I will use it for sure.

6. Excessive advertisements – My uncle is new to Internet and what he hates the most are the aggressive pop ups, banners, flash ads which sometimes takes the whole page for few seconds. Avoid aggressive advertisements and you will get more visitors on your side.

7. Browser compatibility : Check twice your website in all major browsers and apply for 1024 x 768 & 1280 x 1024 before you publish it. Browsers understand in different ways html/css code. A short time ago I visited a website and I couldn’t read a single word with firefox and with IE was perfect. You don’t want that I’m sure !

8. Orphan pages ( back button is missing ) – make sure your visitor could easily leave a page but remain in your website. Make your logo ( header ) link to the homepage, show your visitors where he is located , keep a default menu for all pages.

9. Slow loading sites – Either you use too much flash or heavy backgrounds and images , too much youtube videos or audio files auto started your website will take forever to load. If you insist using a sophisticated flash presentation make 2 versions for your website, think at the visitors with a slow connection.

10. Outdated information – If I’ll enter a website and I see in latest news “Britney is still virgin!” and I open the tv and I found out that she has 2 kids I’ll never visit that website again. Updates are very important, you should consider that.