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website colour scheme - what's best?

by ndaustin
12 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
I spent ages going through different templates for my site and ended up with something which I find attractive.

However I have been told by someone who is a successful marketer that I should make the colour scheme white or a very light colour (which I find boring).... I would welcome some further feedback... If I get a load of other comments to support this idea then I'll have to go back to the drawing board, though it's taken me a lot of time and effort to achieve the design I now have, which incorporates a matching Wordpress theme along with my Dreamweaver constructed site.

All comments welcome... Thank you.

....and the site is Interviewcom.com.

Best wishes,

Norman Austin
#colour #scheme #website
  • Profile picture of the author Gnarx
    Just want to throw this out here for you. If you have an image or a photograph or anything really that you like the feel of the colors in it you can upload it to:

    http://bighugelabs.com/colors.php

    It then creates a color palette based upon those colors and everything will match beautifully. I use this every time I am deciding upon what colors to use on a website.
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    • Profile picture of the author DiamondDog
      While you've kept the number of colours to a minimum - which is good - the dark background doesn't really suit the subject matter. I always associate web sites that have dark backgrounds with sci-fi, horror, death metal and (ahem) porno sites.

      While you may think it's boring, dark text on a light background is the way to go. It makes the text easy to read whereas light text on a dark background tends to tire the eyes.

      The banner graphic doesn't quite go with the rest of the design either. It looks fussy and out of place with the rest of the page. Just removing the bevelled box it's on would improve it.

      Apart from that the layout is nice and clean with a good choice of typeface.

      My advice - for what it's worth - would be to drop the dark background and change it for white or cream with dark grey or black text. It's not boring - honest(!)

      While it works with the dark background, the green headline colour wouldn't work as well on a white background so you might have to experiment. As for the banner graphic, keep it clean and preferably not in a bevelled box as it currently is. Think of the Google main page, crisp, clean, uncluttered and you won't go far wrong.

      Good luck with the site Norman.
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      • Profile picture of the author ndaustin
        Thanks guys,

        I really appreciate the feedback. I'll keep working on it.

        The site is based on a free CSS template, though I've messed with the CSS. It would be good to be able to replace the image files which make up much of the background. I thought of opening them up in Photoshop and seeing if I can change the colours consistently to make them all match each other.

        Vivekg - if you find this editing easy then I could email you the image files. I'm happy to have a go myself, though most of the time it takes me ages... but it's all part of the fun, and great to learn how to do it, so I don't mind doing it myself... I just need to make time.

        It would be great if I had someone looking over my shoulder.... Took me two days of head scratching to get the audio to work properly on the site. The video was a piece of cake though. But everyone has to learn, and it's great to have a hobby with a great income potential.

        Ciao,

        Norman
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        • Profile picture of the author vivekg
          Originally Posted by ndaustin View Post

          Thanks guys,

          I really appreciate the feedback. I'll keep working on it.

          The site is based on a free CSS template, though I've messed with the CSS. It would be good to be able to replace the image files which make up much of the background. I thought of opening them up in Photoshop and seeing if I can change the colours consistently to make them all match each other.

          Vivekg - if you find this editing easy then I could email you the image files. I'm happy to have a go myself, though most of the time it takes me ages... but it's all part of the fun, and great to learn how to do it, so I don't mind doing it myself... I just need to make time.

          It would be great if I had someone looking over my shoulder.... Took me two days of head scratching to get the audio to work properly on the site. The video was a piece of cake though. But everyone has to learn, and it's great to have a hobby with a great income potential.

          Ciao,

          Norman
          I understand austin. Its feels good when you make the whole website yourself. If you need I can make the design and send the images to you, and if you like them you can use them.
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  • Profile picture of the author vivekg
    A white background website looks clean and better, but as you said you have put a lot of effort on this design, I would say just a bit of tweaks here and there would do the trick. Now at the moment you have a black bg, Why not try a white with gray combination. If you would like I can create some samples for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author ndaustin
    Thanks Vivekg...

    If you want to play with this, PM me your email address then I'll send you the webpage template.

    Norman
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  • Profile picture of the author Sabiha
    I will vote for the white background.

    White background sites look serious and professional. Black background reminds me of gaming sites...

    However you certainly can have a colorful header with your chosen colors. That seems fine on a white background.

    Just my two cents

    Sabiha
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Rickfold
    I have to agree with DiamondDog
    Maybe you can keep the background black if you make the text be black on white (put it in a box like a minisite)
    But the site you're aiming for doesn't match the colors really well.
    + lighter colors convert better

    a light blue background and the text being black on white increases conversions very well.

    also I've noticed you have a clickbank banner on the right, I don't see it, (maybe it's my firewall cause it bans some ads), maybe you can put that in the middle
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    • Profile picture of the author LynnM
      I find the text a bit hard on the eyes as it's grey - white might be better.


      Lynn
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  • Profile picture of the author ndaustin
    Great... Thanks for the feedback. Not exactly the news I wanted to hear, but I need to make this pay, so will definitely work on this.
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  • Profile picture of the author Loren Woirhaye
    It's bad. Reversed text caused huge drops in reading comprehension
    and in fact many people find it so hard to read they won't even bother
    trying.

    Sorry. This is advertising basics.

    There's a lot of stuff on this sort of thing in my giveaway book
    "50 Ways to Start Making More Money With Your Website".
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    • Profile picture of the author Caneman
      I think it really depends on what you are trying to do, for adsense I have really like the xfactor scheme... white background, gray text, black header and footer, no left sidebar, right sidebar that is green with a menu.
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