Reaction to Screen Space 6: Color Design 101

After viewing this Screen Space, I have come away with a lot of knowledge on color design. I have learned that although I have the ability to use many colors I should limit myself to four or fewer colors. Any more than four will make the website seem too childish and may distract or disinterest the user. Along with limiting the colors, I learned I should also use colors that contrast. It is more visually appealing, when colors contrast, and do not conflict. When adding images I learned that the dominant colors in my image should contrast the dominant colors in my page. This makes the web site seem more professional and planned out. It is also a good idea to keep the background color lighter then the color of the text. This draws attention to the content of the text and doesn't distract the user. Along with using a darker text, also use alternate colors for things that need to be emphasized. Be consistent with the emphasis color, so that people understand that that color, means you are emphasizing a piece of information. One thing the article talked about that I would have never thought about was color-blind users. In the article it talks about color blind users, and how some cannot differentiate between colors, so it is best to also use bold, italics, shapes and other methods to draw attention to important information. I learned a lot from this article and it taught me things that will make my web pages more presentable and professional.

Here is an example of a bad website,
http://www.fredfrap.com/intro%20page%208.29.02.htm
This website is bad for many reasons. First of all the background of the page is too "loud". It has too much going on, and distracts the user from the actual content of the page. There are more than four colors used, which makes it look more like a clown website. Also the text color is lighter then the background, which makes it hard to read. The pictures also do not contrast the colors used. That is why this is a bad website.

Here is an example of a good website,
http://www.coldsmoker.com/
This website is good for many reasons. First of all it is very simple and effective. There are 4 or fewer colors, which do not distract the user. The website uses not only colors, but italics and bold to draw attention to important information. Also the background is a lighter color then the text, which draws attention to the content of the text and not the background. Also the pictures contrast with the other colors used in the page which makes it look more professional and planned out. That is why this is a good website.