Web Design Inspiration – Go Green!
The color green represents balance and well-being, it’s among the colors that are easiest on our eyes, and it’s up next in our color inspiration series. Take a look at these sites that use the color really well…
Posts Tagged ‘color’
June 16th, 2009
February 10th, 2009
5 Common Mistakes Made When Designing a Website
There are some pretty bad websites out there. In fact, there are sites dedicated solely to pointing them out (webpagesthatsuck.com). Most of the ‘bad websites’ out there (excluding the truly horrific) are labeled so because they made a handful of very common mistakes during the design process. These are some of those mistakes we see the most often.
Having design elements that look like ads – There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a reasonable amount of advertisements on your website. However, you must realize that because of the sheer volume of advertisements on pages, most users have developed selective attention. They’ll ignore everything that looks like a banner, pop-up or any other type of typical ad – so its not a good idea to have important design elements or information displayed in any of these formats.
Jamming 10 pounds of stuff into a 5 pound bag – Whether you go overboard on content or flashy design elements, cramming too much onto a site is a common mistake. The result could be a busy layout, a wall of text, side scrolling, very little white space, etc. Each of these things makes a website difficult to read and making your visitors work for information is never a good idea.
Having confusing and unclear navigation – Clear navigation is one of the most important factors for a site’s usability. Users should have no questions about how they are supposed to move around the different areas of your site. It’s a good idea to make your links change colors once a user clicks on them, knowing which pages they’ve already visited helps prevent users from unintentionally landing on pages they’ve seen before. Also, your users shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to find the content they are looking for – make sure that every single page is within 3 or 4 clicks of your homepage.
Looking amateur-ish – Sure this is a bit vague, but there are certain features/missteps that web designers make that scream beginner. For example, avoid saying “Welcome to ____” on your homepage. There are other ways to make your visitors feel welcome. Similarly, test to make sure your page looks good in all browsers instead of taking the shortcut “Best viewed in ____”.
Using overly wild or bright color schemes – Everyone loves creativity, and this doesn’t mean that you should shy away from using color in your design. However, when colors are too bright or you use too many colors on the same page it can look unprofessional. Also make sure that your background color and text color compliment each other, keeping your text easy to read and scan.
So next time your designing a site, take a minute to step back and review. If you avoid these common errors you are probably safe from having your site end up on one of the many “Worst Website” lists.
January 27th, 2009
Web Design in Yellow
Yellow can be a tricky color to design with, but when used correctly it can lead to a creative and fresh website. Check out these sites that use the color extremely well…
Web Outsourcing Services Group
So, if you’re feeling adventurous – go ahead and make your site yellow! Here’s a yellow color chart to get you started.
January 14th, 2009
Web Design in Black & White
Black & White doesn’t have to be boring. Monochromatic color schemes can be used with just about any color, but some of the most striking are in black & white. By cutting out color a website relies more heavily on other design elements – such as layout or typography, etc..
So here’s your daily dose of inspiration…30 extremely well-done Black & White websites…
If you need more convincing check out this post by Youri on Designfeedr: Lose the color! 9 reasons to ditch color
December 18th, 2008
The 10 Most Valuable Web Color Resources
Color Inspiration
Screenalicio.us – Browse thousands of websites sorted by color.
Colour Lovers – Ratings on thousands of user submitted color palettes. They even have a feature to find stock photos that match a certain color.
Color Selection
Color Palette Selector – Color palette and blending selection tool.
Color Blender – Another excellent tool for color matching and blending.
Color Harmony Selector – Find color complements for your RGB colors.
ColourMod Dashboard Widget – Free Apple dashboard widget for color selection.
Color Resources
Color Code Matching Chart – If the color matching tools listed above aren’t your thing, try this chart instead. View and compare hundreds of colors at once. (Pantone, CMYK and RGB hex).
Official RGB Color Names – Listing of all of the named RGB colors.
Color Grabbers
Palette Grabber Firefox Extension – One-click to download a website’s colors to an Adobe, Flash or Paintshop palette.
PagePainter – Grab colors directly out of your web browser.
August 22nd, 2008
Dashboard Updates For the Week of 8/18
All in all another exciting week for our Web Design Dashboard!
We’ve added Cymbolism, a really unique and creative color tool that asks users what color they think of when presented with different words. The site’s goal is to make it simpler for designers to choose the best colors to use for a desired emotional effect. Definitely worth a look!
We’ve also got a new web developer toolbar for Firefox and CMS from Scratch, a free solution that allows designers to give their customers a web site they can edit themselves.
Last but not least is Blog Perfume, a WordPress related site with themes, plugins, and great blogging resources.
As always, keep the suggestions coming and we’ll try to post as many as we can!
5 Common Mistakes Made When Designing a Website
There are some pretty bad websites out there. In fact, there are sites dedicated solely to pointing them out (webpagesthatsuck.com). Most of the ‘bad websites’ out there (excluding the truly horrific) are labeled so because they made a handful of very common mistakes during the design process. These are some of those mistakes we see the most often.
Having design elements that look like ads – There is absolutely nothing wrong with having a reasonable amount of advertisements on your website. However, you must realize that because of the sheer volume of advertisements on pages, most users have developed selective attention. They’ll ignore everything that looks like a banner, pop-up or any other type of typical ad – so its not a good idea to have important design elements or information displayed in any of these formats.
Jamming 10 pounds of stuff into a 5 pound bag – Whether you go overboard on content or flashy design elements, cramming too much onto a site is a common mistake. The result could be a busy layout, a wall of text, side scrolling, very little white space, etc. Each of these things makes a website difficult to read and making your visitors work for information is never a good idea.
Having confusing and unclear navigation – Clear navigation is one of the most important factors for a site’s usability. Users should have no questions about how they are supposed to move around the different areas of your site. It’s a good idea to make your links change colors once a user clicks on them, knowing which pages they’ve already visited helps prevent users from unintentionally landing on pages they’ve seen before. Also, your users shouldn’t have to jump through hoops to find the content they are looking for – make sure that every single page is within 3 or 4 clicks of your homepage.
Looking amateur-ish – Sure this is a bit vague, but there are certain features/missteps that web designers make that scream beginner. For example, avoid saying “Welcome to ____” on your homepage. There are other ways to make your visitors feel welcome. Similarly, test to make sure your page looks good in all browsers instead of taking the shortcut “Best viewed in ____”.
Using overly wild or bright color schemes – Everyone loves creativity, and this doesn’t mean that you should shy away from using color in your design. However, when colors are too bright or you use too many colors on the same page it can look unprofessional. Also make sure that your background color and text color compliment each other, keeping your text easy to read and scan.
So next time your designing a site, take a minute to step back and review. If you avoid these common errors you are probably safe from having your site end up on one of the many “Worst Website” lists.
Web Design in Yellow
Yellow can be a tricky color to design with, but when used correctly it can lead to a creative and fresh website. Check out these sites that use the color extremely well…
Web Outsourcing Services Group
So, if you’re feeling adventurous – go ahead and make your site yellow! Here’s a yellow color chart to get you started.
Web Design in Black & White
Black & White doesn’t have to be boring. Monochromatic color schemes can be used with just about any color, but some of the most striking are in black & white. By cutting out color a website relies more heavily on other design elements – such as layout or typography, etc..
So here’s your daily dose of inspiration…30 extremely well-done Black & White websites…
If you need more convincing check out this post by Youri on Designfeedr: Lose the color! 9 reasons to ditch color
The 10 Most Valuable Web Color Resources
Color Inspiration
Screenalicio.us – Browse thousands of websites sorted by color.
Colour Lovers – Ratings on thousands of user submitted color palettes. They even have a feature to find stock photos that match a certain color.
Color Selection
Color Palette Selector – Color palette and blending selection tool.
Color Blender – Another excellent tool for color matching and blending.
Color Harmony Selector – Find color complements for your RGB colors.
ColourMod Dashboard Widget – Free Apple dashboard widget for color selection.
Color Resources
Color Code Matching Chart – If the color matching tools listed above aren’t your thing, try this chart instead. View and compare hundreds of colors at once. (Pantone, CMYK and RGB hex).
Official RGB Color Names – Listing of all of the named RGB colors.
Color Grabbers
Palette Grabber Firefox Extension – One-click to download a website’s colors to an Adobe, Flash or Paintshop palette.
PagePainter – Grab colors directly out of your web browser.
Dashboard Updates For the Week of 8/18
All in all another exciting week for our Web Design Dashboard!
We’ve added Cymbolism, a really unique and creative color tool that asks users what color they think of when presented with different words. The site’s goal is to make it simpler for designers to choose the best colors to use for a desired emotional effect. Definitely worth a look!
We’ve also got a new web developer toolbar for Firefox and CMS from Scratch, a free solution that allows designers to give their customers a web site they can edit themselves.
Last but not least is Blog Perfume, a WordPress related site with themes, plugins, and great blogging resources.
As always, keep the suggestions coming and we’ll try to post as many as we can!
RECENT POSTS
- New Dashboard Updates!
- How Much Does a Website Cost?
- Web Design Inspiration – Go Green!
- Websites with Inspired Background Designs
- How Can I Get a Job as a Web Designer?
- 10 Great Contact & Comment Form Designs
- Should Your Web Developer Be Your SEO Consultant As Well?
- New Additions to the Web Design Dashboard
ARCHIVES
BLOG CATEGORIES
SUBSCRIBE
TAGS
404 pages
advice
agency
analytics
apple.com
Awards
bad design
bad websites
blog
color
CSS
dashboard
design
design flaws
e-commerce
evolution
firefox
Google
graphicdesign
guide
hiring
hosting
HTML
Inspiration
internet
jobs
navigation
pink
professional
redesign
resources
reviews
seo
social media
tips
toolbar
tools
Tutorials
Twitter
updates
Usability
webdesign
Web Design
Web Development
yellow fields
ABOUT AGENCYTOOL
At its core, AgencyTool exists to serve as a resource for creative agencies, whether they be into web design, print, advertising or anything else. Here on the AgencyTool Blog you'll find a mish-mosh of resources and thoughts that we think are worth sharing.
Feel free to comment on a post or drop us a note if you've got something to say. We love comments, so we don't use nofollow, but we do moderate - you've been warned!
Feel free to comment on a post or drop us a note if you've got something to say. We love comments, so we don't use nofollow, but we do moderate - you've been warned!