Boot Camp
Web Authoring Boot Camp - StudioBast
Web Authoring Boot Camp - StudioBast
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Web Authoring <strong>Boot</strong> <strong>Camp</strong><br />
Strengthen Viewability<br />
Regardless of the visitor demographics and client’s preferred color palette, there are a few<br />
style basics that enhance ease of use.<br />
32<br />
• Contrast: The contrast on a web page is the difference in visual properties that<br />
makes an object (or its representation in an image) distinguishable from other<br />
objects and the background. In web design, good contrast means that the weight<br />
and color of text and hyperlinks stands out easily from the background color of<br />
the page, for instance.<br />
• Size: The size of objects (text blocks, images, thumbnails, navigation buttons,<br />
etc.) is important in helping a website be easy to use. Images that require scrolling<br />
to see, or big blocks of unbroken text, can make a page look crowded or overwhelming.<br />
Items that are too small can create too much white space and make it<br />
hard to discern the main point.<br />
• Colors: Colors are important in two ways. The correct use of color combinations<br />
and contrast can really help a website be easy to digest, while poor color choices<br />
with bad contrast make it impossible. For instance, red text on a yellow background,<br />
or blue links on a black background, are very hard to see. Plus, colors can<br />
also trigger moods and associations in visitors. If your target audience is young,<br />
bright colors and lots of black appeal, while a senior audience benefits from conservative<br />
and generally muted but good contrast colors. If the website is meant to<br />
appeal to an international audience, knowing which colors are truly taboo to different<br />
cultures can help you make the site appealing rather than a turn-off.<br />
Layout Size and Resolution<br />
With so many different configurations that visitors have their computers set up with, it<br />
can be difficult to decide how a website should be sized so that it is attractive and viewable<br />
as much as possible. Here are a few tips:<br />
• Design to have your page elements be very visible and tidy between 800×600 and<br />
1280×1024, since this range captures the majority of current laptop screens and<br />
desktop monitor resolutions.<br />
• The norm is to optimize for 1024x768 screen resolutions. For most sites this will<br />
cover most visitors since the average low-price monitor or laptop screen has this<br />
as a default resolution.<br />
• Keep in mind that the real width of a 1024x768 screen is about 960 pixels. If you<br />
design with fixed widths, consider 900, 925, 950, and even 980 pixels in width.<br />
Don’t design wider, because visitors don’t usually scroll to the side and find it<br />
uncomfortable.