Website 'theme'

[Stark]

Hey. I'm not a big A&P poster, and I was wondering if you artsy folks had any tips for someone as colour-wheel challenged as myself.

My boss gave me a domain to do various thing with (I'm really not sure why) and I've worked out most of my content requirements etc. However, I'm no good with creative ideas, and I need some suggestions on what does, and does not work with a website. That includes everything from colours to menu configuration, since I'm a manager, not a web developer

There will be several different areas of content, a download section, news, etc. I just need a non-crapilicious way to organise it, so I can start testing. Ideas?

[darthdavid]

Use a readable fontsize with a dark background and a light text color. It makes all the difference with readability.

[Stark]

Is light tsxt on a dark background better than vice versa? I'm pretty colour challenged

Also, what are things the format should include? Like menu bars and stuff... ?

I'm such a n0b:)

[Pcm979]

The eyes are drawn to white things, so light text is better.

[darthdavid]

Is light tsxt on a dark background better than vice versa? I'm pretty colour challenged

Also, what are things the format should include? Like menu bars and stuff... ?

I'm such a n0b:)

Ok i'm gonna go through all my bookmarks and find you every web authoring resource I have here we go...
http://werbach.com/barebones/barebones.html#general
http://www.echoecho.com/cssintroduction.htm
http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/css/
http://www.visibone.com/colorlab/big.html
Ok, now on to tips
If you use frames make sure you use the trick that allows each individual page to be bookmarked
Speaking of frames, as long as you do infact do them the good way like I said above then having frames can really enhance a website
Follow W3C standards, not Micro$haft shit
CSSs are your friends. Trust me.
Think of your target audience. What kind of things will appeal to them in a site?
If your site is going to have frequent updates in a news section you might consider including a RSS feed so people can keep up with it mor easily


That's it for now but If I think of anything else i'll be back

[Frank Hipper]

Is light tsxt on a dark background better than vice versa? I'm pretty colour challenged

Also, what are things the format should include? Like menu bars and stuff... ?

I'm such a n0b:)

As for light text on a dark background, staring at a white screen is like staring into a lightbulb. Never really thought about it until I read about why Maddox has his page setup the way he does.

[Stark]

Thanks guys for the help so far. I'm trying to avoid the 'bright blue screen with black letters' style popularised in 1995

Tonight I'll have a bash and see if I can get the mainpage layout set, and point people to it for opinions, k?

[moku]

Don't even bother making each individual webpage in html. Like darthdavid said above, CSS stylesheets are the way to go.

Also, have a peak at wiki, or tiki technology. (Google will land you heaps of results).

[salm]

use standard layouts which people are used to.

menue on the left, scrolling from top to bottom and so on. think about the 56kers and don´t put in images with megabyte sizes.

[moku]

If you can, put up an ftp server for downloads, even, perhaps as an alternative.

[Stark]

Okay, so I've got a HTML placeholder up for now, and I'm working on my frame layout atm. I was wondering what was a good way to work out stylesheets before you need them, ie before I've got tons of documents that need formatting? I guess I need to plan the appearance and layout standards of my content?

Also, is it worth including anything fancy (like java or php or whatever)? I'm reasonably happy with regular stuff, but I'm not sure what's expected these days How does one change between photoshop-style rgb values and HTML colours? ATM I'm using 'darkblue' etc, and it's not very coordinated.