Design elements can greatly enhance the look and feel of your website. Below are some of our preferred elements.
Roll Over Buttons and Images
This is when an image or button changes a color or formation when you roll over it with your mouse. This gives an interactive feel to your website.
How to in Dreamweaver:
First make or design your images and buttons and export them to your websites image folder. Now open Dreamweaver and click Insert, Image Objects, then Rollover image. There will be a window that pops up. In that window type a rollover name and alt tag. Then you need to link and browse to locate the original Image and also the Rollover Image. Click on the OK button. That’s it! It’s that easy.
Graphic and Photo Effects
Graphic and Photo effects can make the wow factor for your website. Using the correct quantity of graphic and photo effects can be very compelling, but using too many can achieve the opposite.
For an example using a curved banner on your website can make your site more professional looking and not so square. You can check out some of our portfolio websites that use this here: http://www.websitestoimpress.com/portfolio.html
Site Interactivity
To help make your website more sticky for your visitors you can use site polls, surveys, a guest book, a calendar, and a newsletter sign-up. This makes your website more eventful and draws your visitors in to your website and they are also more likely to come back and visit.
Those are just a few snippets of what you can use to spice up your website while also making it more productive and entertaining!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Using Color
The color element can influence our mood, opinion, and overall excitement in something or a certain event. Personal experiences and circumstances in society can determine our response to color. We respond to color with a pleasant relief or a disgraced gesture. So how do we know which colors will make us positive?
Here is a guide for how people view colors. When people see the color Yellow they think of energy and life like the sun. Yellow is also sometimes viewed as “Speedy”. This may have something to do with cabs in the city whizzing up, down, and through the traffic. But, nothing less Yellow can be a powerful color that will instantly bring us a positive energy. Another great color to think about is Red. Everywhere you go you see the color Red. It is a color no one can deny. When you see Red you think of love and war. It is used to mark danger and is used for stop signs and traffic lights. Red demands our attention. Just a touch of Red can draw your eye towards your website. But, there is other ways you can use colors throughout your website.
Let’s look at Warm vs. Cool. First we’ll start out with the Warm colors. Warm colors are: Red, Orange, and Yellow. They are found at the top of the color wheel. The warm colors are inviting and cheerful. We think of heat from the sun and fire, bringing about life. Cool colors on the other hand mean to us as cool, calm and collected. We think of the sky, ocean, and forests. These colors are Blue, Violet, and Green. They also make us feel free. The hard thing is to figure out how much of each color to use. If you use too much of the cool colors, you’re website can appear dark and to cold and it won’t reach out to your visitors. If your website is too warm the visitors might feel overwhelmed and stuffy. The trick is to bring in a little bit of each. One thing that can help you balance these to differences is the color White. White is almost always a neutral home ground, so the use of white is important for the balance of your website. When in doubt, throw in some White.
Another thing to think about is contrast of colors. These are the colors that are opposite of each other on the color wheel. When you use these colors in the same lightness, the colors will create a beautiful color scheme. For an example: The Vikings use the colors Purple and Yellow. They are on the opposite sides of the color wheel. This creates excitement and interests for the fans.
All great color schemes rely on balance. This makes us comfortable and relaxed. It’ll make us more willing to search further into a website. So the next time you think that color is know big deal think again, color shows us the way to a better brighter life.
For more examples of good color schemes click here to view some of our live websites.
Here is a guide for how people view colors. When people see the color Yellow they think of energy and life like the sun. Yellow is also sometimes viewed as “Speedy”. This may have something to do with cabs in the city whizzing up, down, and through the traffic. But, nothing less Yellow can be a powerful color that will instantly bring us a positive energy. Another great color to think about is Red. Everywhere you go you see the color Red. It is a color no one can deny. When you see Red you think of love and war. It is used to mark danger and is used for stop signs and traffic lights. Red demands our attention. Just a touch of Red can draw your eye towards your website. But, there is other ways you can use colors throughout your website.
Let’s look at Warm vs. Cool. First we’ll start out with the Warm colors. Warm colors are: Red, Orange, and Yellow. They are found at the top of the color wheel. The warm colors are inviting and cheerful. We think of heat from the sun and fire, bringing about life. Cool colors on the other hand mean to us as cool, calm and collected. We think of the sky, ocean, and forests. These colors are Blue, Violet, and Green. They also make us feel free. The hard thing is to figure out how much of each color to use. If you use too much of the cool colors, you’re website can appear dark and to cold and it won’t reach out to your visitors. If your website is too warm the visitors might feel overwhelmed and stuffy. The trick is to bring in a little bit of each. One thing that can help you balance these to differences is the color White. White is almost always a neutral home ground, so the use of white is important for the balance of your website. When in doubt, throw in some White.
Another thing to think about is contrast of colors. These are the colors that are opposite of each other on the color wheel. When you use these colors in the same lightness, the colors will create a beautiful color scheme. For an example: The Vikings use the colors Purple and Yellow. They are on the opposite sides of the color wheel. This creates excitement and interests for the fans.
All great color schemes rely on balance. This makes us comfortable and relaxed. It’ll make us more willing to search further into a website. So the next time you think that color is know big deal think again, color shows us the way to a better brighter life.
For more examples of good color schemes click here to view some of our live websites.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)