On the choice of colours in a web page colour scheme

[lindiril]

A note to webdesigners: yes, it is nice that you can change the properties of links on pointer hover; that does not mean that the links should be indistinguishable from normal text when the mouse is not over them. I would argue that it is particularly important to be able to distinguish the presence of links without moving my mouse over every word

Comments

[lindiril]

Heh. The person who instigated this post was whoever designed the theme/layout I'm using for my LJ right now. I only noticed today that I was missing links on my friends page, and spent time I could have used not being late for class (or eating a stationary breakfast AND not being late for class, more accurately) trying to make the links slightly more detectable. I kind of like making the links a different colour and making them underline when you mouse-over to confirm the presence of a link; it's not necessarily the most accessible kind of design, but it appeals to me anyway. The "making it a different colour" bit is important, though.

Anyway, I certainly didn't mean to besmirch the name/lifestyle choice of webdesigning. ;-) I admit that when I use the word, I only mean people who design/implement things for the web. Your elitist jargon jars me not! :-D

Right now, my CS 480 (Information Systems Management) class is doing some free consulting (sort of) for CECS on the subject of the usability of Job Mine from the employer's perspective. Any quick advice on the "making sure they can navigate your site" front?

[musesshadow]

When ever developing a website, there are a few things to make sure that your site is easily navigable:

1) As you so eloquently put it, make the colours easy to read. A high contrast between background and text will usually do it.

2) Make the flow of the site logical. Don't make people fish around to try and find something.

3) Keep it organized. If people have to scroll and scroll (AND SCROLL...) to read it, they may get bored. Split articles or long pieces into subheadings and make the subheadings available from any related pages.

4) Make information accessible. If people have to click more than 4 times to find your info, they're going to look somewhere else.

5) An under utilized tool is a table of contents or search engine. Search engines are complicated, but a table of contents (accessible from any page) with link-backs to other sections can be a helpful navigation tool. If you really want to get fancy, a graphical layout of the site with an image map may go a long way.

These are just some basic things to keep in mind.

[lindiril]

Thank you very much! I will keep your suggestions in mind while I'm working on the project and in any future page-writing endeavours.