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Creative_NRG's picture
484 pencils

Black or White

Black or White

I've finally forced myself to sit down and complete a website design template and I've made some progress but keep going back and forth on whether to use black or white for the background.

Any thoughts on which direction is best is very appreciated.

zagadka's picture
131 pencils

love the minimal design. both look good.

can you let the visitor choose? have a button somewhere that changes the color theme?

if not and you have choose absolutely one, i would choose the black simply because it gives stronger focus to the content.

archmedia's picture
584 pencils

though you may want to just go with one, alot of sites that let the user choose seem to fail at letting the user know they CAN choose, but then you don't want to make it so obvious that it seems like you're taking away the attention of the work.

i'd therefor stick to the black, its a great point that "it gives stronger focus to the content"

nice work!!

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Architectural Technician - Multimedia Designer
www.ArchMedia.us

olliesan1's picture
277 pencils

Really nice and clean. Personally I prefer white, it feels more open and airy.

mokenke's picture
315 pencils

I like the white one. I feel white is longer lasting. There is a really nice contrast quality to the black one too, but white looks nicer to me. In the case of a portfolio display site such as yours, I belive white serves as a canvas. I think colors pop out really nicely on white just like food on a white plate. I am in love with white in general and I tend to use it and encourage it a lot.

mokenke

mokenke's picture
315 pencils

I like the white one. I feel white is longer lasting. There is a really nice contrast quality to the black one too, but white looks nicer to me. In the case of a portfolio display site such as yours, I belive white serves as a canvas. I think colors pop out really nicely on white just like food on a white plate. I am in love with white in general and I tend to use it and encourage it a lot.

Nice work.

mokenke

Rick's picture
75 pencils

It's easier to read and has a more friendly vibe.

CREATING HYPE | ENGAGING PEOPLE

ACE LONDON's picture
18 pencils

alright mate, keep it white...lovely simple design..

natobasso's picture
4004 pencils

White. I hate reading text on black. :)

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Powerpoint is not a design application

JimD's picture
2549 pencils

I prefer the "black" layout because the content text is actually on a white background, unlike the "white" layout where the content text is actually on a gray background. Plus, it certainly does focus your eye on the content area as archmedia stated above.

Very nice use of space, very clean and easy to navigate. I like it.

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Visit Creative Guy for graphics and Mac OS tips, tricks, tutorials and commentary

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Visit The Graphic Mac for graphics and Mac OS tips, reviews, tutorials and discussion.

stephanie's picture
522 pencils

Well, I don't normally say this, but I like the white. :O I agree with Nato, it's easier to read. The pixel-like font in the body is quite hard to read, anyway, though.

I would suggest skinning it, though - especially if you plan on some hefty traffic. I don't know about the majority of users here, but I switched CreativeBits to the lighter scheme because I can see the critiques better. :)

Btw, I'm liking the design! :) Keep us posted, I would love to see the website in coded-form!

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Perfectly Lost Designs

natobasso's picture
4004 pencils

I use the lighter theme for cbits too. :)

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Powerpoint is not a design application

Creative_NRG's picture
484 pencils

Thanks everyone for the kind words and great feedback! It's especially nice to be able to test drive an idea to see the reaction and get different perspectives for improvement.

I see now my initial trouble with picking a clear cut color scheme was for good reason.

To communicate a user friendly and flexible approach I'm going to research coding options for giving each visitor a color scheme choice as 'zagadka' pointed out. [without getting in the way]

If I do this right I should be able to get away with one set of images with CSS changing the background, nav and text. [Easier said than done as I'm not very good with the technical workings of web design]

A clean, easy to understand user interface is important to me and in this case my goal is to have ZERO scrolling on a 1024 x 768 monitor. To reduce the number of 'clicks' I also plan on having the numbers below each project dynamically switch out the pictures above.

I don't want to draw too much attention to the descriptions and just want them to add a little additional insight. The goal is for the focus to stay on the designs. In the end the pixel font will be replaced with CSS.

I'll keep you posted as I chip away and thanks again for your invaluable insight.

proudlywelsh's picture
13 pencils

I really like the design, I feel the white design does not stand out as well and the black site really make a professional statement.

My eyes are drawn straight to the content area where as its more difficult to distinguish separation from the navigation in the white design.

I'm of the same opinion as other here white is fresh and lasting but I think you have hit it on the nail with the dark design, if you like both offer a style switcher to change the css to offer both schemes.

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