Your Website Preferences

[rendezvouscp]

Hello! I am re-designing my website from the ground up, and I need to make a few decisions about the design. If anyone could answer these questions, that would be great. Some of the questions are more-over what you think is most intuitive, others not.

Your personal preferences no matter the color:

1. Do you like lighter or darker backgrounds?
2. Do you like buttons that, when you mouse over them, change from light to dark or dark to light?
3. Do you like the main navigational buttons to the top, the left, or the right of the main content?
4. Depending on your answer to #3, where do you like submenus to be put?
5. Do you like websites that restrict the width of the page, or would you rather have control over that yourself?

That's all I can think of right now, if I think of more, I'll post them and edit this post.
–Chase

 

[grneyedjay]

Well, first of all, I should say that I am in fact oriented to websites. Once I realized that it was socially acceptable to like them, I stopped picking up newspapers all together. Second, go with lighter colors for backgrounds and buttons....it is easier to read text (presumably almost always in a dark color), they print well and don't waste a lot of ink. I don't like anything that flashes, changes too much, or is just plain gaudy. Alos, Splash intros ARE WORTHLESS. Navigation goes either top or left of the page. End transmission.

 

[slooksterPSV]

Hello! I am re-designing my website from the ground up, and I need to make a few decisions about the design. If anyone could answer these questions, that would be great. Some of the questions are more-over what you think is most intuitive, others not.

Your personal preferences no matter the color:

1. Do you like lighter or darker backgrounds?
2. Do you like buttons that, when you mouse over them, change from light to dark or dark to light?
3. Do you like the main navigational buttons to the top, the left, or the right of the main content?
4. Depending on your answer to #3, where do you like submenus to be put?
5. Do you like websites that restrict the width of the page, or would you rather have control over that yourself?

That's all I can think of right now, if I think of more, I'll post them and edit this post.
–Chase

1. I like darker backgrounds.
2. Dark to Light is always fun.
3. Left, it looks neat and clean, but it would make it more mac like if it was to the right.
4. Submenu's have them drop down when you click on a category that has sub categories within it, doesn't have to be an animation, could be a new page.
5. Restricting the width helps keep the page looking clean and smooth, so I'll go with restricting, but if you could specify your own width of the page it and it fits like that, that'd be interesting. E.G. Have a box at the bottom that says width (in pixels) and height and have the user type in how long and tall they'd like to see the page in. Well maybe not height, but width.

 

[2much]

1. Do you like lighter or darker backgrounds?

Lighter backgrounds with dark/black text are easier on the eyes. That doesn't prohibit you from having a dark background necessarily--just that I think areas of text should be dark on light.

2. Do you like buttons that, when you mouse over them, change from light to dark or dark to light?

I don't mind either way so long as the change is obvious. From a user interface point of view, items should become obviously highlighted either by changing size, shape, or colour when moused over.

3. Do you like the main navigational buttons to the top, the left, or the right of the main content?

Top, I find left/right can detract from the main text I'm trying to read.

4. Depending on your answer to #3, where do you like submenus to be put?

I prefer them to appeare as a one-line breadcrumb trail, much like what this site has.

5. Do you like websites that restrict the width of the page, or would you rather have control over that yourself?

I like the main text to be restricted in some way so that it doesn't scroll across the entire window & require me to resize it.

 

[mnkeybsness]

1. Do you like lighter or darker backgrounds?
2. Do you like buttons that, when you mouse over them, change from light to dark or dark to light?

I would say that the two first questions go hand in hand. If you've got a light background, you may want darker buttons. I'm not saying completely dark, but darker than the background.

3. Do you like the main navigational buttons to the top, the left, or the right of the main content?

This is very dependent on the rest of the layout of the page.

4. Depending on your answer to #3, where do you like submenus to be put?

That also depends on how the rest of the page is laid out. I suggest that most of the time, it is best if they are very near the main menu, best if the come right off from it in an Apple menu-bar style.

5. Do you like websites that restrict the width of the page, or would you rather have control over that yourself?

Never change the size of a browser window. That is one of the biggest pet peeves that people have. You can easily restrict the width by simply centering the content on the page and giving that a fixed width. see http://www.paularms.com

You may not like how vague the answers to most of the questions were. But in fact, you need a starting point. Every answer is dependent on something else. Take into consideration who your main audience is going to be and start making your decisions from there. Web design is a part of graphic design--every aspect of the page must have a reason and a purpose.

 

[Giaguara]

1. Do you like lighter or darker backgrounds?
lighter. look more professional
2. Do you like buttons that, when you mouse over them, change from light to dark or dark to light?
no
3. Do you like the main navigational buttons to the top, the left, or the right of the main content?
top, or left.
4. Depending on your answer to #3, where do you like submenus to be put?
if submenus, i want menus to be up, on a row left to right, submenus down from them WHEN CLICKED not when not
5. Do you like websites that restrict the width of the page, or would you rather have control over that yourself?
i HATE websites that resize my window size, make it fit to ANY size i want.

a few more things:

1) if i want entertainment, i go to cinema, not to a flash site. so i dont like flash for only the purpose of having it in flash

20 if it is in flash, i want "skip this stupid thing"

 

[brap]

1. Do you like lighter or darker backgrounds?
2. Do you like buttons that, when you mouse over them, change from light to dark or dark to light?
3. Do you like the main navigational buttons to the top, the left, or the right of the main content?
4. Depending on your answer to #3, where do you like submenus to be put?
5. Do you like websites that restrict the width of the page, or would you rather have control over that yourself?

1. Lighter backgrounds are not only easier to read, but are a failsafe should anyone be using a really crappy monitor. I can't articulate how annoying it is seeing white Arial on a black background when you've got a .28dp monitor...

2. Button mouseovers are alright eitherway, so long as they look stylish -- no gaudy stuff, I generally find a subtle change more pleasing than otherwise. Eitherway, images need 'alt's!

3. Personally, I don't care, but left-to-right is more natural for the English speaker.

4. As with other posts, it doesn't really matter so long as the design is tidy. The map at the top of this forum (and pretty much every other) showing your current position is always, I find, immesnely helpful.

5. As a rule, I design everything so it fits width-wise on an 800*600 monitor. Vertical scrolling is fine, but horizontal scrolling is a definite nono. Again, look at this forum -- it's so easy to use, and it's obviously taken a lot of thought to get it so.

Check out This, and this, the latter aimed at corporate designers, though the principles remain the same.
That said, it all needs to be tailored to the content. These articles may be a little too in depth for a photo album/'blog' type thing, so just find a happy medium and roll with it.

 

[slooksterPSV]

looks like its 5 for light 1 for dark lol, guess I'm ruled out

 

[Knox]

1. Previously I would have said darker, but I'm now slightly more undecided. Having said that, I do prefer non-white backgrounds.

One of my own main websites is a black background and I have been considering switching it to a white/light background, however on showing some of the users a light version they all say they prefer the dark one. Possibly could be just because they're used to it, but it surprised me.

If you do use a dark background ideally you should provide a printable (ie white-background) version. You can do this fairly easily if you're using CSS properly.

2. Whatever the opposite of the background is.

3. Top

4. Left side usually

5. Depends on the content, and the amount of content. I tend to use fixed width but in some cases (eg the front page of MR) variable width is more suitable.

 

[TBR]

Just don't have background music!

 

[slooksterPSV]

I agree with TBR, I sometimes will leave a site because of annoying music, or the lag time (even with broadband) it takes too long to load. MIDI's are just horrible too, too.. whats the word... light on sound.

 

[superninjagoat]

Here's my take

1. Do you like lighter or darker backgrounds?
Light backgrounds are (as previously mentioned) easier on the eyes. Personally, I like about a 5-10 percent steel gray, azure or other cool neutral color. White can be a bit stark, but that might be what you're going for.

Dark backgrounds can be a problem if the user's browser doesn't support CSS and your text defaults to black. Just something to think about.


2. Do you like buttons that, when you mouse over them, change from light to dark or dark to light?
Personally, I like buttons that light up.

3. Do you like the main navigational buttons to the top, the left, or the right of the main content?
We are a top-down, right reading culture. Keeping that in mind, navigation at the top or left is most appropriate.

4. Depending on your answer to #3, where do you like submenus to be put?
I like drop-downs or second-row organizations for top navigations. I usually don't use side navs for main content, but I have been known to use the side navs as the secondary information for the top nav. But that's just me.

5. Do you like websites that restrict the width of the page, or would you rather have control over that yourself?
Let the user control his or her page width, unless you have a good reason not to.



But, before you begin deciding what the site will look like, you might first want to consider your target audience and the image you want to portray.

Does your site target senior citizens? Use large black text on white background. Are you a gothic filmmaker? Perhaps a lot of dark elements. You get the idea. Color is powerful. Consider how each color will make the user feel, and how the combinations interact. And remember, more is less.

For example, this message board is primarily a monochrome steel gray. Color is used to draw the eyes to emotions. There's not much else. This would be a very different site if Arn used white text on a black background with yellow accents. Very different. And not very Mac.