Help Choosing Website Backgrounds
As most people consider the choices for website backgrounds for their site, the first thing that comes to mind is creativity. Something that will help them stand out from the crowd.
While this logic may hold a certain appeal, most of the time, wild backgrounds actually distract visitors.
In addition something as simple as using the wrong of colors can actually make your website illegible. Sometimes too distracting, or simply a mess. Your visitor should not be confused by your choice of background. It gives the impression that the designer was lazy, somewhat untrustworthy.
Obviously, this is not what you want.
Let’s examine a few techniques for choosing an effective website background. You only get one chance to make a great impression. Of course you can still be creative with your final choices, but you should keep some guidelines in mind.
To start, dark website backgrounds are usually not a good choice. This is because while a simple black background may seem perfect in theory, many viewers perceive it as gloomy, almost a sinister color. Remember we want to instill trust among our website visitors.
The first impression/trust has a lot to do with color psychology. It’s something to keep in mind since we want our visitor in an open/trusting frame of mind. Especially if you want she/he to make a purchase.
Light backgrounds, on the other hand, usually appeal to a wider audience. Light colors make a web page easier to read. Does this mean that you only get to choose between pastels and baby colors. Of course not. You can use plenty of different color gradients so long as you make sure that the web copy is set against a light background or framed by a light background.
Another thing that you want to avoid when choosing the best background is a heavy use of texture. Heavy textures make content very hard to read. It tends to divert your visitors attention away from your information/content.
Effective backgrounds aim to capture the interest of the visitor. Any repeated background patterns should be avoided unless the image is quite pale and will not be placed behind text.
Finally, although many people avoid it, white actually creates plenty of wonderful website backgrounds. If you choose white; simply ensure that there is plenty of visual stimulation on each page such as headlines in rich colors, astounding copy, images, and or plenty of photos.
The advantage is that when you insert these items, you never have to
worry about matching them to the website background.
