1. Good website design : Part I
Website Colors That Turn Off Your Customers
Using too many colors or the wrong combination of colors could alienate or turn off customers
completely. Out of any form of non-verbal communication, color is the quickest way to communicate a
message and meaning. Many studies have been done on the psychology of color and the subconscious
emotions that they create. Studies have shown that color can help improve recall, comprehension, and
understanding by 75%. In fact, color accelerates the ability to learn by 20% by keeping readers focused
and improving retention.
Choose Colors with Care.
Marketers spend oodles of time and money determining the colors to best market their product: the
colors that will prove the highest amount of return on investment. You may want to hire a professional
web designer to help you. Make sure the web designer you hire is not just a programmer, but also a
graphic designer and/or marketer. After all, the reason why 99% of all websites fail is because it was
created by a technician, rather than a marketing expert.
So, What Colors are Best for Your Website?
That is hard to say. Again, you may want to hire a professional to help you. However, the following tips
will help you understand the underlying meaning behind color so you may be guided to make the right
choice. Keep in mind that depending on its value or intensity, one color can give very different
emotions.
Red - Stimulating. Exciting. Energizing. Appetizing. When you eye sees red, chemical responses in your
body cause your blood pressure, pulse rate, and adrenaline to increase. Fire engine red is more
energetic than a more traditional burgundy.
Pink - Happy. Romantic. Spirited. Youthful. Best used for less expensive and trendy products. Vibrant
pinks are common in the cosmetic industry. Bubble gum pink can be considered immature, but fuchsia
or magenta are considered more sophisticated.

2. Orange - Friendly. Adventurous. Energizing. Inviting. Of all the colors, orange is the hottest. Similar to
red’s arousing effect, orange is often associated with bright sunsets or fall foliage. Orange contains the
drama of red with the cheeriness of yellow. Neon orange tends to be load and is the most disliked color,
but a more tempered vivid orange is highly effective for point-of-purchase graphics and specials.
Yellow - Warm. Sunny. Cheerful. Vibrant. Yellow is equivalent to enlightenment and imagination. This
color is especially effective for food service industries because of the -association to bananas, custards
and lemons. Pale yellow is an excellent choice for point-of-purchase materials (materials at the cash
register or reception area) because the eye sees the highly reflective yellow before it notices any other
color.
Brown - Rich. Sheltering. Durable. Sensible. Brown is an earth tone and is related to the earth’s
nurturing qualities and stability. Generally speaking, brown provokes a positive response, but the wrong
shade could lead to customers relating it to dirty, which could be detrimental for a product in the
fashion industry, for example. Brown works well with food products since customers also relate it to
root beer, coffee and chocolate.
Blue - Cool. Trusting. Serene. Consistent. Similar to the earthy color brown, blue is related to the sky
and water, both dependable constants in our lives. Blue is an ideal color for websites, especially e-
commerce websites. Many banks and financial institutions use blue in their marketing because it makes
customers feel more trusting. Blue also can generate a cold, distant, corporate feeling, the opposite of
generating a personal relationship with the customer.
Green - Refreshing. Healing. Fresh. Soothing. Green offers the most variety of choices out of all the
colors of the rainbow. Green works well for personal hygiene or beauty products because of its soothing
and flattering tones. Most people link green to nature; they think of foliage or grass. Mint green is seen
as fresh while bright greens are associated with grass. Emerald greens are elegant and deep greens are
linked to money and prestige. Green is also combined nicely with many other colors and can also work
as a neutral.
Purple - Elegant. Sensual. Regal. Mysterious. Purple is seen as sensual and spiritual as it combines the
sexuality of red and the sereneness of blue. It is best used with creative products, new products, or

3. cutting edge products. Deep purple is associated with regal sophistication and lavender has a more
subtle nostalgic appeal.
Neutrals - Classic. Quality. Natural. Timeless. The neutral tones of beige, gray and taupe emulate the
psychological message of dependability and timelessness. They are regarded as safe and non-offensive
and will not go out-of-date as they are always in style.
White - Pure. Bright. Pristine. Simple. While white can signify clean elegance, it can also be considered
generic and stark, unless you have stylish graphics to compliment the white.
Black – Strong. Classic. Mysterious. Powerful. Black is most closely associated with the night. Black is
seen as powerful, dramatic, elegant and expensive. In food packaging, a customer will actually pay more
for a gourmet image. Although black is associated with mourning, its positive associations far outweigh
its negative. Warning: too much black can be overkill.
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Good website design : End of Part I
Website Accessibility - Proper Navigation
A very important point to consider while designing a website is proper navigation. You must ensure that
potential clients or customers are able to find the information they are looking for without too many
clicks. As a quick rule of thumb, visitors to your site should be able to visit all your pages by using, at
most, 3 clicks. This is also important when considering search engine optimization (SEO) because search
engines will only spider (or index) pages that are 3 clicks deep into your site. Not only does proper
navigation allow users to find information they are looking for, but it also allows search engines to
spider (or index) the information they are looking for. This is essential if you want high quality search
engine traffic directed to your website.

4. Different types of websites employ different navigation styles, so it is probably best to visit websites
similar to your own to see which navigation structure they have chosen. The most common locations
for your navigation menu are either on the left side of the page or at the top of the page. When internet
users view a website, they do so using what is termed as a “Z scan”. As soon as a page loads, most
people scan from the top-left, across to the top-right of the page, then down to the lower-left, and
eventually across to the lower-right of the page. So, it makes the most sense to locate your navigation
menu in the area where the user is going to first look.
Smaller sites usually only require a static menu on either the side or top of the page. However, website
that contains 10 – 15 topics on different pages may require a drop-down menu. These menus may use
DHTM, _JavaScript, or some other programming language. When the user’s mouse moves over a main
topic category, boxes containing subcategories will drop-down, allowing the user to quickly find the
information they are looking for. I f this type of menu is used, it is best to also include text-based
navigation in another location on the page. Older browser versions may not support drop-down menus,
and therefore a small percentage of people may not be able to navigate your website. Even more
important though, is the fact that search engines will not be able to navigate and index your site if there
is no text based navigation.
Another concern is accessibility by assistive technologies. For example, blind Internet users literally read
the code of your page. Therefore, if a navigation menu is image based or uses image maps, alternate
text must be used to allow the user to properly navigate the website. To make things easy, no matter
what type of navigation I choose for a client’s website, I always include text-based navigation links at the
bottom of every page to ensure that they are accessible to all Internet users and search engine spiders.
A Few Important Tips
•Plan your site navigation structure before designing your website to ensure that you are not forgetting
any page links. It may be cumbersome to fix every page you have created because you a missing a link or
two.
•The navigation menu must be clean-cut and uniform.

5. •Do not make the user scroll down the page to see the navigation menu.
•If you have too many links, use drop-down menus or create a site map.
•The navigation structure should be flexible enough to allow the inclusion of a additional links at a later
date.
•Use short, clear and concise words in your links so your customers know exactly what type of
information that page will contain.
•Make sure every page has a link back to your homepage. This can be achieved by providing a “Home”
link in the navigation structure, and / or linking your logo image to the homepage.
•For larger sites, breadcrumb trails can be used to let the user know what section of the website they
are in. For example, at the top of a certain page, the user would see:
“Home / Products / Widgets / Green Widgets”
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Good website design : End of Part II
Website Building 101
So you want to get your online business up and running but there’s one little problem – you need a
website! For any business, big or small, a professional website is important if you want to attract
potential clients or customers and create a solid foundation for continued success. But many people

6. have no idea how to go about the process. Luckily, it’s actually quite easy to get a functional, well
designed and user-friendly website online in a reasonable amount of time. And depending on your
particular situation and budget, there are several options available to make your business goals a reality.
The first option is to hire a designer. If you are willing to invest a good sum of money into the initial
stages of developing your business, hiring a professional website designer or web design company
should be something to seriously consider. The job will cost you thousands of dollars (if you hire a
reputable designer) but all the pressure and work will be on someone else’s shoulders. Spending a lot of
money right at the beginning of your venture may seem a little risky, but compared to other business
endeavors the cost – and risk – are minimal. And the amount of money you have the potential to make
after your site goes live will far outweigh the amount of money initially invested in its construction. Also,
if you expect a professional job, hiring a professional is the best way to attain that objective.
A designer will consult with you regarding what you need in a website – a simple basic website, flash-
based design, and ecommerce sites are the most common. You will also discuss form, functionality,
color scheme, graphics, and other important points. Sometimes content can be obtained through your
web designer as well, or you can fulfill your content needs after the basic website design is completed.
In the end, hiring a web designer offers you a lot of flexibility and gives you the ability to fully customize
your website in all aspects of its design.
Go it Alone
If you don’t have the money to spend on a good web designer or feel it’s unnecessary for your purposes,
there’s no reason why you can’t create the website yourself. And this option applies to everyone – even
if you know nothing about HTML or web design. Of course, if you do know a little bit of HTML - or are
willing to put your nose to the grindstone and scour the Internet and your local library to learn HTML -
you can certainly build a website from scratch. But nowadays there are other ways to make your own
business website without struggling with HTML or a costly designer.
Website templates, for example, combine the professional design talents of an experienced web
designer with the cost-effectiveness of going it alone. Templates are ready-made web pages that a
designer or design company sells for a small sum – the cost is so low simply because the template can be
resold over and over again. In addition, if you purchase a website template that won’t be resold after
you buy it the cost will rise but still ends up being much more affordable than working with a designer

7. one-on-one. The cost is kept relatively low because, although the template cannot be sold to another
person, the design was already created and the buyer agrees to purchase it “as is.”
When you visit a website selling templates you are given the freedom to browse through a wide
selection of different styles of website designs. Once you find the perfect match for your business you
simply purchase and download. All that’s left is to edit it using a simple HTML editor to add content,
graphics – you name it. One such website template company I found that offers quality, reasonably
priced templates is TemplateDogma (see the link in Resource Box).
The final option is to use an online website builder to do the job. This type of program holds your hand
every step of the way so that you can build a website without knowing anything about computer
languages or design techniques. Even if you use a WYSIWYG editor it is possible to get lost along the
way, and as mentioned above, templates do require editing after you make the purchase. A website
builder is the only option that essentially automates the entire process. You might not be able to
customize every aspect of the site, as templates are usually part of the procedure, but adding content,
pictures, charts and tables to the site is made entirely hassle-free.
As you can see, there are many different ways to build a website from the ground up. In the end, choose
the option you think will lead you down the path toward online success and you’ll be happy with the
results.
Hiring a web designer to come up with the custom solution that you need can set you back a few
thousand bucks. But you can do the whole thing yourself and make it drag and drop simple for mere
pennies with a tool like Breezy Websites. See http://breezywebsites.com for details!
Good website design : End of Part III