The Colour of Design

Over the past two weeks I have been tasked with creating an informal presentation looking at what I personally feel is good web design. For this I chose three examples of what I felt was good design.

1. The Heritage Craft Association

The heritage craft association website was created in mid 2009 to give online support to the charity. The web page itself is very simple in its function as when accessing it the first thing the user will notice are the 6 clickable image buttons located on the right hand side of the screen. The buttons firstly add a form of aesthetic that is visually pleasing as it combines both image and text to create a button instead of text only. This offers a contrast to the left side of the screen which is dominated by text.

Secondly the home pages colour scheme is visually pleasing as it fits in with the images (though the images may have been chosen to fit in with the colour scheme). The colours that can be seen are green (top menu and text), brown (strip below top menu), khaki (main page), Black (background), and white (text and logo). A total of five colours does make it visually striking but could also be making it rather bunched. Possibly one too many colours.

However the function of the website is to represent the scale of craftsmanship in Britain today. The way it does this effectively and simply is by creating a map of Britain and have little pins placed on the map representing known craftspeople.

This simple map gives the user a visual representation of how many craftspeople are in Britain, but also allows for users to contact them via the information located on the pins when clicked.

A simple approach to something functional.


2. My Starbucks Idea

This web site allows users to rate and talk about their personal experiences from Starbucks coffee stores whether it is from the experience or to the drink products offered.

From the initial outlay the webpage is simple. It is not cluttered with advertisements and is easy on the eyes because of this. Also there is only use of 4 colours white, green, black, and orange. The way in which the colour is used in the typography is very useful in the clickable buttons are coloured in orange and the un-clickable buttons are black. This is continued through the whole website and visually explains to the user what is clickable and what isn’t.

Also the top menu bar is simple in that it lays out the options available to the user. Whether the user wishes to submit an idea, view ideas, or view successful ideas the option is available from the top menu bar allowing quick an easy access.

3. For Dummies (Brand)

The “For Dummies” brand is a recognisable brand of how-to books that were published for beginners or novices in there field to understand better the field. The brand itself has become recognisable due to its success.

However looking at it from a design point of view one can see aspects of design that can be incorporated into a website.

Firstly the colour scheme is most apparent. It uses 3 main colours being black, white, and yellow with the yellow being most striking. This is beneficial to the design of a book as for example a user walks into a library looking for the “dummies” series, they will instantly recognise it when they see the bright yellow from the spine of the book and when seeing the dummie sign.

This colour scheme and design is so simple that it has been incorporated into the official “For Dummies” website.

This is a testament to how simple cohesive design can be used on a variety of mediums to still be effective.