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Colour and Design
Colour is one of the most fundamental and important aspects of website design. A usability study found that “the best predictor for the overall judgement by typical users of a web site was its beauty” (Brady, L. & Phillips, C. 2003). Taking this into account our project team aimed to find the most appropriate colors that would enhance our site’s aesthetic qualities and have a lasting impression on visitors.
Choosing a Color Scheme
To do this we used Adobe Kuler which is an Internet application that allows designers to try out, create and save various color schemes, each of which consist of a set of five colors. Firstly we entered different keywords that were relevant to our site. Here are some of the color schemes that we found in our search:
Kentucky Activist
Hacker Dome
Kommunist
Initially we choose to work with the Kommunist colour scheme to identify whether it was appropriate to use on our site. After careful deliberation it was decided that this color scheme did not effectively convey our site’s purpose.
After some experimentation using triadic colour schemes that are said to achieve an inner sense of order. (Eiseman, L. 2000) we decided to return to Adobe Kuler to browse through the expansive collection of color schemes. We then decided to use the following color scheme from the collection:
Nuvella
This particular color scheme is the one that we chose to use in our site’s final design. We decided upon this color scheme on the basis that we felt it effectively conveyed our site’s meaning and purpose. Our intentional use of the strong red and yellow colors for our logo was done in an effort to grab our users attention.
Using yellow text on the dark blue background ensures that there is enough contrast for the text to be legible as well as standing out on the page, which improves readability. The cool background has the effect of making the warmer colors stand out more.
The color yellow features prominently on our site because it commands attention. While we are aware that using too many bright colors can be exhausting for the user, we feel that we have used them judiciously. In an effort to avoid causing confusion for the user we have used these colors consistently throughout our site.
LlamaAcid 