While catching up on the Twittering Twats (okay, stole that term from @JohnCleese) I follow, I came across a tweet from @ev (aka, Evan Williams), one of the founders of Twitter.  Evan was espousing the greatness of the @COLOURlovers tool, themeleon, for adjusting your Twitter account’s graphical look.  Well, always the curious one, I decided to check it out.

themeleon turned out to be a really cool tool and I give it three thumbs up.  It is a great way to spice up your Twitter account without having to use a graphics program.  You simply go to the themeleon tool, log into your Twitter account and then select from existing colors and patterns or upload your own photos.  In no time at all your Twitter page will reflect your account’s persona.  The toughest part?  Trying to choose what you like the best from the many options available.  Now go have fun!

JWLambert Twitter Page Before and After themeleon Makeover

I’m not going to go into an art lesson and teach you what colors work together or what emotions certain colors prompt, but I do want to make certain that one takes in the human aspects of color selection on their viewing public.

There are many examples of web sites where colors and fonts are all over the place, which results in a site visitor’s immediate response to be that of hitting the <back> button; so very easy to do. We create a web site for a reason; to get a message across, to share our interests, to promote services or products. It is important, then, to ensure we get this message across by making simple decisions when it comes to the use of color. It is certainly worthwhile to research color selection from a creative perspective but it is equally important to ensure that, once we have decided on a color palette, that it works for everyone. What do I mean by this?

There is a significant percentage of the population, somewhere around five percent, that don’t see colors the way the majority of the population does. That is, a variety of color vision issues exists amongst our viewing public. So, what can one do about this? Well, there are two sites in particular that I think are worth noting and that can help you ensure your web site is presentable to all.

Vischeck

The first site is Vischeck. In particular, this site has a tool available where you can specify a particular web page, click <Run Vischeck!> and follow the resulting links to what the specified web page would look like to someone who has one of three different types of color blindness. I’d also recommend poking around this site to learn more about color vision issues.

Luminosity

Another aspect of color selection is the contrast between colors. In order to make a page generally readable, it is important that the contrast between any background and foreground color is sufficient enough that everyone can see and read the content you are presenting. There are times when one might feel that two colors work well together when, in fact, the contrast may actually not be great enough to present a pleasing and readable site. What to do…. Well, what I would do is use the Luminosity Colour Contrast Ratio Analyser tool. With this tool you simply specify two colors, click the <Calculate Luminosity Contrast Ratio> and see how your colors stack up.

Obviously there are many aspects of web site design, but keeping in mind that you may be leaving out some of the people who can benefit from your message if certain basic color selection steps aren’t taken, is an issue easily handled.

If you do any amount of web development, professionally or personally, then you should definitely be using these:

Firefox

This is simply the best browser out there. Both in terms of it’s W3C compliance and the many add-in’s available. It took me awhile to learn this as I was stuck in corporate America where Internet Explorer is used simply because it is already installed. This said, even if you become a convert, if you do any web development where you are customizing the graphical presentation of your content, then you owe it to the folks you are trying to reach to always test your output in a variety of browsers and versions. Wondering what these would be? Well, visit W3 Schools to find out. Keep in mind, however, that the statistics presented are based upon fellow developer and web technologist browser utilizations and may not be representative of general or corporate use.

Developer Toolbar

Okay, now that you have installed and are using Firefox, it is time to get the one toolbar you will never be able to do without. It is the Web Developer Toolbar. Whether you are a seasoned professional web designer, someone just learning or just enjoy web development as a sideline, this toolbar is a “must have” tool. It will take awhile to check out the many features but I whole heartedly suggest you nose around. From turning off all style sheets to see what the “empty canvas” actually looks like (CSS>Disable Styles), to outlining various page elements, to displaying rulers, you won’t be disappointed with all the useful features. In fact, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.

The crew at JVHM are here to help you on the path to advancing your presence on the Internet. Not only will we build a site that will reflect your organization’s professional appearance and leadership in the industry, we will create a site that will drive business your way and, once there, allow visitors to navigate and easily get the information they need. Pretty is good but clean, smooth flowing, inbound traffic generating is better. For more information, contact the crew at JVHM, Inc.