[pmwiki-users] [pmwiki-devel] ZAP cookbook, www.zapsite.org

Crisses crisses at kinhost.org
Thu Dec 7 15:08:12 CST 2006


On Dec 7, 2006, at 3:16 PM, The Editor wrote:

> On 12/7/06, Crisses <crisses at kinhost.org> wrote:
>> >> Links on the site are not always obvious.  Hiding links makes  
>> looking
>> >> for information a game of hide-and-seek. I don't know about other
>> >> browsers, but on Safari, the text is black, the links are black,
>> >> there are no underlines... I have to play guessing games and  
>> run my
>> >> mouse all around the screen to know if something is a link.
>> >
>> > On FireFox, all the links (except the sidebar) show up bold red.
>> > Nothing is showing up on Safari?
>>
>> the red links are fine.
>>
>> How about the sidebar, and http://www.fast.st/zap/pmwiki.php?
>> n=Main.Documentation  -- the first time I went to the site it took me
>> a second to figure out that there were even links in the sidebar :)
>>
>> Crisses
>
>
> I could make them all bold red, but it gets to be a bit overmuch.  :)
> It's a style preference.  Even having a whole page of underlined links
> doesn't really appeal to me.  Any suggestions for a balance between
> visibility and visual appeal?

Why are you using bold red in the first place? :)

I'm a web designer, and I can say with authority that the primary  
purpose of MANY websites should be data/information.  If you are  
hindering the data/information getting to the reader, they get  
frustrated, and the website fails at its primary purpose.  Looking  
great should be secondary to being useful.  Being useful and usable  
are tops (and not the same things).  Kindness to people's eyes is  
next.  Pretty comes later.  My philosophy on design isn't necessarily  
the most popular, but it's pretty sane -- I disagree with the  
majority of uses for flash, motion, etc.  I don't design sites to  
impress the people paying me.  I design sites so that my client's  
customers can find what they're looking for.

So, my suggestion is that you find a nice, non-blinding color, that  
compliments the site.  Black & white is very stark, and red adds to  
that. I suggest changing the color of the background of the body area  
behind the text to a very mildly blue color.  If you want to REALLY  
stick to websafe colors #ccffff.  That will remove the black-on-white  
eyestrain problem -- black text on a white background is the hardest  
on people's eyes.  Links can then be something like #009900 -- I  
suggest they change color, or go bold, and gain an underline when  
hovered.  Bold can make the text jump if it's in a sentence, though,  
so an underline &/or color change is fine.  Blues tend to be gentle  
on the eyes.  Keeping the black & stars around the border is fine.   
I'd keep that.  I won't go into the emotions behind color, or the  
traditional industry uses of color :)

If you want a CSS snippet for this, let me know.

Crisses




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