Re: Black backgrounds<a twist?>

Possibly another twist?

There are still (believe it or not) a lot of folks browsing with images
off. If that black background is an image, and the text is white - guess
what? It's often *real* hard to read.

I think (read - in my opinion) the key here is to research your
demographics _before_ you make those decisions and then design accordingly.

Very brief case in point:
I do the technology support in several local schools - all the technology
<gasp>. Just the other day a teacher approached me after having bought a
fancy new WYSIWUG HTML editor (couple of hundred bucks - and a major name
brand - I might add). They had spent *several* hours designing a series of
pages for her class. Problem was, NONE of the five computers in their room
would display the site correctly OR function the way she had intended.

-of course she was convinced that all the machines in her room were screwed
up (all of a sudden!)-

As it turns out, right there on the box this 'software' came in it says
"will not work in version 3.X browsers". Well, guess what? They have almost
200 computers in that school - ALL of them run version 3.X browsers OR
EARLIER (we are talking old MAC's here).

Moral: Research your demographics and design for your target audience !!!!!

SeaYa,
Fuzzy

At 06:31 PM 6/8/99 -0400, Keith wrote:
>Eliza and Zoe wrote:
>> 
>> At 13:35 7/06/99 -0800, Darren Gerbrandt wrote:
>> >
>> >It has been mentioned that the black background doesn't look very
>> professional but I'm been to several commecial sites that use it and IMHO
>> think it looks good and is easier on the eyes. Comments / Suggestions ?
>> 
>> I have had this argument many times before.  Most people who don't like the
>> black backgrounds hate them for one of two reasons...  1)  they don't like
>> black backgrounds (personal preferences) or 2)  black backgrounds can't be
>> printed from their browsers.
>> 
>> I like them, but when there is a chance that a consumer might want to
>> print, I use white.
>> 
>> Eliza
>
>My personal preference is to not use black backgrounds.  I have,
>however, on occasion done sites with them.  Whenever I have had content
>that may have been "nice to print", I have offered a link to a printable
>page with the necessary info (kind of redundant).  If black backgrounds
>are used, they must be done so sparingly and tastefully. As a rule, I
>think sites with a white background look much cleaner and more
>professional, but all rules have their exceptions.
>
>My humble opinion, for whatever it's worth,
>
>Keith D. Sellars
>WebGraffix
>www.webgraffix.com
>email: Keith(at)WebGraffix.com
>
>Reach me by ICQ. My ICQ# is 3537729 or,
>* Page me - http://wwp.mirabilis.com/3537729,
>* Send Email directly to my computer screen 3537729(at)pager.mirabilis.com
>
># # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # # #
>
>

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