best website ever???

[custardfish]

They have a very nice range (shame no prices on display) but if it does well now imagine how much better it would do if the text was dark on light background.

This site would almost certainly convert less - its all about creating an atmosphere, evoking emotions and the product/model shots.. not reading 20 or so words here and there.

I would guess to keep the same conversion rate you would have to reduce prices as the overall effect would be the cheapen the products image and therefore perceived value.

Also on the left its white on grey which is quite easy to read, only change I would suggest is to stretch the bg image a tad further to the right so the white text on the right sat over dark grey rather than the pure black. The bg image also crops at the bottom on the longer pages. Simple quick fix.

Basically though dark (black) backgrounds can work really well on high class or photo led sites.

[PainFreeMarketing]

The pics must cost a fortune to produce hence the pricy thong.

[PainFreeMarketing]

This site would almost certainly convert less - its all about creating an atmosphere, evoking emotions and the product/model shots.. not reading 20 or so words here and there.

I would guess to keep the same conversion rate you would have to reduce prices as the overall effect would be the cheapen the products image and therefore perceived value.

Also on the left its white on grey which is quite easy to read, only change I would suggest is to stretch the bg image a tad further to the right so the white text on the right sat over dark grey rather than the pure black. The bg image also crops at the bottom on the longer pages. Simple quick fix.

Basically though dark (black) backgrounds can work really well on high class or photo led sites.

I do like white on black myself, and have just changed a blog to this effect, but I was hung out to dry by the copywriting community for doing this once before, though the blog was a sex blog and it suited it.

I think for sales, the message must be clear.

I might break the rules and do some testing.

[Alvin]

I do like white on black myself, and have just changed a blog to this effect, but I was hung out to dry by the copywriting community for doing this once before, though the blog was a sex blog and it suited it.

I think for sales, the message must be clear.

I might break the rules and do some testing.

I think it depends on what your selling.

An image driven site will nearly always look better with a dark background.

As long as you stick to either white or yellow text for black or dark grey backgrounds and your text is perfectly clear to read no problem.

Another one which when we tried a light background the images looked crap.

I always think colour should match the mood of the product/s

http://atvquadshop.co.uk/spyder-images.htm

Alvin

[Indizine]

Yes agree that where images are dominant over text for a cool look it can look great. But if you are planning to add a lot of text then you have to account for it being difficult to read comfortably.

[GRD Credit]

though the blog was a sex blog

Consider my mind doing some serious boggling! Was this one of those 'How to..' type of blogs?!

[Lasting Designs]

Not being very knowledgable about webcoding, would I be wrong to say it can't be that difficult to create a button to change the sites back-ground & text colours and create a prefered viewing style function. You can do it with font sizes, I'd imagine the same princle applies with the styling.

[KrissBlack]

i always go for the content 'cause basically that's the reason why i visited the site and obviously or of course a site must be presentable enough to at least a visitor may have an interest in visiting the site again even if let's just say he already got what he's looking for.. but since, because of it's great and beautiful design, one may like or want to keep on coming back..

[custardfish]

Not being very knowledgable about webcoding, would I be wrong to say it can't be that difficult to create a button to change the sites back-ground & text colours and create a prefered viewing style function. You can do it with font sizes, I'd imagine the same princle applies with the styling.

You could, however it would have to be a fairly big style sheet change to look any good. Just changing the bg and colour text and no other graphics or elements would probably lead to a strange looking site.

The biggest use of colour is to create a mood - as long as there is contrast between the bg and text its usually ok - userbility studies don't show major differences between common palletes anyway.

[Lasting Designs]

You could, however it would have to be a fairly big style sheet change to look any good. Just changing the bg and colour text and no other graphics or elements would probably lead to a strange looking site.

The biggest use of colour is to create a mood - as long as there is contrast between the bg and text its usually ok - userbility studies don't show major differences between common palletes anyway.

I can't disagree with what your saying, what I was talking about was choice to suit readers preferences. The simplest way I'd think in doing this, is to have on the index page a choice of styles to visit. In simple terms sitename/aboutusoriginal and the sitename/aboutusalternative. Replicating the info and images to fit with the style. Yes the site size will double, treble or whatever, but it would (IMO) be more user friendly in the sense that some people have difficulty reading dark pages with light text and vice-versa.

Taking the site highlighted in this thread, it does project a sexy image, but that's not to say it couldn't do so in a style that is at the other end of the spectrum colour-wise. If the choice was there to offer an alternative viewing experience, would the viewing rate per style aggregate, be larger than with a single style, I'd say probably, but not by much. Most people if they like what they are looking to buy will stick with the site regardless of the design style, for some however it is physically impossible for people to stick with it. Is it cost effective to offer different viewing options? That another question.

In many ways a website is like a house, each room being a page. Take a victorian terrace house, it could be done in a traditional style, an ultra modern style or a functional style, all of which could look great, the arguments for doing it would be valid for each too. It has to be remembered that one mans meat, is another mans poison. There aren't any simple answers.