Review Request: jerichoroadmusic.com

They have: 117 posts

Joined: Mar 2000

Link: http://www.jerichoroadmusic.com

I recently did this site for a client. I'm getting some complaints that the text is hard to read. Some people say it's too dark, some say it's too bright. Am I not using web-safe colors? It looks fine to me.

Any other input would be appreciated as well. Thanks!

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

The text is way too hard to read! There isn't enough contrast between the different blues & the text in the header part and the blue links on blue background just doesn't work. I don't find the white too bright but I know that others don't like it. I really think that you need to get more contrast onto the site as right now I wont go past the first page as it's just too hard on the eyes, especially where the text is so small as well.

Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....

He has: 7 posts

Joined: Oct 2003

I agree with Julia, the text is to small, the links are just unreadable.

If you wish to use a black background then you should experiment with text colours and sizes to ensure that the page is easy to read.

If you use an external style sheet then you can change your background and text colours and text size without having to recode the page.

Instead of using fixed font size use a relative size, like em. This allows users to resize the text in IE.

Larger text may just be the answer for the content. However your links would be much better in different contrasting colours, the blue on black is unreadable. White would be better, just remember to leave the underline on so they look like links.

Black is a really difficult background colour to work with, to achieve a contrast for text and links you have to use light colours.

It may be worth considering putting the content in tables with the cells set to lighter colour white, grey or any light shade, with a darker text colour and your links readable to.

Barry Tedstone
ABT Website Services

Megan's picture

She has: 11,421 posts

Joined: Jun 1999

Yup, blue on black is really hard to read, and the white text is way too small. The navbar is similarly hard to read. Not enough contrast between foreground and background and too small. Forget about web save colours, just make sure there's enough contrast and that the sizes are large enough. Keep in mind that not everyone has great eyesight, and even for the best of us reading on a monitor is not the most comfortable thing to do. I think it's best to keep font sizes more or less at the default. It's the most comfortable for most people and others shoudl be able to resize if they need to.

Otherwise this is good. I like the header graphic and the blue, black, and white colour schme sets a nice tone. The music sounds really good too, I downloaded one of the clips Smiling I'm wondering if you should have something on the front page about the group's style and message.

They have: 117 posts

Joined: Mar 2000

Alright, I'll play around with the colors. But, how am I supposed to know if what I change it to looks right? Right now it looks great for me. In fact, there's no black on it at all except for some shadow effects on the graphics. All the background colors are varying shades of blue. Would a snapshot help to show what it's supposed to look like?

Thanks for the feedback.

The Webmistress's picture

She has: 5,586 posts

Joined: Feb 2001

What is your contrast/brightness set to? If you find it ok then your settings must be way off normal.

I think maybe you need to look at this on someone elses monitor or go to a local library/internet café to see what we are all seeing then you can adjust the colours to ones that are easy to read.

Julia - if life was meant to be easy Michael Angelo would have painted the floor....

They have: 117 posts

Joined: Mar 2000

Okay, I changed the link color. Tell me if this looks good to you guys: http://www.jerichoroadmusic.com/test.html

I'm on an LCD display that give me great color and is very bright. I doubt that there's anything wrong with the settings. Even if I turn the brightness all the way down, I can still read everything.

Busy's picture

He has: 6,151 posts

Joined: May 2001

the bigger lighter blue links are a little better but still hard on the eyes, the small links (horz nav) looks more like a faded gone wrong. To much work to try figure them out.
You have to remember not everyone has LCD display
What have you got your font size set to, 9 or 10? normal is around 13, so anything under 11 is too small (also depends on the font type as well)
I can't read the text at the very very top, and very very bottom, can make out letters but have no idea what it says

They have: 117 posts

Joined: Mar 2000

Ok, this version has the original link color, but with much bigger text: http://www.jerichoroadmusic.com/test2.html

Better? Thanks again for all your input.

Busy's picture

He has: 6,151 posts

Joined: May 2001

The links under the banner are still to small, the main page ones are on the bigger size now (make them same size as text - I know, you can't win Wink ) and also the blue link colour is hard to read, try a light blue (pastel) or grey (bold link, normal text) or something.
If I put my face to the screen I can just make out the very top and bottom image line.

She has: 25 posts

Joined: Dec 2003

I think that the bright blue links make it too hard to read still, no matter what the increase in size. It's very, very hard on the eyes. The white is a good contrast, but you need to work on your link color.

Also the light blue links under the banner picture up top are also difficult to read and hard on the eyes.

You need to find colors that are a good, sharp contrast to the background. I have a preference for darker backgrounds and I always try to use whites, silvers and lighter yellows and very light blues when working with darker backgrounds.

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