As the third and final part of my assignment for my web design class I’ve been asked to provide a link to a website that has colors I don’t like.

• Lifehacker‘s snot green

• Antiwar.com‘s overuse of one color that I do like

• Boing Boing‘s all over the place use of color (a once great site that sadly went sour)

As the second part of my assignment for my web design class I’ve been asked to provide a link to a website that has a color scheme/palette that I like. I’ve been spending some time on the DIA Foundation’s website as my son works for them and I’ve been looking at some of the exhibits he looks after. One of them is De Maria’s “The Broken Kilometer.” The color scheme is different shades of black. This seems to make a lot sense to me as the continuity of the site demands that it show many different works of art within the same matrix. I would not necessarily want to see “The Broken Kilometer” against a particular pallet that looked fine with another piece of art. Using shade allows for all the exhibits to fit in a balanced format.

The Daily Kos uses color wisely. I like the way the designer counters orange and a shade of orange by the use of mouse-over. Text-links mouse-over to a darker shade, while community users’ links are given as the shaded orange and turn to the lighter orange used on text-links, with a grey background on mouse-over. It provides a smart and tight feel – quick and usable while limiting any chance of overuse of color. The orange is repeated throughout the sight without seeming overbearing.