Australian Olive Oil Company

[Big Frank]

I'm using a screen resolution of 1600 x 900 on my laptop and the content of the website is all below the fold. I think that's too much, having to scroll down to see even a single line of text.

I too think the colours are too dark. By all means use the colour of olives as a contrast, but I think to use it as your base colour is too dark. It's a mechanical, industrial colour and , for me anyway, doesn't invoke the wholesome, sun-drenched feeling of olive trees in full fruit.

[Abikadabra]

Hi Big Frank. I agree with you, the colours do not invoke the feeling of olives, but as Paul said 'the customer is king'. As you can see from my first site for them, the whole site is in the various colours of olives but they didn't like that. They had seen a site they liked on the net and they wanted those colours, and similar format. They originally wanted the site to be black, but I advised them against that, so we compromised. They also wanted the visitor to land on the page and see all pictures rather than text. Its sounds like your laptop has the same colour resolution as my laptop and that you are getting a black background and shades of grey (hence 'a mechanical, industrial colour). The site actually has a very deep green background, deep olive page background and the text panels used on a couple of the pages are in a deep olive green. On my laptop they are a deep grey, and so is the page background, whilst the site background is black. On my apple they are different colours again. I guess it doesnt matter how you create the site, the colours will never look the same on many computers.

[Big Frank]

It's your responsibility as the designer to point these things out to the customer and, if all possible, show them examples of web developer discussion to demonstrate that their personal preferences come second to what is best for the site. Some you will win, some you will lose, that's the nature of customers

[Cloud]

Always remember that the customer is paying. I will always suggest the right thing to do to a customer in regard to the website design and give reasons, you can't just say use this colour or that colour, explain why and if you can do that and explain that it will benefit the look and therefore business then the customer should come around. When it comes to the design of a website the personal tastes of the customer or the designer should not dictate the look of the site but the end-user.

[pauland]

the personal tastes of the customer or the designer should not dictate the look of the site but the end-user.

It's not about personal tastes at all, or the end-users likes or dislikes.

All web-sites have a purpose. Sometimes it's to facilitate some kind of service, sometimes it's to sell, sometimes to inform, sometimes to amuse or entertain - a whole host of reasons, and maybe more than one reason at a time - such as entertaining a user and educating them at the same time.

For sales, I think it's a question of motivating the visitor to see the product or products in a positive way and motivate them to purchase. My comments about the colour pallete aren't based on a whim, they are intended to reinforce the positive perception of the product - a natural golden light liquid, grown in sunshine. The suggestion was simply about promoting the positive aspects of the product in the users mind - suggesting lightness and purity of the product with a lighter pallete reflecting something of the natural golden colour of the product.

As Frank has said, explaining the reasons for the colour pallete choice is important and if the client doesn't agree, so be it, but often the client may choose on the basis of a personal preference, not a reasoned decision, probably because they don't understand the reason for choosing a particular pallette.

You can see that with some TV advertising, companies go out of the way to get the general colour pallette seen on screen to match the colours of the product. My suggestion is no differrent.

[Cloud]

Yes, like I said the end-user is the important person whenever you design something, everything in whichever form of design, be it the 2-d world of print or the web to packaging and product design is there to appeal to the end-user, to entice them into buying it, I for instance don't mind having dark colours for a landscaping company but good design (for the purposes of attracting the end-user at least) dictate that you have predominantly various shades of green, therefore I will design something for the eyes of the end user. You suggest having olive colours is because you are the end-user in the sense that you have formed an opinion about the site just from the colour, as your rightly should. If you read between the lines in my post you will realise that I am agreeing with you. You seem to be taking the fact that some posters have said that they don't mind the darker colour as a personal attack on you saying that you think a lighter more olive colour is better (again I agree with you) When you say "All websites have a purpose" you are right, and that purpose is to sell something or provide information to the end-user, therefore it is about the end-users.

[Abikadabra]

In an ideal world one designs for the end user, but when all is said and done, it doesn't matter what the designer advises the client has the final word. As you can see from my attachment on the previous page, the first site was designed to evoke the feeling of olives. The client originally liked the site and it was uploaded for about 2 months, and then they saw another site they liked (for a restaurant) and they wanted the same colours...and a new design to boot. I advised my landlords against the darker colours (generally I prefer a lighter or brighter palette myself) but they persisted and as they are the client I have a responsibility to do what the client wants, not what I feel is more appropriate. They are thrilled with the site, as are their Japanese agents, and the site has generated them business. What I preferred in terms of the site is irrelevant when the end result is what the client wanted.

[pauland]

You seem to be taking the fact that some posters have said that they don't mind the darker colour as a personal attack on you

That never entered my mind. I'm startled that you think my comments on the subject suggest that is the case.