You've spent hours getting the words right. Then editing. Suddenly the words begin to sparkle. The words say it all clearly and concisely. Web users quickly scanning the website page will pick up the message effortlessly Your blog is just about ready for publication. And then some designer techie guy suggests putting a blue, wavy wash over the whole website. "Then it'll stand out!" Which it does. But the readers feel as if they are drowning in wavy, blue water!
When readers have to struggle to read text they usually give up. Sometimes looking good and readability are not compatible. In which case, the look has to give way to the text. Our eyes are used to reading black text against a white background. Of course we can also read the reverse combination, but white text against black soon tires the eyes. Any other combination of text and colour has to be thought about carefully. A light pastel shaded background can work well as long as there is no interference from background patterns. Again eyes tire quickly when having to quickly distinguish coded symbols (letters and words) from meaningless patterns. How many times is a good children's illustrated book spoiled by having text wandering into pictures? The children can't read it and adults reading aloud struggle to disentangle the letters from the roots of trees, or swirling smoke. The same applies to magazine articles where the text crawls into illustrations and the reader's eyes have to switch from reading black on white to reading white on black, or even worse some other colours such as red on green!
The words come first; looks second. Enhance the look of pages by whatever means designers and illustrators can create, but never sacrifice the word for the look. And never, never write anything in yellow!
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