light sites vs dark sites

Does anyone know if having a dark coloured website rather than a light coloured one has any impact on the amount of time a visitor spends on the site? I notice pretty much every big website out there uses a light theme. Does it perhaps depend on your target audience?

 

I think it does make a difference. I don't like visiting dark sites due to the eye strain it gives me, and I'm sure others feel the same. Thus, less returning visitors.

 

Exactly the... opposite for me! I can't stand reading text on a white background.

Perhaps you should start a Poll about this jordanthegreat...

 

Whoa, really? How do you stand being at DP then?

 

Thats what I was thinking. I find darker sites easier on the eyes. UNLESS its white on black, that can be hard on the eyes. But with general dark backgrounds and a nicely matched font colour is best for reading IMO.

I agree, this should be a poll. Can I add a poll to this thread or do I have to start a new one?

 

I'm the same and can only spend a few minutes at a time reading white text on black.

 

I wonder how that impacts me since I have photography site...I like the contrast of the pictures better though with black BG

 

Just make your font light grey or off white. its only when its a bright white font on pitch black background that the contrast is too intense and starts to hurt your eyes.

 

I read somewhere that the easiest to read is a light gray background with a dark font. white and black are a strain either way you look at it. For business websites I think I prefer a lighter color scheme. For some reason it always seems more professional. I think dark websites are fine for community based sites.

 

Light sites is better i think so,but if you got good content you dark is okay.

 

i get hight ctr on my dark themed sites...

 

I think it's more about the color scheme that is used on each site. Some web designers put the wrong colors together making the text on the site really bad for the eyes.

As long as you use the correct mix of colors, no matter if it's a dark or a light site, it will definitely be much better than a site that uses the slightly wrong colors if you get what I mean.

 

for me it depends on what the website is about that determines the colors. personally i use both "schemes" regularly just depending on what i see fit to express what the site itself is about though the colors of it

 

I like the light ones, easy to go with and dark are hard to go with.

 

Yours isn't too bad with the photos breaking up the content. Its when there is a lot of text to read that it becomes difficult to follow.

 

Being a late night internet junky, the dark sites work better on my eyes, more relaxing, less eye stress. Yet i do have to say having the lights off and darkness all around, the lighter colored sights work better if I'm typing, because I don't like to turn the lights on. My opinion.....

 

Both have their place as it is all about the look and feel of a website. Corporate/ professional tends to be light with a fairly small colour palet where as fun/ trendy tend to be much bolder colours. High graphics like gaming sites or flamboyant sites such as "goth" clothing generally are dark.

As said though, never black and white, text is always better being a shade of grey.

 

thanks for the FB

I think in fact the user can select different templates to view the site but of course 9/10 of them might not realize that.

I'll take a look into the heavily text content pages and see what I can do to lessen the sharp contrast

 

Sounds like color psychology..

I feel comfortable with pale-colored backgrounds, so I vote for the light one anyway...
Reading text on a bright background is bad for my eyes, while white text on a black background is rather better.
I love eye-friendly sites....

 

I think it depends very much on your target audience. I prefer dark text on light backgrounds for websites I'm going to spend a lot of time reading at.

A dark background looks cooler though