I am W3 certified and can develop sites from scratch; however, I am not really good at knowing what is attractive. You might think that is crazy, but allow me to explain Being that I am blind, I am not really sure what really looks visually appealing as far as websites are concerned. I do, however, have an understanding of color concepts and what things look like, as I saw when I was a child. Unfortunately, that was before the days of personal use of computers and the Internet as we know it today, as I was born before people used computers in their homes. Since this is the case, I am asking for your help. Please answer the following questions: What type and size of font will be acceptable on a business website? When I construct documents, I normally write in Arial or Times New Roman, and the size is usually twelve point. Can the same apply to websites? What color should the font be? I know that, in documents, font color is traditionally black. What color background should I use? What kind of layout do you recommend? Should I use columns, as many developers do, or can I just lay it out like a traditional page? What kind of pictures are appropriate to use for a background image? Or, do I need any at all? I was thinking of just having pictures of me and other various products along with a company logo where aplicable. I was not really planning to use any background images. I had a site up before, but that is since useless because I tore it up and am going to rebuild. Not to mention, I have been getting clients from ODesk, Scriptlance, Guru, and Elance, and I've not needed to use my site much at all in those instances because I just rely on the freelance sites. But now, I want to resurrect my site and broaden out, offering services all over the web and targeting a wider audience. I have the development part down, as well as the compelling sales copy, but I need some tips on how to make the site attractive to the eye, so customers will stay and want to do business. Thank you in advance for any tips you can offer. I really appreciate it.
I would be honoured to help you out here, on a regular basis. I'm a full sighted web developer, very involved with W3C, and my partner is a graphic designer. I would be more than happy to help get you equipped with some core CSS style sheets, and also to review / tweak websites and ensure they look pleasing to the eye. To me, this is an optimal way of doing things, give full concentration to the content and structure of the page, then style it after. The end results will be far better and more natural than pre-designed websites. No cost or money involved of course, and I'm sure I can learn from you as well, as you'll no doubt have lots of accessibility knowledge and tips that will aid me to create more accessible websites. Drop me a private message with your contact details (email address or skype or some such). I will be out for a few hours today, but will reply when I return at circa 1700 UTC. Best, Nathan
I've never heard of a blind web designer before. What software do you use to build websites? Just curious.
Nathan, that is a wonderful offer. I am definitely going to have to catch up with you on that. Thank you so much or wanting to help. Look out for a message tomorrow. _ContentCreator_, to answer your question, I just use good old notepad and do all my coding by hand. I really dislike any website building programs and those editors. I prefer to be old school. I feel that coding by hand will allow full control over the code instead of having a program insert code that it thinks you mean, when that is not what you mean. Not to mention, many web building programs are not too accessible for blind people anyhow. NotePad is fully accessible and very easy to use.