Well, this is timely. I just finished an article for the WordPress Codex called Designing Headers. I talked to some web design pros and they gave me a list of good dos and don’t for the article. While, yes, the choice of good header art is subjective and personal, there are still some things that need to be taken into consideration.
From the article:
Pay attention to text placement and color.
The colors and placement of the text within a header can add or subtract to your presentation. Here are some tips.
* If you use white text, make sure there is a background color in the header and/or headerimg to showcase the white text again if for some reason the image doesn’t appear on the screen or the user has “show images” turned off. This will allow your white text to still be visible.
* If the image has a main feature or element, position the text so it doesn’t cover the main subject of the image.
* If the text is hard to read against a busy area of the graphic, position the text to a less busy area of the header image.
*Make sure the color of the text is easily seen by your visitors and doesn’t clash with the header art colors. Fluorescent orange text on a lime green background is painful.
* Be aware that some color differences and patterns in your header art may make the text letters in your overlaid text “disappear”. The same applies if you embed the text in your header art or header image.
The last one is often overlooked. They mentioned that the header is part of the site’s identity and how a good header invites people to remain on the page because it catches their attention and the content matches the header’s look and “feel”. Not every header has to have pictures in it, it can be text. And over and over they told me that a cluttered header may be packed with information, but clutter is still clutter and that mouse click away happens REALLY fast.
I hope this helps, Fred.
