Web design

We started talking about web design and how to start publishing our websites.  What makes it look nice, what catches people's eye, how do we get the information across that we want to get across?  Sometimes we think we're being cool and creative, when actually we're being distracting.  I think that it's important to know what you're selling and what your audience is.  It's not just about what color is your favourite, but what color is best saying what you are trying to say in the most effective way possible?  The same goes for fonts.  Often people think they are saying something really clever with a particular font, yet they are just taking away from the credibility of their document.  Douglas (our tutor) gave an example of how a girl wrote a scholarly essay entirely in comic sans.  We all empathised for her want to be funny, but we also understood that it distracted the reader, and probably lowered her grade.