Music, Walking Ads, and Other Ways to Drive Away Visitors

"12 Annoying Things About Your Website That Drive People Away"
Shelly Kramer, V3 (Vision. Voice. Value. V3 Integrated Marketing) (June 21, 2012)

"...12. Music

"Music blares the minute I visit your site. That is unexpected, disruptive, and downright rude, from a customer experience standpoint. And, in case you weren't sure, it ticks me (and most people) off more than just about anything. Wake up and smell the coffee! That is so 2001. Frankly, it wasn't cool even back then—but today, music on your website can mean the kiss of death....

"...9. Walking Ads

"[Cue scream here.] Speaking of pop-ups, walking ads stink even more. They are annoying, disruptive, and inconsiderate. I came to your site for information. You only have one chance to make a good first impression, and walking ads are not the way to do it. I don't care who sold you on it. It’s a bad idea...."

This is a well-written and useful look at what *not* to do: in other words, the Lemming agrees with most of the 12 points. Most, not necessarily all.

For example, annoying thing #5 says:

"...Black backgrounds and white or grey type are nearly IMPOSSIBLE to read. With very few exceptions (there are some sites done very well by people who know what they're doing, but they are rare), cut it out...."

A bit later in that paragraph the author urges folks to do marketing research before committing to a black background. That, in the Lemming's opinion, is good advice: certainly for a commercial website, and probably for most personal ones.

Marketing research - for a personal website?! That's another topic.

Getting back to 'down with black backgrounds:' The Lemming's experience is that low contrast between text and background is more of a problem than black backgrounds. This is where designers should remember that not everybody has the same sort of monitor, among other things.

The article's bottom line is - under the "Bottom Line" heading:

"...Great design is cool. And cool is nice. But that isn't enough when it comes to effective online marketing...."

The Lemming agrees: although it's great if a website or blog can be cool and effective.

(A tip of the Lemming's hat to Sonia Winland, on Linkedin, for the heads-up on this article.)

Related posts:

• "Top 10 Blog Design Mistakes"
  (December 14, 2011)
• "Good Website Advice For Everybody, Actually"
  (July 7, 2010)
• "SEO Optimization: What Not to Do"
  (March 2, 2010)
• " 'About Us' - Why It's Important, How to Design Yours"
  (July 30, 2009)
• "Website Design: Just Because Everybody Else is Doing it - - -"
  (February 4, 2009)

Color Theory, Color Wheels, and a Nifty Bracelet

"The Art of Color
for Bead Jewelry Designers"
Beading-Design-Jewelry.com

"You will learn the science of color, color theory, and how to use a color wheel to create great color combinations.

"We will discuss the emotional aspects of color, including color therapy as well as the meaning and symbolism of color.

"Margie Deeb, author of The Beader's Guide to Color said '"You can learn to use color in extraordinary ways. You already possess the most important tools...'..."

What caught the Lemming's eye was that 'color wheel bracelet.' It's - colorful. Pretty.

Beading-Design-Jewelry.com has more than a nifty photo and a book to sell, though. That page links to some pretty-good introductions to color theory, and "Using the Color Wheel To Create Stunning Combinations," which won't make the reader into a world-class designer: but does cover enough to get started with. Plus a bit.

The Lemming thinks they really meant "Using the Color Wheel To Create Attractive Combinations." The Lemming has used 'color wheel' theory to create designs: with a personal taste that led to stunning results. The Lemming's daughter who's a commercial artist analyzed one of those stunning creations. Her assessment was that it looked like an explosion in a paint factory.

The Lemming thinks she was right, and that's almost another topic.

The point is, a color wheel and understanding of color theory won't guarantee results. The Lemming thinks it's a good idea to know the basics, though.

Color Theory From Another Angle

"Color Wheel"
worqx.com

"A color wheel (also referred to as a color circle) is a visual representation of colors arranged according to their chromatic relationship. Begin a color wheel by positioning primary hues equidistant from one another, then create a bridge between primaries using secondary and tertiary colors.

"These terms refer to color groups or types:

"Primary Colors: Colors at their basic essence..."

Taking the same basic content, worqx.com starts with color as an idea, not colored beads. Which is also okay. This page mentions the familiar red-yellow-blue color wheel, and different ways the colors can be presented in a graph.

A tip of the Lemming's hat to worqx.com, for mentioning two of the other color wheels out there: the "Printers' color triangle," and Goethe's nine-part harmonic triangle.

Color Theory: More Text, Fewer Pictures

"Color Theory"
liquisoft.com/Ryan Ford (2007)

"For a long time, now, there has been a problem that fledgling designers have run into on a constant basis. This problem seems insignificant to most, but in actuality it is quite possibly the most important factor in a design or piece of artwork. Yes, you guessed it...I'm talking about the issue of COLOR.

"Color can be a touchy subject. Sometimes artists use colors that evoke certain emotions. Other times artists use colors simply because they like the way they look. While any design instructor will tell you that the latter reason is completely wrong, I tend to disagree. In my personal opinion, color always has meaning. This meaning can be, as I mentioned, an emotional one or it can be a personal preference on the part of the artist himself, but it ALWAYS has purpose behind it.

"There is nothing wrong with choosing a color because you like it because, after all, it is your work. However, when choosing a color you still want to make sure its use does not conflict with what you are trying to say with your work. Proper use of basic color theory can help you decide what colors match, as well as what each color makes people feel...."

Ryan Ford's approach is more like the textbooks the Lemming's familiar with. Ford assumes that the reader can visualize the color wheel, and refer to that mental image while reading.

The Lemming's comfortable with that approach. But then, the Lemming's:

• One of those folks who read cereal boxes during breakfast as a child
  • Including the ingredients list
• Loves to see data as a matrix
  • Then create graphs and tables so others can see it, too

Let's face it: the Lemming's not normal.

Ford deserves mention, for explaining what RGB, CMYK, and PMS) mean:

• RGB
  • Red
  • Green
  • Blue
• CMYK
  • Cyan
  • Magenta
  • Yellow
  • Black
    • "K" for "black"??
• PMS
  • Pantone Matching System

Kudos. Although Ford could have explained why "K" for "black" makes sense.

Still, this is a pretty good place to start learning about color theory. The Lemming's seen to many 'introduction to' articles and texts, where the author assumes that folks who want an introduction to some topic already know the field's jargon. Uff da. (Which isn't jargon: "Uff da" is dialect, and that's another topic.)

Slightly-related posts:

• Color, emotions, and the brain
  
  • "The Sky is Blue, Folks Sing the Blues: Just What does Blue Mean?"
    (September 29, 2010)
  • "Color, Psychology, Emotions and Mood"
    (January 30, 2010)
  • " 'Brain Subconscious Smart' "
    (March 7, 2009)
  • "Are Moods Really Blue? Color, Psychology, and Culture"
    (May 21, 2008)
• Color conversion and an interactive color wheel
  
  • "Online Color Wheel: Dial Your Own Color Scheme"
    (June 1, 2009)
  • "RGB to HEX to RGB Online Do-it-Yourself Conversion Software"
    (June 10, 2008)
• Stuff to learn
  • "Interior Design: A Pretty Good Learning Resource"
    (September 24, 2009)

Amerikansk dressing, Skåne Tourist Board, Volvo, Lots of Color - but No Swedish Chef

"Snapshots from Sweden: Roaming Around a Swedish Supermarket"
Robyn Lee, Serious Eats (June 30, 2011)

"From June 5 to June 11, I visited Western and Southern Sweden on a trip sponsored by Visit Sweden, West Sweden Tourist Board, Skåne Tourist Board, and Volvo as part of their CAR + VACATION contest. Here's a look at something I saw during my trip.

"It was supposed to be a quick stop, but by pulling into the parking lot of ICA, one of Sweden's largest supermarket chains ... when I'm in a supermarket outside my home territory, I look at everything and take bright-eyed joy in everyday items like cereal and mayonnaise. Kids love candy stores; I love supermarkets...."

A tip of the Lemming's hat to anyone who, as an adult, still knows how to "...look at everything and take bright-eyed joy in everyday items...." And, even better, can share that experience with others.

Speaking of "bright" - quite a few displays in the Swedish supermarket were most sincerely not drab.

Besides the colors, the Lemming enjoyed looking at a familiar setting - a supermarket - which featured somewhat exotic foreign items like Amerikansk dressing (hampurilais kastike). Which might have been labeled "American dressing (hamburguesa salsa)" if it were on the shelf of the supermarket down the street from the Lemming's house. Although the Lemming is pretty sure that, whatever 'hamburger sauce' is, that's not what we call it here in America.

It's a fun post - the Lemming liked it, anyway: your experience may vary - with 17 photos from a Swedish supermarket. Including a full-size version of the one you see here.

Swedish supermarket, by the way, doesn't have all that much to do with Swedish Chef, which is another topic.

Related (sort of) posts:

• "Lemming Tracks: Silence of the Poets"
  (April 10, 2011)
• "A Cause for Our Time: Campaign for Real Gravy"
  (March 7, 2011)
• "Now You, Too, Can Grow Mushrooms: In the Office?!"
  (February 25, 2011)
• "Cheeseburger Bill: Minnesota's Shocking Attack on Contemporary Values"
  (February 22, 2011)
• "At Last! A History of the Limburger Cheese Sandwich!"
  (January 27, 2011)
  Particularly
  • Big Cheese is Victimizing You!
    • BEWARE BIG OIL AND BIG CHEESE!!!
  • Which reminded the Lemming of -
    • "How to Not Sound Crazy - or - THE PARANOIDS ARE AFTER ME!!!"
      (June 12, 2011)

---

A tip of the hat to williamcooks, on Twitter, for the heads-up on this 'Swedish Supermarket' post.

Henri Matisse, Color, Light, and Art

"Henri Matisse: Color and Light"
School Arts: Looking/Learning, National Gallery of Art (May/June 1999)

"Henri Matisse painted Open Window, Collioure in the summer of 1905, when he and André Derain worked together in the small Mediterranean fishing port of Collioure, near the Spanish border.

"The scene is filled with light, vibrant, and inviting. The vermillion masts of blue-hulled boats float on pink waves below a sky banded with turquoise, pink, and periwinkle. Reflected in the glass of the open window, the scene becomes rectangular blocks of bright green, watery cyclamen, and lilac, and the walls framing the view are violet and turquoise. These are hardly the colors of nature--and they provoked an outrage when Matisse exhibited Open Window, Collioure later in the year at the Salon d'Automne in Paris.

"Eyewitness accounts tell of laughter emanating from room VII, where audiences saw this painting and similar works by Matisse, André Derain, their friend Maurice de Vlaminck, and others. Gertrude Stein reported that people scratched at the canvases in derision, and a critic, noting the presence of a Renaissance-style statuette in the center of the room, quipped 'Tiens, Donatello chez les fauves' (Well, well, Donatello among the wild beasts). Soon, these artists were being called the fauves, and room VII la cage. It was one of the first places where the world got a glimpse of what art would be in the twentieth century.

"The fauves liberated color from any requirements other than those posed by the painting itself. 'When I put a green,' Matisse would later say, 'it is not grass. When I put a blue, it is not the sky.' He was painting pictures, not things. Color was a tool of the painter's artistic intention and expression, no longer limited by the imitation of nature...."

Matisse knew what he was doing.

In the Lemming's opinion, one reason that 'modern art' gets mocked so much is that it's entirely too easy to:

• Slop something onto a canvas
• Say that anybody who doesn't appreciate it is a dunce
• Sell the mess for a few thousand dollars

Sort of like The Emperor's New Clothes, except this racket kept going for decades. The Lemming suspects there were too many people with lots of money and too little self-confidence: and that's another topic.

The National Gallery article tells about Matisse - and how this unlikely young man from an industrial town got started as an artist. You'll also find a (very) short discussion of how 19th and 20th century artists studied color.

And yes: artists don't just lie around being 'artistic.' There's a certain amount of work and research involved. If you're going to do it right. In the Lemming's opinion.

Related posts:

• "Color, Psychology, Emotions and Mood"
  (January 30, 2010)
• "Interior Design: A Pretty Good Learning Resource"
  (September 24, 2009)
• "Henri Matisse: a Pretty Good Set of Biographical Information"
  (August 30, 2009)
• "What Color is Your Blog? Why? An Online Discussion With Resource Links"
  (February 12, 2009)
• "Are Moods Really Blue? Color, Psychology, and Culture"
  (May 21, 2008)

Promising the Kids They Could Chose Their Decor: What Could Possibly Go Wrong?

"Kid-smart design Part 1: A room for all ages"
Washington Examiner (October 11, 2010)

"Like clothes, kids can grow out of their rooms quickly. She may like Sponge Bob today, but want a Barbie bedroom tomorrow.

"So when it comes to decorating a child's bedroom, the best advice is: Keep it classic.

" 'If you're going to spend the money to decorate, choose classic, not cartoon-y type fabrics,' said Page Palmer of Page Palmer Interior Design. 'Choose classic fabrics if you want the room to stay. Keep the fabrics more solid and the lines clean.'

"But that doesn't mean your child can't have style. A solid yellow wall and a pale pink bedspread could be accented by a Sponge Bob throw pillow or a Barbie beanbag chair...."

The Lemming's household hasn't had to worry about interior decoration on this scale: but this sort of thing is a real issue for some folks.

The article's mostly common sense observations, which the Lemming would suggest taking with a pinch of salt.

For example:

"...[Palmer Interior Design's Page] Palmer seconded the sentiment. 'Your child may want to have lavender or purple or even brown or black walls. I would let them express themselves. It's important to let them have input and work with what they choose.'..."

P. Palmer has a point. Particularly if a parent started out by giving the kid carte blanche about how the room would look.

On consideration, though, what the designer described was - interesting: a room with black walls, trimmed in gold, with silver fabrics and "lots of white." "Cosy" might not be the first word that comes to mind: but it sure would be distinctive.

And Now, for Something Completely Different: Dying Yarn With Kool Aide®

"Homestead Series How To Dye Wool Yarn With Kool-Aid"

HomesteadAcres, YouTube (September 23, 2009)
video, 11:25

"A new hobby of mine is dying yarn. You can easily dye wool with kool-aid or food coloring. In this video I'm using kool-aid.

"Step 1. Put 1 to 2 inches of luke warm water in your crock pot and a 'glug' of vinegar. Place your skein of yarn in the crock pot....

The narrators tell you that this isn't the most color-fast dyeing process around: so you'll have to be careful about washing the yarn later.

These folks do something the Lemming wouldn't have thought of: using two different colors in the same bowl. The yarn is being dyed red on one side, green on the other side of the bowl. Since the bowl is nearly full of yarn (and water), there's surprisingly little mixing of the two colors.

The video talks about another time, when there were four colors: green, orange, blue and brown. That could have been one colorful set of yarn.

This process isn't likely to put commercial yarn dying outfits out of business: there's a lot of labor involved. But as a sort of home craft project - particularly for folks who knit some of their own clothing - this looks practical.

The Lemming appreciated the last words in the video: "Have fun."

(Kool-Aid^® is a registered trademark of Kraft Foods. And has its own website: Kool-Aid.)

The Sky is Blue, Folks Sing the Blues: Just What does Blue Mean?

"Blue"
Jacci Howard Bear, Desktop Publishing, About.com

"Calm and Cool:

"Blue is calming. It can be strong and steadfast or light and friendly. Almost everyone likes some shade of the color blue.

"Pantone has selected the color Blue Iris (PANTONE 18-3943) as the 2008 Color of the Year telling us: 'Combining the stable and calming aspects of blue with the mystical and spiritual qualities of purple, Blue Iris satisfies the need for reassurance in a complex world, while adding a hint of mystery and excitement.'

"Nature of Blue:

"A natural color, from the blue of the sky, blue is a universal color. The cool, calming effect of blue makes time pass more quickly and it can help you sleep. Blue is a good color for bedrooms. However, too much blue could dampen spirits.

"Culture of Blue:

"In many diverse cultures blue is significant in religious beliefs, brings peace, or is believed to keep the bad spirits away...."

This is a pretty good resource for someone who's getting started in design.

An important point: it addresses how different cultures use the color blue differently. And not-so-differently.

The Lemming's opinion is that we're in an age where Western civilization is sorting out what's common to all of humanity - quite possibly hardwired into our brains - and what's assigned by cultures.

Like the color white, which is 'obviously' a color of purity. Also death and surrender. Depends on who's seeing it.

And that's another topic.

Related posts:

• "Blog Header Design: Pretty Good Advice"
  (March 30, 2010)
• "Color, Psychology, Emotions and Mood"
  (January 30, 2010)
• "Interior Design: A Pretty Good Learning Resource"
  (September 24, 2009)
• "Blue-Colored Streetlights Reduce Crime, Suicide?!"
  (December 17, 2008)
• "Are Moods Really Blue? Color, Psychology, and Culture"
  (May 21, 2008)

Almost-related posts:

• "Designing Art for Billboards; and a Fictional Small Town"
  (January 3, 2010)
• "Color Perception: An Impressive Illusion"
  (June 27, 2009)
• "Online Software for Interior Design and Decorating"
  (June 20, 2009)
• "Online Color Wheel: Dial Your Own Color Scheme"
  (June 1, 2009)
• "What Color is Your Blog? Why? An Online Discussion With Resource Links"
  (February 12, 2009)
• "Lots of Words Mean "Red" - Damask Isn't One of Them"
  (January 3, 2009)
• "RGB to HEX to RGB Online Do-it-Yourself Conversion Software"
  (June 10, 2008)

More:

• "Color Psychology and Marketing"
  "Business, Sales and the World Wide Web Are In Color"
  Precision Intermedia

Color, Psychology, Emotions and Mood

"The Importance of Color in Interior Design"
Luxist (January 28, 2010)

"Although there's no hard and fast science that says everyone will react in a certain way to a certain color, there is something very real about the psychology of color and no doubt that certain colors tend to elicit certain emotions, moods, and even physical feelings...."

"...Red is the most emotionally intense of all the colors and is known to raise the heart rate, increase blood pressure, and speed up breathing. It draws the eye so is often used for accents only, although because it also stimulates the appetite it can be a good choice for the walls of a formal dining room (and restaurants).

"Yellow speeds the metabolism, enhances...."

This short article isn't, by a long shot, the ultimate resource on the psychology of color. But it's a pretty good introduction or review.

Color is important, by the way. Think about it: when was the last time you saw an investment company's advertisement that was mostly red and orange? Or someone who painted the living room bright yellow: and kept it that way?

Almost-related posts:

• "Designing Art for Billboards; and a Fictional Small Town"
  (January 3, 2010)
• "Interior Design: A Pretty Good Learning Resource"
  (September 24, 2009)
• "Color Perception: An Impressive Illusion"
  (June 27, 2009)
• "Online Software for Interior Design and Decorating"
  (June 20, 2009)
• "Online Color Wheel: Dial Your Own Color Scheme"
  (June 1, 2009)
• "What Color is Your Blog? Why? An Online Discussion With Resource Links"
  (February 12, 2009)
• "Lots of Words Mean "Red" - Damask Isn't One of Them"
  (January 3, 2009)
• "Blue-Colored Streetlights Reduce Crime, Suicide?!"
  (December 17, 2008)
• "RGB to HEX to RGB Online Do-it-Yourself Conversion Software"
  (June 10, 2008)
• "Are Moods Really Blue? Color, Psychology, and Culture"
  (May 21, 2008)

More:

• "Color Psychology and Marketing"
  "Business, Sales and the World Wide Web Are In Color"
  Precision Intermedia

Interior Design: A Pretty Good Learning Resource

"interiordezine.com" -
"providing free interior design and decorating education to the world"

"Interior Design and Interior Decorating Ideas..."

"The interior design industry revolves around creativity and the use of multiple ideas. At interiordezine.com you will find a web site full of useful information that will inspire you to generate your own interior design ideas for free and at one website. It is so easy because this site covers bathrooms, color, bedrooms, soft furnishings, furniture history, makeovers, lighting, construction, interior design and decoration tips and much more.

"Free downloads help with design processes and color schemes and develop your skills as an interior designer or decorator...."

Okay, the website's got advertisements by the acre, pop-ups, the works: but, as far as I can tell, nothing that'll do more than annoy you a bit.

And the content, in my opinion, is worth the distractions.

The navigation, what I used of it, is fairly intuitive - you can start out by clicking on various rooms of a house cross-section, and get to brief discussions of what to do with lofts or attics, how to handle color (broken out by color), a bit about bedrooms, bathrooms, and other rooms.

The only jarring thing I noticed that clicking on what I thought was a home office got me to a page that starts out with:

"DIY Home Building and Construction Information for Decorating"
"As interior designers we would like to not have to learn about construction but unfortunately it is vitally important to interior planning and decoration...."

Well, good for them. The page does get around to saying how wonderful their article for interior designers, about construction, is: But I probably wouldn't have gotten that far, if I didn't have this micro-review to write.

Those 'free downloads' include a nine-page "Color Scheme Form" which breaks out the details involved in planning a color scheme for an interior space - and provides a sort of fill-in framework for a designer. I think it'd be helpful.

Another, "Design Process Scope," starts out with "Define the parameters of the project and map it recording what is existing.
"Initially develop a form for the brief taking. It should follow within the parameters listed below. (Down load this form from the site The brief system form)"

Okay - this probably doesn't give you the warm fuzzies, like putting together an aesthetically pleasing arrangement of color and form can: but again it's a tool to help you organize a project. And yes, I think it's possible that whoever wrote the form grew up speaking a language other than English.

Speaking from a decade's experience in a related field - graphic design - I can tell you that, boring as this sort of thing is: Not getting organized from the get-go is a big mistake.

The "scope" form (four pages) probably won't include everything you'll need to define: but it's a really good start.

And yes, there are pretty pictures, like this:

Painting Mars Red - Tumbling it, Actually

"How Mars Turned Red: Surprising New Theory "
Space.com (September 21, 2009)

"Mars was not always red, according to a new theory for how the planet took on its characteristic ruddy hue.

"Until recently, Mars' color was thought to be a product of liquid water, which scientists think flowed over the planet's surface billions of years ago, rusting rocks. But after the Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity landed on the planet in 2004, they found evidence of certain minerals that would have been destroyed by water, suggesting that the red dust on Mars never came into contact with flowing water.

" 'That was a surprise to everybody,' said Jonathan Merrison of the Aarhus Mars Simulation Laboratory in Denmark.

"Now new research has found a possible mechanism to explain Mars' rusty color without liquid water. In fact, the study implies that the red tones on the planet are a relatively recent development. A simple grinding down of rocks from erosion could produce a red mineral that stains the dust on Mars, the new thinking goes...."

The article describes an experiment that demonstrated how sand on Mars could get red fairly fast - without water to 'rust' it.

Although there's evidence that water - or some liquid - was present at least for short times on Mars, those water-sensitive rocks show that either something's been protecting them from water - or, more likely, there wasn't water around to protect them from.

We're used to Earth, a downright damp planet - about 3/4 of the surface is covered in the stuff. Mars isn't like that. At all, possibly.

Awww - No Martians?

I'd be extremely surprised if there were Martians of the 'take me to your leader' sort. On the other hand, I think there's still reason to believe that there might be at least microbes on Mars.

The comparative lack of water may not be as big a problem to life as we think.

As I wrote back on March 5, 2009, "The University of Giessen's Joop Houtkooper has suggested that the 'peculiar chemistry' that a Viking lander found was life that uses a H2O2/H20 mix. Creatures like that would require tiny amounts of water - which they could absorb from the Martian atmosphere. We're talking about really tiny amounts here...."

Joop Houtkooper's idea may be the explanation for the odd results from the Viking life experiment. It's possible that what was written off by some as 'peculiar chemistry' was Martian microbes exploding when they came in contact with 'way more water than they were designed to handle.

Back to Dry-Process Color for Mars

The lab test is not proof that the idea of Merrison and colleagues is 'the answer' to why Mars looks the way it does: But it opens the possibility that Mars has been red for millions, rather than billions of years. And that should open up all sorts of possibilities to test.

Other posts, about "Mars, Mostly."

Online Color Wheel: Dial Your Own Color Scheme

Color Scheme Designer
colorschemedesigner.com
2002–2009 © Petr Stanicek • Version 3.0

Mostly, this website is fun.

You can use the interactive page to create a color scheme with one color, complimentary colors, a triad, a tetrad, analogous colors, or an "accented analogic" scheme. Sounds complicated, but all there is to it is dialing around a color wheel - with the option of making a few adjustments.

You can look at light and dark web page mockup of the scheme you make.

And, what makes this something more than a toy, it's possible to export information about the scheme you come up with.

This won't put professional artists and Web designers out of business: but it's fun, and potentially useful for someone who needs to design a color scheme.

'Brain Subconscious Smart'

"9 Brain Habits You Didn’t Realize You Had…"
MindCafe.org (October 2, 2008)

"Brain is certainly the most amazing part of human body. It becomes more interesting when it does not work the way you expect it should. Psychology frequently establishes our intuitions about how human mind works, but it reveals a number of surprises as well…"

I'd take some of these nine points with a grain of salt (particularly #3), but it's an interesting post about what we know about how the human brain works. It certainly could be a starting point for some more serious browsing.

The quibble I've got with point 3 - "3) Subconscious is smarter than you." - is the definition of "smarter" used in this post. I don't think there's much doubt that some mental tasks go better, if you don't work at them 'consciously' - but "smarter?"

Bottom line: A good read, fun, with photos, and may encourage you to learn more.

What Color is Your Blog? Why? An Online Discussion With Resource Links

"Blog Design: Which colors do you use and why?"
BlogCatalog post, started February 12, 2009

"Color is considered emotional, because variations evoke different emotions in people. We all know that green is the color of money, but did you also know that green can symbolize greed, envy, and jealousy? The colors you choose will have a direct effect on how the public perceives your company or product. This can be complicated by the fact that our use of color on the web is now limitless: technology allows us to create millions of color combinations. So how do you choose?..."

There are some quite promising resource links in this discussion - and what promises to be an interesting collection of attitudes and approaches to the question of color and the blog.

RGB to HEX to RGB Online Do-it-Yourself Conversion Software

"Color Converter"

"Change Your Text Colors
To RGB Or HEX Color Codes.
Tip: Use HEX In Your Web Pages."

A simple converter for changing RGB color code to hex color code, or vice-versa.

That's good advice, BTW, about HEX on webpages.

For the uninitiated, RGB is Red Green Blue, HEX is hexadecimal (base 16), and BTW is By The Way. Remarkable, how acronyms abound online.

Are Moods Really Blue? Color, Psychology, and Culture

"Color Psychology / Do different colors affect your mood?"
Infoplease

"Like death and taxes, there is no escaping color. It is ubiquitous. Yet what does it all mean? Why are people more relaxed in green rooms? Why do weightlifters do their best in blue gyms?

"Colors often have different meanings in various cultures. And even in Western...."

A brief description of what different colors mean in today's American culture. Some other resources:

• "Color Wheel Pro - Color Meaning"
  This page doesn't say so, but the meanings associated with colors seem to be western
• "About.com: Color Meanings"
  This is the home page for a fairly detailed discussion of color (and, on occasion, culture)
• "The Meaning of Colour in Web Design"
  Sibagraphics's take on the subject, with attention to color meanings in a variety of cultures: with links

Fun and Facts About Flags

"We are Multicolored" tells what the colors and symbols on national flags mean.

The home page leads to a design-your-own-flag feature. Here's what I came up with: