Most people who edit websites are not super designers (including us!). And actually, its good if its not too ‘slick’ – people visiting our sites should get a feeling that we are dedicated, enthusiasic ordinary people. But there is definitely a minimum standard we should try to reach.
Here are a few tips from our experience editing sites.
1. All the text should be easy to read
If there is text on a background, there should be a strong contrast with the text and the background. For us, that usually means any background should be quite light and we have dark text on a lighter background.
2. Make your site easy on the eyes
Visually, we want to project a sense of peace and calm. So we should try to avoid things that are visually ‘jarring’. And also – simplicity is our friend.
Fonts Normally on websites, there are just two fonts, one for the header and one for the body, and these two should complement each other. On our dhyana theme, we have a selection of complementary fonts in the ‘Customise’ menu
Colours There should not be many font colors. Most websites use black or a very, very dark gray. If you want to use something different, make sure the colors are very muted.
Pictures Usually it’s best if there’s not too much writing inside pictures. For example, if you want to advertise a meditation class and you have the poster, its best not to put the poster directly. You can create a version of the poster with just the image, and maybe the title, and then explain everything else is in the text.
Of course, if you’re in a hurry or you don’t know how to do it, putting up one poster like this is fine. But in general, it’s best not to have too many images with lots of text inside them.
3. Think about what the site says about us
On many of our sites, we dont say a lot about our meditation path directly. But there is a lot we can do to give people the sense of what our Centre is like.
And also – we should not give the impression our path is different than what it is. To give a simple example – if we use a poster of someone meditating: are they meditating the way we would meditate in the Centre? We don’t want to mislead anyone.