Web Sites with Black Backgrounds - A New Trend?

Posted September 5th, 2007 by datascribe

Recently, we came across a posting about using a black background on your Web site. In this year of Live Earth and green thinking, black backgrounds are supposed to conserve energy.

A lot of this started as a criticism to Google because their Web site is all white. White backgrounds use about 15 watts more energy to load a page than black backgrounds. One media company has even gone so far as to create a special site, called Blackle, that uses Google search capabilities from an all black page.Also, a few large companies seem to have jumped on the black background bandwagon: ASTD and Business Objects, makers of Crystal Reports.

Well, as you can see from our site, we're definitely not in compliance with the trend. Saving energy makes sense. But readability is a concern. Any thoughts on this trend - yea or nay?

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Black Backgrounds

Submitted by Chris Williams (not verified) on Tue, 07/21/2009 - 11:38am.

Energy concerns aside, I have always had the feeling that a black background can give a web site an "amatuer-ish" look. When I was a young designer, my first few sites had black backgrounds because I thought it looked "cool." But then as I matured and my design vocabulary grew, I began to develop a new understanding.

Don't get me wrong...if it's done right, a site with a black bg can be all kinds of sexy. Its just that many of the sites I have seen with black bgs don't have the design strength to balance it out.

thanks for the comment

Submitted by datascribe on Thu, 07/23/2009 - 6:38pm.

Hi Chris,

You make some good points. It can be amateurish for most sites. I think black backgrounds can work well for certain sites, maybe in the entertainment or gaming industry. If it's a site that has a lot of good content, though, I have a hard time sticking around to read it. :)

Leila

 

 

 

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