Web Color and Taglines

Color Schemes (www.daybell.com/color)

Monochromatic

www.ford.com

Complementary

www.amazon.com

Analogous

www.fidelity.com

Triadic

www.kbtoys.com

Split

www.bestbuy.com

Taglines

The best taglines accomplish two goals. 1) Explain the primary focus of the site and 2) what makes it unique among competitors. Taglines should be placed near the company logo and be short enough that visitors will read it (50 characters or less). A tagline is NOT a slogan or motto; slogans and mottos are corporate “happy talk” and are generally a waste of the visitor’s time.

A few questions can help you assess if it’s a tagline or slogan/motto:

· Would it work just as well for competitors? If the answer is yes, it’s a slogan/motto.

· Would any company ever claim the opposite? If the answer is no, it’s a slogan/motto.

· Does it summarize the primary focus of the site in a few words? If the answer is yes, it’s a tagline.

· Does it state the sites competitive advantage? If the answer is yes, it’s a tagline.

Here are some good examples from a few websites

www.etsy.com Your place to buy & sell all things hand made

www.layersmagazine.com The How-to Magazine for Everything Adobe

techthinker.com Tech Tips & Tools for Online Entrepreneurs

Often books have better “taglines” than websites. Here are some good examples:

Don’t Make Me Think: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability

Measuring the User Experience: Collecting, Analyzing, and Presenting Usability Metrics

Learning Web Design: A Beginner’s Guide to (X)HTML, Stylesheets, and Web Graphics