Do Backgrounds on Websites bother you?

[Sammacha]

Just wondering if people really like websites with backgrounds?

honestly I have really intricate backgrounds that might block or make words hard to read
I also think it looks stupid when half the picture is covered but a solid menu etc.

i don't mind simple Backgrounds or background images taht are offset

just wondering what other people think

[jscheuer1]

To me it's not background-image or not background-image, rather (as you intimate) how the background-image looks/works with the rest of the page.

Put another way, it isn't any one thing about a page. It's the whole page, whether it 'works' or not. I don't mean code-wise, though of course it has to. I mean in addition to that, if it works visually.

[Sammacha]

Thats very true. it has to "work" with the page to produce a good visual result.
unfortunatly I find a lot of people cannot do this

[traq]

unfortunatly I find a lot of people cannot do this

lol - yeah. unfortunately, a lot of people who brand themselves "web designers" can't do it!

[Sammacha]

lol - yeah. unfortunately, a lot of people who brand themselves "web designers" can't do it!

I know honestly its well just plain sad

[djr33]

Backgrounds that interfere with reading the website or finding navigation are a terrible, terrible idea and make me feel like the website is low quality-- not just in design, but probably content. (It would have to be a great site for me to continue using it. This happens sometimes, but it's rare.)

Simpler websites are always better and backgrounds can be used well if they are subtle.

But to that point, I want to emphasize the word-- BACKground. It's not meant to be the biggest part of the page. If you have a 500x1000px image of a cat on the page, how is that a background? And if there's text, how can you read that in front of the cat?


As a simple answer to your question, I hate them. But of course a plain website is very boring. The trick to web design is making a non-intrusive but somewhat engaging design that never gets in the way of content.


This isn't true for just backgrounds. More often than not, animated gifs have this same problem.


The simple question is: if it isn't needed, why is it there? And there should be a very good reason. It's nice to have a little decoration. It's terrible if your visitors can get lost in it though.

[Sammacha]

As a simple answer to your question, I hate them. But of course a plain website is very boring. The trick to web design is making a non-intrusive but somewhat engaging design that never gets in the way of content.


This isn't true for just backgrounds. More often than not, animated gifs have this same problem.



You have a lot of good points there and yes animated gifs I often find are an annoyance, especially when they blink a lot!

unfortuantly I find most websites make terrible use of their backgrounds and graphics :(

[Piraza]

Background images, when used properly, can add character to a website.. but they can become a problem if they make the website text unreadable or difficult to follow.

[Super Silver]

When text is hard to read, I'm already moving on to the next site. Why people code sites that are difficult to read is beyond me. There's too much competition out there to be silly in laying out a site.

[molendijk]

I want the pages as visually simple as possible, like this one (http://pagenotes.com/mousepoint/mousepointEvent.htm).
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Arie.

[Sammacha]

When text is hard to read, I'm already moving on to the next site. Why people code sites that are difficult to read is beyond me. There's too much competition out there to be silly in laying out a site.

very true I hate having to try and decode the info (if any) on the site