Suppose you are working for a client who likes the color yellow and wants it to be the dominant color on a Web site. Further, the client wants a white background for everything outside the navigation layout. The agreed-up main page layout is given in Figure 9-24. Using a monochromatic color scheme, make suggestions for the elements of the page. Explain the underlying principle for each choice. Fill in the table below.

Many of the entries in this table can be filled in with an initial value just by keeping the rules for color in mind. A student could then use these initial colors with a Web authoring tool, and will need to make fewer adjustments while setting up the visual appearance of the page.
For areas with a white background, black text is a reasonable first choice. It also makes sense that the background of the navigation areas will need to be different from the main content area so perhaps they could be some shade of yellow that wasn’t too saturated. Also, it makes sense for the background of the current selection in the primary navigation bar to match the background of the secondary navigation bar since the entries in the secondary navigation bar correspond to the current selection in the primary bar. Since the buttons in the upper right corner are probably navigation, it’s possible to make the case that their background color should be related to the rest of the navigation background colors.
Also, the bullet will need to make a contrast with the light colored background, so it should be a medium dark color. The same is true of the separator.

Element

Background of primary navigation bar

Background of current selection in primary navigation bar

Background of secondary navigation

Background of buttons at top of page

Separator

Background of content area

Text of primary navigation bar

Text of selection in primary navigation bar Text of secondary navigation bar Text of content area

Corporate logo

Bullet

A first approximation is given below. What’s perfectly OK to do at this point is to look at the page and think, “I don’t like that dark yellow so much – it looks too muddy. I think I’ll shave a couple of degrees off the hue.” Within 4-5 degrees, it still qualifies as a monochromatic scheme