Way back in Iconfactory ancient history, say around 1998, the workers re-designed the site with what has become known as our “black phase”. That is to say that the predominant color of the pages of the site was black with white type. We received quite a few emails from people saying things like “Your site design hurts my eyes!” or “I HATE white type on black backgrounds”, to which, we, in our self-assured confidence simply brushed off as the ramblings of a few people with poor eyesight or little design sense.
We’ll, we’re here to tell you that everyone who wrote to us back then was right. The site was poorly designed and we were inconsiderate for not listening to your feedback. Why the change of heart you say? Six years has an effect on one’s vision, and while we don’t consider our mid-30s to be “old” per se, we have the same complaints about current websites that use black backgrounds and light type. Some of our favorite sites (development, entertainment news, etc) use this design and its like a horse race for us to surf over, read the content and get the hell out before our eyes burst out of our heads. So take it from a bunch of designers who have learned their lesson… webmasters please lighten up your pages. Believe us, you’ll be seeing it our way in 6 or 7 years. :-)
