How do you evaluate the look of a website

elljay

I've been asked to evaluate the look of someones website but have no idea what to look for. They've given me around 6 style sheets to choose from but to be honest I can't see much difference. It needs to look relatively serious and studious but other than subdued colours/no cartoons I don't know what makes a website look serious, and all of these are subdued. Can anyone point me to some guidelines or otherwise help please? I've looked at loads of websites to see if I can find some sort of common criteria but I really haven't formed a view about which I like. Content matters a lot to me and I can evaluate that, and that's what makes me like or not like a site, not the look and feel.

You're talking here to someone who has no idea of what colours suit her, no idea of what colour paint to use at home, where to place furniture, no idea of what garden flowers look like together etc etc. I obviously have no design sense whatsoever so need some sort of criteria to use. Please don't say, as someone has said today, just go with what you think looks nice, because they all look nice, or horrid, to me. As I say, it's just the look I need to understand, not the content.

A million very desperate thanks

Liz

inamabilis

This is a little old now but might help
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html