You make a good point r.e. gradients. Honestly, though, even the most subtle gradients can go very wrong - I'm usually referring to background or header gradients where it justs wrecks the emphasis of the page or clouds text etc. Speaking for myself I prefer highlighting as a more unobtrusive way to add the "extra touch"
Also I think it is about personal taste; my designs tend towards the same minimalist, centered, coloured menu bar, links in a certain way etc. design because I vastly prefer sites like that :)
(also the beauty of minimalism is that you can "impact" buttons and so forth really easily if you have a good colour scheme - Startup Wiki is an example of where I got this pretty wrong...... :))
Comments
You make a good point r.e. gradients. Honestly, though, even the most subtle gradients can go very wrong - I'm usually referring to background or header gradients where it justs wrecks the emphasis of the page or clouds text etc. Speaking for myself I prefer highlighting as a more unobtrusive way to add the "extra touch"
Also I think it is about personal taste; my designs tend towards the same minimalist, centered, coloured menu bar, links in a certain way etc. design because I vastly prefer sites like that :)
(also the beauty of minimalism is that you can "impact" buttons and so forth really easily if you have a good colour scheme - Startup Wiki is an example of where I got this pretty wrong...... :))