Page layout
Studies at the Poynter Institute, Stanford University use eyetracking equipment to track and record the way online readers’ eyes scan news websites. They analyse the way people pause on areas of the screen in order to absorb information. Their study has found that surfers first focus first, ignoring photos and graphics totally, returning to them after reading the text. Steve Outing and Laura Ruel report the most common eye-movement patterns discovered What We Saw When We Looked Through Their Eyes . Their diagrams reveal on screen zones that are more important than others.

Eyetracking points the way to effective news article design

Whitespace by Mark Boulton

Colour
Colour Matters by J.L. Morton has provided information related to colour - how colour effects the body, brain, vision, how it is used in design and how computers display colour. The site approaches the subject on number of levels from several disciplines: physiology, psychology, philosophy, and art. This is a site well worth spending some time exploring.

Colour Primer by Gail Parker, of Cyberglitz covers issues such as browser safe colours, RGB vs CMYK, Bit Depth, Bits and Bytes, Indexed Colour, and Image File Compression

Colour Tutorial from Janet Lynn Ford of the colour worqx website covers all aspects of colour theory

Why study color theory? If you are involved in the creation or design of visual documents, an understanding of color will help when incorporating it into your own designs. Choices regarding color often seem rather mystical, as many seem to base decisions on nothing other than “it looks right.” Although often told I had an eye for color, the reason why some colors worked together while others did not always intrigued me and I found the study of color theory fascinating.

Learning to Use Color on Your Web Site by Ron Wilder

Communicate With Colour by Maura Yost

First impressions are lasting impressions, and Web designers have only a fleeting moment to engage a visitor. According to the Institute for Color Research, “all human beings make a subconscious judgment about a person, environment, or item within 90 seconds of initial viewing, and that between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on color alone.”

More articles on web Design
Web Design is 95% Typography

Sitepoint’s Design Principles

Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design from Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox.

A round up of tutorials that focus on using Grid systems in Web design

Photoshop Tutorials
7 basics by Jay Arraich covers the Photoshop interface, tools and palettes.

Working with Layers is a tutorial on a key feature in Photoshop - Layers

This Beginners’ Guide to Adobe Photoshop covers the basics including selection and manipulation in Photoshop