mediocre websites are gray.
there is one manager saying: i want a website that is so cool like apple. give me black. there is this other guy, also a young and upcoming manager with a little bit more understanding of the web and says: black is not good for usability, the background should be white. they argue for and against it, they pay good money to other experts. the experts already know what the outcome of the study should be, so well, one study says black is cool, the other says white is better for usability. then they get a mediation and the outcome is gray.
this i call the hard struggle for mediocrity. there are two possible ways. each one valid. each one a good possibility. the compromise is just mediocre.
in web projects it’s important to know which fights to fight. black may not be usability friendly, but hey, let the old school manager win that fight. there are much more important topics than colors. (i for my part want the …hundreds… of hours back other talked to me about their favorite website-colors…)
Important: Every color is better than gray!