Answers are here.
Why this site is like it is, and some pointers to cross-browser compatibility With regards to colour schemes, the images and colours should degrade sufficiently down to 256 colours without a problem at all. If they do, I apologise. You can see the revision history of this site. However, that means mirroring information, unless you deprive the low-bandwidth people of some of the information that is available in the other site, and that defeats the object entirely. This is a list either of sites with good design, or sites with pointers as to how to make your site better.