What do you think of this website design? I think there's *something* missing?

Hello all,

Im trying to update a website that i build a couple of years ago when i knew relatively nothing about HTML, found here I was proud of it at the time, but now thing its pretty hideous, very generic looking and the design doesnt reflect the industry.

So after hacking around with a template for a few hours last night, i now have a VERY rough design here

What do you think of it? I really like the bottom half, but i some how feel there is something missing or not quite right with the top half. There is no immediate wow factor. Any ideas? Im not a creative so struggle with this kind of stuff, any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

Looks very square to me, that or the outline on the boxes is a little too bold

Thanks for the reply.

Hmm. Do you think i should change the navigation, or combine the 3 middle boxes into one?

Or something else?

As i say, im really not creative so kinda need things spelt out for me!

I think it's definitely better than the old one, to me though it's a bit nondescript... Needs more colour and maybe some gradients or something.

And FYI your validation links don't validate!

Instead of the blank background behind the "box outs" I'd try something like a fine tiled background image.

Something like 1 pixel wide, 1 pixel spaced diagonal stripes, subtly coloured.

Wush - thats it! That looks sooo much better. Thank you so much!

Could you tell me exactly what you did (colour numbers etc)? (I have no Photoshop experience)

I notice you rounded the navigation corner, the font also looks slightly difference? The boarders also look thinner or is that just me?

Thank you so much!

The background is just a small hand-drawn tile. The colours weren't scientifically picked, so just use or tweak this image:



The perimeter changes were because I was slapdash with the selection tool and the font is just how it's rendered in Safari on Mac OS X.

You're welcome, but I didn't really do much

Personally I would cut down the amount of text you have on your home page around the 3 column images. Maybe something like this:

Well it means a lot to me - thanks a lot wush.

Here is the updated design, thinned the boarders, shrunk the footer a bit, and added the background.

Thanks a lot Mart, ill have a look at your mockup.

Just brainstorming here, combing the three centre boxes into one (separated by a line or something) and moving the footer up so there is no gap between it and the clients box, YAY or NAY?

Thanks again for all the help guys

Ok, ive updated the site again, to pull it together as a kinda 1 page design. What do you think?

Im still not happy with the header though. Its either the navigation, or the title or something, but it doesnt quite fit / flow. What do you think? Theres something not quite right there...

I think the problem could be the company doesnt really have a logo. The clostest the company has is the acorn that you can see in the top right (and what ive made into a favicon). However, its terrible quality, non vector and no one really knows where it came from - so we cant get a higher quality version.... Im a bit stuck

I agree it could use some colour - but the question is where? Where would you suggest? As i say, im more of a coder than a creative (doesnt help being a bit colour blind either!)

Cheers for the comments. Much appreciated.

The logo looks to me like a curling tsunami wave... in a good way!

Again minor, but I think the navigation bar would look better if the text weren't all-caps.

IMO the original split-box design looked better

Its not the best is it?! Its a terrible scan of a logo that was printed on some business cards - but there doesnt seem to be any vector / digital copy avaliable. Im thinking i need to get / recreate a proper logo as im starting to get to a point where thats all its missing.

Ive updated the design again, and tweaked the bav bar - what do you think?

One thing I would try is removing the block grey behind the headings. Align the heading left and use a bottom border so that it still spans the content width, reduce the margin between the heading bottom too otherwise the white space may make it look disjointed.

small thing but imo the w3c valid box looks tack on sites. they always look out of place and make no sense to me, who really cares that the site is valid or not?

Using the previous comments i have made a few more tweaks.

What do you think? I think its starting to get there. I still need to sort out the navigation and figure out what im doing with the search bar (should i just attach it to the end of the nav bar?)

Finally i think im going to need to get a logo to stick in the top left. The site needs a real identitiy...

wahoo no w3c valid images much better.

i think the bottom links could do with a tiny bit of padding to the left as atm they are touching the left wall.

i'm not 100% sure what the green circle is at the top of the page?

would be good if the "search" text was added with javascript, and then removed with javascript with onfocus

in nav bar the link is named products, but it will go to services page, same with industries going to portfolio.

would be great to have to headings (bearings, power transistors etc) as a link to help users and increase seo as keywords being used there.

other then that site is coming along nicely

p.s just noticed the company is based in farnham, if they ever need a cleaning company i know of a good one