New layout?

there is something missing from your post - a link

or you meaning webmasteredge.com ?

I think it lacks another colour to liven it up. The greens are nice but maybe an orange would just spice it up enough without detracting from the simpleness of it??

I think you've done a good job of it as it is, but if anything, you might want to rethink some of your design techniques a bit.

For instance, your headings in the two side columns aren't obvious. They look the same as normal emphasised text. You might look at kicking the size up a notch, or adding a background colour or shape to it.

The fonts for headings in the body section could be changed to some other font, say, Arial... it has a cleaner look and, again, will serve to separate the heading from the body text/links.

The colours are monotone, for the most part, so end up being monotonous (:eek: ), for the most part. Adding another colour to the scheme might also help with the aforementioned issues.

Bottom line: you should be looking to add some variation to the existing setup - be it colours, fonts, shapes, whatever. Only thing you might watch out for is not overdoing it.

Hope that helps.

Sorry busy I did mean WebmasterEdge.com! Assumption is a wonderful thing!

The colour schem is one area I was looking at. I've got very bored with the green and I thought about variations of blue with like a metallic finish for headers, menu bars, etc....

I agree that I do need some graphics to liven it up a bit but the biggest issue has to be the amount of content, the site is very text heavy. Being able to break this up is gonna be the headache!

Monotonous? Moi??? I'ts not like I go on and on and on and on and on and on is it?

I like it as it is, I think the colour scheme gives it that webmaster knowledge type of feel.

You already have all the sponsor graphics down the sides and on top that break the green

Only thing I'd suggest is make the font a little bigger but then again it could make it look too spacious

It's not that I don'yt like it, it's just that I think it's lacking in something...

I agree that the colour scheme could use some work. This teal is okay, but it's kind of limited IMO. The good thing about a webaster site is that you can get away with pretty much anything colour-wise, so I would try to get a little daring and try some different combinations or something. Shades of blue with metalic finish would probably look nice, but it's not too original.

Ok.
here is the first attempt. Few things though!

1) The lgo is crap I know, I'm gonna get our designer to take a look at it.
2) There are a few cross-browser issues but they will be ironed out
3) Padding in the tables still to do as well.

Thoughts on the general layout though?

It's hard to tell without any content, but from whats there you may need to introduce another colour, maybe the link colour or logo?

I liked the green more than this one, I think it just needed another colour adding.

I think this has the same problems as the teal (it's just boring), but there is more potential to expand on this layout. You coudl easily add a nice bright colour like orange or lime green, and introduce some sort of shape to characterize the site (like TWF has those two little arrows in the logo, and we've also used them on some of the buttons). Also move that banner ad so it's more centered in the blue space there and not crammed in the corner.

I think I'm gonna strt a thread in the barter forum as I have come to the conclusion that I have the design talent of a stick!

Thanx for the input....

Personally, I rather like your current colour scheme. The only thing I dislike is the blue link colours.

colour, colour, colour.

It is so nice, after a long day of coding, to be able to spell that properly again

Phil, you say you think the existing scheme has something lacking so why not, instead of completely changing it, add to it. Try adding an accent colour like orange, that can sometimes be all it needs!

Now before you all fall about laughing at my logo, please bear in mind that I have next to no experience in using graphics programs.

With that in mind constructive criticism please

Here's the new layout

I think you need to show the orange more visibly; not hide it for hovers.

As well, I'm not a fan of non-uniform hovers. Either make the link change on hover, or make the background change on hover — not both. Otherwise you get two hover effects for what is the same thing.

I don't like how the top navigation is left-aligned. Try aligning it to centre, like the bottom nav.

You need to make the "Navigate" heading stand out more. Try making it bold or something...

I won't say anything about the logo.

Nice banner ad too.

PS: I still think the old design was good. All you needed was to add a little variation to that.

I totally agree with Abhi, I liked the old one more than this, you just needed to add the orange to the green version!

However, if you want to go with boring blues ( ) then I think the stripped bit at the top is ok but has been used on so many sites! Centre align the top navigation and maybe have that change to orange on hover. Do you need tp have 'Navigate' on the left? If you think you do then they don't look enough like links. At the moment the 'Navigate' looks like it should be a link itself, plus it makes the layout look lopsided with the stipes coming down the left side but not the right.

I think I like this one better, actually. More potential for greatness here. What you need to do first is try to use that orange a little more in the rest of the design. Page headers would be a good place for it. I do like the way you've used it on the left side navigation. Definitely make sure that the top and bottom navigation menus have the same alignment. A better logo would make all the difference.

Really, I think the best thing to do would be to get a great logo designed and go from there. If you have a great logo it won't matter so much what happens with the rest of the design.

Oh no, which way to go!

I must admit I prefer the blue but Megan and I seem to be in the minority! I'm going to try and get a logo sorted by a designer friend of mind and take it from there.

That's a good way to go as I often find that a logo will dictate the layout and especially the colours. Let us know what he comes up with for you.

OK my friend has come back with a logo so here's the new version

Any better?

Wow, this is weird with IE 6.0. Go to the new version, then click the Home link, for me it is like the whole page dynamically changes to the old format. Kinda cool looking

That's because Home links to index.cfm (the old version) as opposed to index2.cfm (new).

I like new logo. Much cleaner. I'd like to see what it looks like with some content in it, though.

yeah, looks much, neater than before, although I don't like the links on hover which have a over and underline, I don't think I ever did like that effect

Logo is better but I don't think it's striking enough and is going to get lost once the content and ad banner is on there, maybe it could be bigger?