Bluegrass Computer Services

Whilst people ponder your site, would please review some of the other sites that are asking for it? You may find, in the act of reviewing (which is required, as well), you will gain insight into your own work.

A few things:

1. the heavy blue side bar with nothing in it (except the copyright at the very bottom) makes the page dark and congested
2. you have some very big inconsistencies in fonts -- standardize your font!
3. you need white space to open up the display, it feels very tight, even when there isn't a lot of content
4. the text, sad to say, is generally too large for comfort, especially when it's also bold.
5. the content seems good, Kentuckiana made me laugh
6. the header space takes up a lot of room, but there is no benefit from it -- shrink the logo a little, add your contact information up there with it to the side.
7. the navigation is too dark. when I finally noticed it, I found myself reluctant to click it (odd!)

Thanks for participating!

A lot of suggestions there! I've made some changes and posted them in another directory for comparison.

http://www.bluegrasscomputerservices.com/preview/

Is this better or did I miss the concepts completely?

BTW, I've only modified the home page for now, so I know the links on the preview are dead. And Kentuckiana is a term used all the time in this area to describe the Louisville Metro and southern Indiana area.

wow, little changes, big difference!

the right side is still a little close to the scroll bar (which leads people to feel crowded) but already it looks more cohesive.

Take a look at the idea of using headings to break the content into more sensible chunks, as well to provide "eyeholds" for your users to find the information they are seeking -- how to buy, how to repair. What is the primary service?

The what's new and news headings are okay, but the rest of the text falls into "yeah, yeah, blah blah, why do I care?" -- punch up the content, remember your sole job as a website is to solve the consumer's problem and drive them to call/email/buy. If the information isn't doing that, get it off the front page. e.g. the news that things are coming doesn't solve a problem, it just says "I'm not done". Instead, be very specific! We are adding this thing so you can do this specific thing or to solve your particular problem.

You keep throwing suggestions, I'm going to keep using them. =)

http://www.bluegrasscomputerservices.com/preview2/

I've added a border on the right to mirror the left. As I add some more content and tools for end users, I can add buttons for that content on the right side.

Alrighty then -- let's look at the footer -- you have a lot of extra space for no reason, and links on the left that are blue on blue. You can tighten that up and get the bottom to not have a white gap as well.

Be careful with centered text, especially for paragraphs, as it often signals amateurism, not professionalism. (Centered headings are more a matter of taste.)

The news updates have the date first, but in a non-reader-friendly format. I would relegate the date to the bottom for reference and get the key information in the first few words.

On the whole it's starting to look better, so your content and your services will get more attention, make sure that content is up to spec!

Now, I'll let the others kick in suggestions!

I think you should perhaps put a bit of spacing to the left and right of the buttons on the left menu (perhaps just 10px each side).

Yo've got a good start here but still need work. The logo is a nice attempt - the cartoon computer is cute, but it needs colour. Colour and a better font would provide more punch to go with the quirky graphic. Go with a bright eye-catching accent colour to go with that navy base. If you're going to use a cartoon in the logo, don't use one elsewhere on the page. Also move the logo to one side (centering looks unprofessional). To fill the space there you may need to reposition the navbar. A tabbed navigation style might work.

Definitely switch your font to a sans-serif, like verdana. It'll look less old fashioned and traditional - more modern and in keeping with the theme of your site.

Try adding a tagline, sevice and integrity are buzzwords. "We offer twice the warranty period most offer" communicates information.

I appreciate all of the advice. I've taken the concepts of the preview home page and applied them to all the pages. They are now live, so there is no longer need to use the preview link I posted prior.

andy206uk - I couldn't see what you were talking about...that is until I looked at the site at a lower resolution. Great advice, and it has been applied.

Megan - since you referred to the logo being centered, I must assume you looked at the main page, and not the preview site I posted. What you looked at is many revisions old. As for the logo, business documents have been printed using that logo, so there is no changing it now. It was specifically left without color, so that there would be a uniform appearance on our documents that are B&W. Also, I have two other partners and they had say in the logo, so the design and appearance was a group effort.

D856C - our tag line is, "Quality. Integrity. Value." Again, this is something that has already been put into physical print, was decided on by other partners, and can not be changed.

As the entire site has been revised since my first post here, please feel free to look at the other pages as well. I'm sure there's more work to do!

And thanks again!