Updated design layout with CSS - your comments please?

[happy_hands]

I've really been inspired by the CSS Zen Garden, so have spent quite a while now trying to redevelop the design of one of my main websites, to utilise accessible CSS, make it easier to navigate, and make it more colourful and up-to-date to appeal to a wider market.

Here's the old web page it's been updated from:
http://www.therapy-agency.co.uk/business/workplacestress.html

And here's the newer version (just the one page):
http://www.therapy-agency.com/business/workplacestress.html

Although there's a bit of coding in the contact form which is bugging up the validation at the moment, the rest seems to be doing what I'm hoping it will as far as I can tell.

Similarly, although all the links are there on the page and set to work in the site change, the links don't actually go to the other pages yet (I still need to copy all of the content across to the new format, hence lots of 404 errors if you follow the links).

For your information, the rest of the site page colouration will change depending on which part of the site you're in (ie the business area is blue shades as you can see, whereas the gift vouchers area will be a type of lilac, etc.). All of this this will be changed with the appropriate CSS, based on the current design.

I've tried very much to keep all of the styling in CSS, and just keep the html for the main content, and just use of a couple of inline images to help tell the story.

So before I get too carried away with the rest of the site updates (there's about 600 pages to update!), it'd be good to find out your opinions on if you think I'm going along the right lines design wise.. I'm trying to learn as much as I can but graphic design really is a new area for me!

[happy_hands]

Okay.. I've now:
- fixed all the minor validation errors for both the html & css.
- played around a little more with the page design (just subtle things since first posting).

Unfortunately until I update the whole website to the new design, the displayed links within that sample page won't actually take you anywhere..

So please, any comments on the layout & design?
Does the page balance visually, or does the way the content hits you initially read well in your opinion?

My only thought next is to make the larger image into a moving flash of some form..

I'd appreciate your thoughts though.

Jason

[KDLA]

- It (the homepage) needs white space. The text is too crowded. I suggest you increase the line-height of your paragraph text.

- I also suggest that you apply a font and size to your dropdown select. It sort of sticks out.

- The usage of the blue gradient seems a bit much (like too much blue!). You might change it to a light gray, like #ccc or #eee.

- Flash - not needed. Instead, make your logo larger. That will create some more visual interest for the top section.

[happy_hands]

That's really great feedback. Thank you KDLA.

Although this isn't a main homepage as such (it's one of the information content pages for when people want to read up on workplace stress in this case), I agree with all of your points. The home pages for the various sections will also certainly be much more open with far less text and more obvious links.

I'm now working through various changes based on the other elements, cutting down the blue by a lot and making other elements much more subtle.

So anyone taking a look for the next day or so will notice changes moment by moment as I play around, so please bear with me while I do this, and I'll post again when I'm happier.

Thank you.

[happy_hands]

With all the above considerations in mind, I've now reached a newer design:
http://www.therapy-agency.com/business/workplacestress.html

(still just the one page though)
So any further thoughts, please do let me know :)

[KDLA]

You might check it in Fx -- your <li>'s on the right are showing their bullets.

[happy_hands]

Weird.. I'm using Firefox version 2.0 but I can't see the bullets. I'll try asking on one of the CSS forums for any ideas on how to fix that. Thank you.

[KDLA]

Well, I don't see them now. It may have been a cache problem with my browser. No need to worry!