Engineering Firm in Scotland - ws review needed

[invision]

Hello,

I need some reviews of my current design for an Engineering Firm here in Scotland. I'd really appreciate any critiques what so ever.

The proto-site is here : http://robdougan.tcslon.com/jme/index.html

Please give me your thoughts, criticisms or any additions you think the site may prosper from.

And the blank squares in the middle will be rollovers of images.

I need to change the banner but am no good with designing banners :)

Many thanks.

[LJK]

Hi -
Because your site is very clean, minimal, and 'low key', it definitely could use a banner that adds interest / variety to it! Good luck with that part...

You also really don't need to use tables for this layout - css would do the job, nicely.

Fine start, though,
El

[invision]

Hello,

The new url for the site is here:

http://www.joemaxwellengineering.com/index.html

Please take a look around and give me your thoughts, Ive only had 1 review.

Thank you!

[sharkey]

Easy to use which is a good thing try making the banner as wide as the nav will make it look cooler imho. As LJK use css for layout and also use semantic(meaningful)mark-up.

I see your another Scottish user like myself:D

[invision]

Thanks for that.
I really am not sure about CSS because not all browsers support it. If im wrong, how do I go about converting it to a CSS-based page.

What's wrong with the mark-up?

Good to see another Scot ;)

[sharkey]

Its not really that all browsers support it mostly Internet Explorer but its the content that matters as long as this is accessible. Your mark-up if written semantically will be viewable to mobile phone browsers etc. CSS has other benifits of fast loading times etc.

How to convert well the best way would be to learn css but dreamweaver can convert a tables based layout to css but it is never good to rely on a program to do a humans job.

Good to see another Scot
Indeed it is.

[BuezaWebDev]

Looking from afar, the site looks very clean :) Nothing wrong with it, in a design sense.

But for a suggestion, I would say to put a container with some kinda background, maybe white-lightgrey and a 1px solid black border so it ties everything together because right now, even though it looks very clean, it looks disconnected and in parts.

But that's just me though, I like making things look uniform.

Anyway, good luck on the site, it's looking good! :D

Edit: Yeah, what I've been taught in Layout and Design classes were to always make your layouts in a FOOTBALL shape...

http://www.bueza.com/helpers/helper05.gif

^^ example.

Why a football shape?
It's supposed to be soft on the eyes (layout-wise). It's kinda like an essay...introduction, body, conclusion.

[invision]

Many thanks for your feedback so far.
And thanks also to BuezaWebDev for the advice, very helpful. Btw, I don't think you were looking at the new webby http://www.joemaxwellengineering.com/index.html

Thank you!

[AlexKitch]

A website should be easy to use, little else matters

It's clean, easy to navigate and use, and the content is related and "to the point" as it should be.

I'm just south of Scotland in the North East of England, I work with a Scottish person. (Close enough!)

My thumbs are up :D

[Reli4nt]

White space makes a site very easy on the eyes but it can also give the site visitor the impression that you have little to say and therefore little to offer. It may seem liek a stretch but it's true. Try not to leave to much empty space in the area of the content.

[Neczy]

Well the first thing I noticed, from looking at it, is that on your top links, the home, links, and contact all have a brighter blue then the others. also...

Not Valid (http://validator.w3.org/check?uri=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.joemaxwellengineering.com%2Findex.html)