1st Draft of site...not pleased

This is really my first site Im doing for someone else. Its the first draft (sorry about the couple broken images, those are just blank space anyways). I like the design but Im not pleased with the look. It feels almost too plain or empty. Could I have some suggestions on how I can spice it up a little, its missing something. Thanks a lot!

Much Appreciated
Adam

Heres the site

www.fcbc.com

Use verdana for your text instead of times roman. Sans-serif fonts generally look better and are more readable on screen than serif fonts. Whereas serif fonts are better for print.

The nav menu is very boring. Also overwhelming. Too many links. I don't even know where to begin browsing the site... Also there is no order to the navbar. It is just a random list of every link to every page on the site. At least group them into categories like "about the church" or "activities" or "education" and things like that with headings so that you can more easily divide the site into logical sections.

Also, the "Welcome Message" is the last thing on the navbar! People will most likely start at the top of the menu, and to have the welcome message at the bottom seems silly. It seems equally silly to have "about the pastor" at the very top. That combined with the sermon and picture on the front page of the site, leads me to believe that the pastor is quite full of himself and thinks the web site is all about himself, rather than the church as a whole.

It would be better to feature a consistent navigation bar on every page. As it is now, there is no way to return to the index of the site to go to another page without clicking the back button. What if someone linked directly to the "church calendar" page? They would have no way of finding out anything else about the church because there is no link provided to that index page where you feature all the links.

Take off that counter unless it is a requirement by your client. It's cheezy, inaccurate, and provides no value to the site at all.

I think there should be more introductory text on the front page of the site providing a brief summary of the church, the schools, etc, rather than a sermonette from the pastor. Looking at your site as a non-member, it tells me nothing about the church. It just slaps a sermon in my face and a photo of the pastor. I would think that perhaps the vision statement, a picture of the church, and directions would be much more important to quickly convey to a first time visitor.

I think that is enough for now...

Hmmm...lol it doesnt seem like the site your describing is mine. My site is called First Citizens Banc Corp...Its different shades of blue with a white background, it has a picture of two business people. I checked my link and it works for me www.fcbc.com. I think the problem might be Im at work and we have servers for web testing, such as IP addresses beginning with 192. Maybe its a test page and showing up only on my screen. Ill try to upload the site to somewhere else and post the new domain asap. Im very sorry for the confusion.

Much Appreciated
Adam

You need to condense the number of links on the navbar! It's overwhelming to see that much stuff at one time. Makes me feel like this site is going to require a *huge* time committment on my part to view it which is not a good thing! Not that you can't have all of that info on the site... you just need to organize it better into catagories so you have like less than 8 items on your menu bar total.

Deker pretty much says it all. First page should have a pic of the church with some basic information so it looks cleaner and more approachable to the average new visitor.

You want to take the site up a notch? Add spice? *Humanize* it. Show pics of how much the congregation enjoys themselves at this church. Right at the top. First thing visitors see when they reach your site. Smiling faces. People singing. Church picnics. Group activities. Convey the energy and spirit *visually* to your visitors. Not with a ton of huge graphics that's going to slow the site down, but with a few pics that are reperesentative of what it's like at your church. Folks aren't going to be moved by the head shot of the pastor (although the pastor might!) when they first visit the site.

Here is a link to just a picture of my design. I havent split it up or anything, just a rough rough draft. Im sorry for the confusion.

for some reason you have to copy and paste it in your browser, just clicking on it doesnt work. I hate geocities but at the moment, i have nothing else to get anything on the web
www.geocities.com/illesttrio/Employee.gif

By the way, this isnt a church site. Its an employee page for a bank company. Only employees will be able to acess it (they all have T1's so page size isnt a problem) for newsletters, email addys and so on. And there are 8 affiliate banks so thats why theres so many links.

Yeah... that went to some churches web site.

The bank site is nice looking... just plain. i'm sure it will help when the content is in there. Also the layout isn't that professional. I wouldn't think of it as a good design for a bank site. But if they like it, then it's all good.

I just think that it looks a little too plain. Theres gotta be something, like a drop shadow or something that will give it the right touch. My boss said he likes the design, but its a tad too plain. What could I do to make it appear more professional? All tips are appreciated. Thanks!

Maybe if you could include the picture of that pastor somewhow... ;-)

Any suggestions?

well blue is always a step in the right direction