Company site...need advice

www.sia-cam.com

that's the site that I did for my dad. As you can see, the content part of it is kinda...well who am I kidding, it sucks. The header at first I liked because I was still in that whole "proud of my work" phase that follows any design...but it really is large and obnoxious. The intro page though I think is fine for now. However, I just have some layout questions. These are really more asking for advice than anything else.

I will go with one of two options, either having a bar just for visual effect on the left, and then on the top a very simple nav menu and logo which is perpendicular and attached to the left graphic. Or just a simple logo and menu at the top and centered. I won't use frames, because...well, I think they make a site appear amateur, and I'm going for a professional look. I didn't really do a good job with this site...just didn't put in the effort. However I was paid 1000 dollars for it, and I'm feeling pretty compelled right about now to really take it several steps up.

I also have a question about showing images. If you go to products >> price list you'll find some images. Would it be best to simply have a pop up window, albeit with more attractive navigation? Resizing the images is not an option as we want customers to get a feel for the actual size and quality of the images.

Anyway, i know many of you are very experienced web designers, and I'd imagine you could get a better feel for what customers generally like to see. Thanks for any advice .

well im not experienced but i can say that im not to fond of the mouse overs, they make your site seem "yuk"
theres not really much to comment on , its a really simple layout;

and about the pictures, i suggest having lil thumbs leading to actual sozed pics otherwise it may just turn ppl off just looking at a black bg and text

heh don't worry I know all about the main page mousovers and headers and all, and I know they suck. I'm just kinda trying to see which of the suggested layouts might be better

I think for the purpose of the site the layout is o.k, I dont mind the mouse overs on the 2nd page but agree that mouse overs on front page could be improved.

Maybe the "Scientific Instrument etc" slogan I think needs either a stroke or outer glow to seperate it from the drop shadow, it will make it "pop out" a bit more

"I didn't really do a good job with this site...just didn't put in the effort."
I think you have to remember that every job you do is going to reflect back on you. people would expect to pay someone who has a good body of work behind them more than the guy who does an o.k site evrey now and again.

does that make sense???

i dont like the rollovers.. specially how they change colors... also i dont like the style with the image on top.. and menu items on the middle left.. but thats just me!

The pictures look a little over compressed.

the drop shadows on "scientific instruments blah blah" don't look good.

I dunno. The layout is arright, pretty basic, which is good, except everything is so damn big! A lot of really nice sites have logos the text size of your links. Get my drift? Make it smaller. You also would get room for other stuff.

Rollovers ont he first page look i guess kind of tacky too. The rollovers arent that great on the 2nd page either, i think the page could do without it.

The header just seems empty. its a large text logo, beveled and italicized, nothing special. Then what? There's a roll of film, and ... that's it.

Finally, i dont thinkit's a good idea to box in the header in a black border but not the textbox.

alrighty thanks all, I will start the new one soon...


*edit* Actually now that I think about it...is it even all that necessary to include an intro page?

[QUOTE][i]Originally posted by lifeonaplate

*edit* Actually now that I think about it...is it even all that necessary to include an intro page? [/B][/QUOTE]
In My opinion probably not. But that is up to you and your client.

You seem to have a lot of text on each page, Have you thought about maybe a dropdown menu with sublinks to break it up a bit.
Personally i would never read all that in one go.