Hi guys,

I'm an IT technician for a school, and have been asked to do a website for the Design and Technology department, I've thrown something together, but ims I don't like it at all.

http://img208.imageshack.us/img208/9518/blahhl6.png

The worst bit is probably the navigation, it desperately needs changing but I can't really think of a better alternative off the top of my head; any suggestions please?

I for one liked the design. Simple and minimalist. Hard to comment on the navigation menu as it is an image. No idea if there are rollovers or drop down links.

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I like the design.

I have 2 nits:
1. make the green color a little more powerful. It is a little too pastel for me.
2. go to a width of 800 instead of the 730 you have now.

I love the fact that you explained Lorem ipset. I had/have a client who got all confused when they looked at a mockup of their new homepage containing pseudo-Latin. They actually struggled to read it.

,dave

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Dave Barnes
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http://www.marketingtactics.com
sitting in my basement with my iMac

I don't know, seems more like a blog template to me.

If it's for a school, I would stick to a basic neat design that shows professionalism and structure.

I would personally use a well structured design like for example this one

Good luck

Huge thanks for the replies guys, I've revised it a little, added some content and have done a couple of variations:

Dark Nav:
http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/7643/dt02lx2.png

Light Lav:
http://img177.imageshack.us/img177/1564/dt01hx1.png

Still not quite sure which to use, or even whether I like it for sure, but I think it's alright. Hmm.

Regarding the last post, I do agree that's a much better example of a school intranet or web site, but since this is just a smaller website for just one department I thought I'd go with something a little different. Agreed it looks a bit like a blog template though :(

Cheers again for the responses, I've just thrown a few ideas to get an idea of what it'll look like on the page:

http://www.thebelfryhotel.co.uk/dt/01.htm
http://www.thebelfryhotel.co.uk/dt/02.htm
http://www.thebelfryhotel.co.uk/dt/03.htm
http://www.thebelfryhotel.co.uk/dt/04.htm

Yeah, the white background doesn't look so hot imo, but someone suggested I should try it but I don't think it works. Also not sure I'm feeling the gradient used on #4 but that could just be my poor sk1llz. :)

Is there a stipulation against showing a picture of the campus and likely contact details?

Also, almost more important than the top page would be the layout for projects.

I shudder to think when another design school site that doesn't look at the likely tasks for ths site users goes up. Luckily you have the standard Web 2.0 Cliches going for you. Hopefully they'll never have a user testing lab or interaction design course, the irony would be too much.

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