Mike - First off, nice job It's welcoming, and the purpose of the site is clear. Now for some critique!
* Color is such a subjective thing, but to my eye there's a lot of color going on; gold background, red logo and header border, blue, then main panels - green, tan, blue -which aren't carried through the the panel landing pages. I think a simpler palette would sever you better. * sign in/get your sign in. Conventionally, one either "signs in" or "creates account". "get your sign in" is a little confusing, especially since the button reads "register free". Simplifying the language, and maybe combining both functions into a single box (sign in/create account) would save space and cut down on visual clutter. * the fourth column (containing the catalog offer and the "how to teach one or more children" block) peters out quickly, leaving a blank. This content could probably be integrated into either then right column, or added to the three main columns, for a better page balance. * the top main nav seems an afterthought; small, italic type, not anchored to anything. It could have more prominence by either making them tabs, or giveing them some kind of container - background color, borders, etc... As it is, they seem lost ion the wide grey expanse of the header. * this is a minor pet peeve of mine: aligning the green "awards", "guarantee" and "more" buttons is preferable to allowing the content to determine where the buttons fall. * the design breaks down a bit on the second level; after the graphic-heavy home page with the abundant color and nice panel treatment, the landing pages (I looked at "subjects" and "about sonlilght" are comparatively plain. *on the 2nd-level pages (eg, about sonlight > new to home schooling), the 4-column layout seems strange; the left nav column makes sense, the right sign in/cart column makes sense, but the middle two don't. a simple 1-column (center space) layout with some simple lines separating the questions/links would be easier to scan. And there are some unexplained vertical gaps (on mac/firefox) at least between some of the boxes - not sure if these are so certain content lines up, or a coding flaw. That's enough from me; i'm sure others will have more opinions. I love the product selector (ajax?) on the "new to sonlight" page! Gabe Friedman www.gabefriedman.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Posted from the new ixda.org http://www.ixda.org/discuss?post=28939 ________________________________________________________________ Welcome to the Interaction Design Association (IxDA)! To post to this list ....... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe ................ http://www.ixda.org/unsubscribe List Guidelines ............ http://www.ixda.org/guidelines List Help .................. http://www.ixda.org/help
