Help me spice up this home page

[LouTheDesigner]

http://tinyurl.com/y8ce7b4

My client and I are looking of ways to make this main page a bit more "jazzed up" I should say. Any suggestions would be great, especially with the font and coloring.

I only have the home and contact page finished because I don't want to go too far without having a main design.

Thanks in advance,
-Lou

 

[northpark]

Is that all the content that will be on the homepage?

 

[LouTheDesigner]

Yes. That is all my client wants. I can add some sort of mouse interaction with AS3 if you have any good suggestions.

 

[mcorton]

I would suggest staying away from swf as most browsers will block them without user allowing it which most won't. I would suggest using more color. I was thinking Using a couple horizontal rules or colored lines to divide it from the menu. If I was doing the page, I'd use a slide show rather than the swf.

 

[michaelsnugent]

Good suggestion by mcorton. Not all browsers are flash compatible, especially mobile browsers such as the iPhone. I think the animation looks great, but you might consider an alternative; something with more "accessibility."

You have some nice open white space between the logo and photos. A few sentences of text will go a long way with helping your site search rank. I would suggest a well written sales pitch, and possibly a little info about the company (i.e. certifications, specializations, and KEYWORDS).

 

[gazzieh]

Unless your client is expecting customers to search for them on their iPhone or PDA then flash is of little consequence nowadays. With the predominance of browser usage being Microsoft and of that most being IE6 then Flash will work fine. Most businesses will be running an IE6 or later system and I get the feeling that your clientelle are more business than individual.

Saying that, I'd kill the Flash because it is annoying. Cross fade is reasonable but any movement is annoying to the eye and is a bit like a cameraman who keeps waving the camera around; can be clever but all in all just bleeding annoying (watch Cloverfield if you do not believe me).

Remove the underline! Underlining is a leftover of old typewriters and was originally the only way of enhancing text (aside from using all CAPS). You have far more options (including simply removing the line). Your nav bar could still hold onto these since otherwise it wouldn't be easy to tell what was a menu and what was simply text. However, a cleverer use of a navbar would be of benefit.

I have no idea about United Iron Inc and as such would not know if they do what I want or not. Your homepage NEEDS to tell visitors very clearly what the business does.

Use Flash to create a user-navigatable gallery?

The shadow is a little annoying but without the underline may well work. Bad mix of colour (dark grey on light grey) but I wonder if you are going for an IRON feel? Black and grey may well work but what of trying to get a punched feel from your text (punched through the page) rather than resting on it?

Finally, do not do the homepage as a pure Flash since this will negate most seqarch engines and destroy your SEO aspirations (something Iron thingy needs more than a clever website).

Hope this helps.