Looking for ideas to make my site look better

[jonbey]

Hi

 

Been a long time since I was last here, so hi again.

 

I run my own website. I built it all myself using Wordpress. I have slightly modified a free theme (just tweaking the CSS to get it to look the way I want).

 

However, I feel it does not have a strong image, does not impact etc.. But, I cannot work out what (or how) to change to make it a lot better.

 

It is a article based website, 2 columns. So my thinking is that all that is needed really to make it look lots better is a snazzy looking header area and sidebar. Maybe some tweaks to content layout, fonts, colours etc. too.

 

I have been looking at many site for inspiration but always left confused! I am not a designer.

 

I have thought about getting a professional design done do far not seen a company who specialises in Wordpress and will not make silly changes that will ruin my navigation and architecture - it is vital that this all remains untouched.

 

This is my website.

 

I have been looking at sites like these, hoping for inspiration, but still not sure the direction to take. These are all mostly news / magazine sites, some really basic looking actually:

 

Celebrity Gossip, Fashion Trends, Hair & Beauty Tips (Glamour.com UK)

Latest news, sport and comment from the Guardian | The Guardian

ABC.net.au

Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph - Telegraph

 

See, I want simple, clean, with a little style. But my attempts to get there seem to be failing ... :mad:

 

Many thanks, look forward to your opinions.

[Andrea]

I wouldn't worry about the looks - I clicked your link and now, well over a minute later, the site still isn't open.

[jonbey]

strange, it is not normally like that.

Looking in to it now!

[jonbey]

I think the issue is resolved. Poor timing!

 

Had a Pingdom alert so it was not just you either.

 

But back up again now. Fingers crossed.

[jonbey]

and just had a mail from the webhost to say that they are looking at network issues. Those guys are sharp!

 

Right, back to the design ....

[falkencreative]

A couple comments:

 

-- The design might feel more modern with a sans-serif font like Arial rather than a serif like the site currently uses

-- Perhaps headers should be in an alternate, bolder font? See fontsquirrel.com for some alternate ideas and the @font-face packages needed to use the fonts

-- Please don't use underlines on things that aren't links. It's just confusing.

-- Perhaps an additional accent color (something other than blue) would be helpful?

[jonbey]

Thanks Ben,

 

I recently added the orange around the subscription box after seeing organge/blue on another site, and quite like it, Maybe more orange?

 

I see what you mean about underlines - all the headers are underlined, will look at changing to nicer fonts.

 

Cheers

[Andrea]

Yup, now it works.

 

this isn't so much about the look - but I find there are way too many links on that page. It's downright overwhelming, and I'd have no idea where best to even start clicking. I think a cover page that kind of explains what this is all about with links to the main categories would be a better approach.

[jonbey]

Yeah, the home page is something else that I am looking at sorting out. Maybe get shot of the "latest" boxes down the bottom, that would cut out a lot of options.

 

But, the reason why I linked up the news sites is because they manage to squeeze a lot of links in very well without it looking cluttered. I could probably get about 25% of my whole site in that Telegraph format!

[jonbey]

Made some font changes.

[richardvega]

hmm, I'm not also a website designer but I think you need to make your site more organized. I don't know where to start but that's what I've noticed when I checked on your site. Otherwise, i think this really contains a bunch of useful information. The only thing is, this should be conveyed in a way that would be easy for people to see.