Need help to sort out a cluttered web design

[blazemore]

I have a website http://www.acupuncturehemelhempstead.com/
It's good (for me!) but I think it looks too cluttered. All the information needs to be there however.

Do you have any advice on how I can make it look less busy and cluttered?

[MichaelSammels]

Hmm. Try using search engines such as:

http://www.dynamicdrive.com
http://www.miniajax.com

These contains layouts, etc.

[blazemore]

No, I don't want a whole new layout, I just want some advice (maybe with positioning, clever use of backgrounds etc) on how to make the existing layout look less cluttered.
THanks

[MichaelSammels]

Hmm. This guy knows a lot:

RYAN537 AT GMAIL DOT COM

Prolly the fastest way to get help :)

[benj1]

personally i think the title pic (with sunflowers) looks a bit busy, and not in keeping with the colour scheme,
i would also get rid of one of the columns (column 2, 3 differently coloured columns is a bit much for me) so either move 'new research' (column 2) to another page/further down the page with links on column 3 or put that column underneath 'Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine in Hemel Hempstead' and above news.

[s.fox]

Hi,

Minor thing: I find it difficult to read "Welcome to Acupuncture in Hemel Hempstead" because its grey font on white background.

-Ash R

[jlbraaten]

Buy and read Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. This is the best website usability guide and will help you sort out your design.

Big Picture Web - Increase Website Traffic (http://www.bigpictureweb.com)

[blazemore]

ok I made some changes, what do you guys think?

[alex.rayu]

Needs more typography fixes, like:

1. Remove negative letter spacing (currently letter-spacing:-0.075em;)
2. Make font color readable (#333 at least)
3. Make line height bigger

So, it will look something like this (see attached, and the css file attached).

Of course, it can be mae even less busy if the text is more user firndly - now there is too much large and bold text in the top of the page.

[theDaveTheRave]

My quick suggestions.

keep the main portion of the page in the central column (if you aren't going to reduce it too 2).

Then ensure that the 2 border columns are fairly narrow, put your external links into them (link out to other sites on the right and links within the site the on the left).

Then in your central section use a "scroll bar" to roll up and down the page ~ using the links in the right hand side as a navigation tool to the main sub headings. A bit like when you open a large pdf document and view the page thumbnails on the left hand side.

If you feel like being fancy, you could even add in scripts to open / hide the side panels, but that is probably for later on, once you are happy with the "general look" of the pages.

There is a book that I have, I'll hunt down the reference, on giving oral presentations on OHP. I feel that the same rules apply to web pages.

Try to keep it simple and clean, don't overload any one part of the page with too much information.

If you want to add in extra information, again maybee you could use scripts to open / close these parts?

for the moment it is Ok, but I liked alex.rayu's screen shot changes

Hope this helps.

David

[blazemore]

Ok guys thanks for all your help. The site looks much better now
www.acupuncturehemelhempstead.com