I need a Theme!!

[magicmonkey]

I've just started up my site but there's something missing and I can't quite put my finger on it, The site deffinately needs a theme and I'm after some suggestions as to what to do and how to do it!

The site is www.poijoy.urevised.com and although the whole site needs something adding the lessons pages need a lot more work than the rest of it, I'm just out of ideas now, please help!!!!

[AllenP]

The text seems very unstructured.Try putting it in a div the same width as the links. I think that will help a lot with the aesthetics of you'r site.Also I think some simple horizontal rules and indented paragraphs would also add a structured feel to you'r site.

[Mr C]

I think the text is far to close to the margin. It needs to be brought away to make it easier to read.

On the flash gallery page, there is a huge left gap that causes horizontal scrolling of the page

On the lessons page, all the text is centered and that makes reading it difficult. Left aligned or justified text would be easier on the eyes.

[magicmonkey]

Thanks for that guys, some simple ideas I never would have thought of! Whe you say 'left gap' on the flash galleries page do you mean that I've left a gap at the bottom of the page or that there's too much of a gap on the left?

Anyone got any ideas about integrating the java menu on the lessons pages and better? At the moment it's just sort of sat there with nothing else to make it a propper part of the site and I'm out of ideas on it...

[Mr C]

The pages seem to fit on the screen fine, but on the gallery page there is a huge gap to the left of the flash with the flash itself off the screen to the right causing horizontal scrolling.

If you can avoid the java menu that would be even better as you can't guarentee a user will have java or have it turned on. Pure html would be better I think. You could have the sub menus appear on the next page.

I'm using IE6.

[magicmonkey]

The problem with the menu is that if I do it as an HTML menu it goes so far down the screen that it becomes a real pain so I'm a bit stuck with it at the moment.

[Mr C]

Goes to far down the screen? Wouldn't it take up the same amount of room as the java one?

[magicmonkey]

The HTML one is just every link listed down the side of the page using buttons, I could do it as plain text but that looks a bit cheap really. Is there a way of compiling a menu like the java one in HTML? In case you hadn't guessed I'm a complete ametuer with web design ad this is my first site!

[Mr C]

I don't think I'd have every link down the left in one go. I'd have the main ones on that page but not the sub links (the ones that pop up on hover). Instead you could put those sub links on a new menu that would appear when the user goes to that main link.

Getting a navigation can be difficult as there are so many options and there isn't an 'ideal' one to suit all situations.

I'm in favour of text links using css like on these sites:
www.rhonddacynontaff.com
www.niacedc.org.uk

[magicmonkey]

So How have you done the text menus to change colour when you hover over them, is that a table propperty or a cell propperty or am I barking up the wrong tree?