I’m in this field so this site interested me. There are a few visual things I’d say are not ideal. These are not in any particular order, just noting them as I see them. I’m looking at it on a PC in Firefox.
The light green active color on the menu links is not easily seen or attractive. The white background on the sub-menus also looks like an error in code. Perhaps make the white background transparent? The fonts and images are too large for the content, so they require more scrolling and load time than they are worth. Search category didn’t really search a category so its function is a bit confusing. Your header disappears on hover. You may be still learning some css tricks? I’ve only learned in the last couple years, so I know what you’re going through. 🙂
I’m picky about typography, but I think your typography has a mix of fonts that don’t suit each other well, the sans serif, serif, and decorative all together, don’t work so well, imo. I’d say choose two that balance each other well and stick with those. I like Georgia and Tahoma this week, Gill Sans and Times New Roman are nice, too.
The biggest issue is that the design leaves me confused about what the site is for. You are using a lot of stock images (and some that I would think maybe you don’t have rights to, like the Bad Teacher movie pic maybe?). I’d recommend you explore creative commons images instead. The stock photos make your site appear commercial and very much like many others, so it appears commercial but it’s hard to tell what you are selling, which seems odd.
I do see your stated mission on the about page, which is great, but the design doesn’t seem to reflect that. Eventually, I found a notice that you want to help students find schools in the U.S., but that was a search. As a professional in the field, I think some of your content is thin for the ESL field, which would not be unusual for a commercial site, but is for the stated purpose.
As a colleague, it only seems fair to show you my sites so you know where I’m coming from and can see my own taste and can discount everything I’ve said here. 🙂
[ links redscted, please feel free to post your own topic with one link ]
As a fellow ESL pro, I wish you all the best and would be happy to stay in touch to talk over the sites if you like.
