Website layout - feedback

Today I had a really interesting meeting with my tutor Hugh to discuss my website layout. Some really useful points were raised that now I need to address:

• Browser optimisation - I created the layout for 1024 x 768 however I narrowed the layout so there would be plenty of room either side however one of the points was that this room is wasted and could be used to stop the page from being too long

• The menu - does 'about us' and 'essentials' need to be there? the main focus of this website is for people to be able to book travel so the focus should be on the 'adventures' menu and possibly a 'destinations' menu as well

• The rollover buttons - how do visitors know that they are active? which is a fair point as there isn't any indication that more information is contained within it

• The idea of the trip styles being colour-coded needs to be brought into it a bit more as there isn't any indication of this at the moment

This website needs to cater for people who don't know what they want and for people who do. The slider on the home page will allow visitors to create a search personal to them however I need to also cater for visitors who do know what they want.

This is where I probably do need a separate 'destination' page because the 'adventures' area can be dedicated to the different trip styles. This will then allow visitors to either create a search from the offset or go to the 'adventures area to search by trip style or to visit the 'destinations' page where they can search by location. More work to do me thinks!

Website layout - first attempt!

This is my first attempt at designing the layout for the 'blue' website. I'm trying to keep it simple and not too cluttered.

I want visitors to be able to personalise their search so I've added a slider which will help them ask themselves key questions about what they want from their adventure. Their results will be individual to their requirements, it also gives visitors a starting point.

The images at the bottom of the screen are rollovers... each image represents a style of adventure so when a visitor rolls overs a box, information will be revealed along with a link to the relevant page.