Here is a site of stylish, well designed websites: http://styleboost.com/

Do you see this design amongst them?
Have a look around and see what they do differently.

this design looks very dated. i know you want to keep it simple but the whole bevelled menu, fixed width,etc looks a bit amateurish. you raise a good point about simplicity and usability though. it all depends on what the content of the site is. all you really have is  a header, menu and a big block of text. try working with more columns of text. text is a lot easier to read in column format, also the contrast on the menu is a bit hard to read. if you want to learn i suggest you read up on usability and spend some time googling successful website layouts

Alright, latest update. I think I'll be using this one for my website:

Dark Ashelin wrote:

Didn't find my other topic, so here's a new one What do you like and what could I improve?

The header is nice, but the content block totally ruins what could be a great subtle atmosphere. Ditch the block, ditch the upper right menu options and make the text less grey (bit more white). incorperate the header elements in to more pieces of the bg and make it all look like a unity. like it's logical.

Website is indeed not good if it's confusing, it could, however, tempt the viewer in looking closely at it. You have around 1,5 second to make a good first impression.

It's important that it's visually appealing and that you can see what it's about in that 1,5 sec!