sorry wstaylor, been busy. i think i'm the critic around here so i'll give it a go. (by the way if anyone is ever wondering where in the hell i think i have the room to talk: i'm not a web developer. i'm a designer. i look at design, but i myself can't get beyond html and some perl. so don't fus at me 'cause my own stuff isn't very advanced. my credentials: www.balletnj.com www.mverzella.com www.nittanyentertainment.com www.lfriscoll.com) . that being said.
to touch on what other people have said, the gradient metal/chrome look is old old old and ameuture. the style now- and for good reasons on readability and hiarchy - are to use simple navigation buttons.. solid backgrounds or light gradients are preffered. or, make them all look like they belong together. the shifting between lights and darks and lights again without a texture just looks childish.
the most important thing on the page is the title and the content. your content is boxed in and all the shading around it and different colors are simply overpowering it, it gets lost and i don't know where i should be looking first.
the navigation should be the next most important thing.. i would calm it down big time keeping in mind what i mentioned above. you have the right idea docking it on the left but make it all smaller and 'push it to the back' as we say.
next, you can go to your references/credentials (the stuff on the right side). make that even less powerful then the navigation. this is where you get into 'footer' material - stuff that is good as reference but can afford to be pushed to the bottom of the page, tiny, or be placed on a different page altogether.
your browser compatability is the least important thing on the site. it is a 'colophon' which states 'this is the optimal way to view my site' and basically 'i appologize if you're using some inferior peice of crap like netscape'. a colophon in typography is in the back of the book and is smaller then the content info, it is kept out of the way of the imortant stuff but someone should be able to find it if the want it. on the web, i would place it at the bottom of the page, all text - no images - and make it smaaaall.
the animations - in the middle of the page was nice but in the header, i didn't like it. too much motion. one or the other and i would say in the middle, lose the one on top. that way you only have one peice of motion that is jumping out to say 'hello'.
i didn't move past the index page.. i got the immediate impression you weren't someone keeping up with modern web design and techniques because of the ameauture look, and likewise couldn't use you. you don't have to have a flash page to look like you know your stuff.. but you have to look like you understand hiarchy and presentation of material, and have an eye towards loading time and graphics design. granted this may be your first one, but that is exactly how it looks and i am indeed being harsh.
do the whole thing again with just boxes.. stroke color and fill color, lay it out exactly the same then begin moving things around as i have suggestion. i think you'll find by varying the importance of some objects over others, your page will fall into place as being clean and straightforward. it will also load quickly.
anyway i hope that helps.
find me in #stardock i'm always looking to talk design.
WinCustomize Forums
j/k... 
