Why I Love Chicago - logo redesign

I've had WhyILoveChicago.com up for about a year now, and I've decided it was time for a slight redesign. I created a new main logo, and I was hoping for some feedback.

www.whyilovechicago.com

I also think I need a handful of smaller images in the content area, but I'm not really worried about that part yet.

Thanks!

To me, it doesnt really have much pizzazz. But, I don't know what your old design looked like, so it very well be much better. The reflection seems like it's slightly too high, so doesn't quite look like a proper reflection. The "L" in particular looks like an "I" in the reflection.

On a side note: Why do you have the link for "Contact Us" on a new row at the top?

The "Contact Us" link is currently at the top because I removed a few items and just had to fill space. I had a message board no one posted to and a calendar of events with nothing on it, so I removed those and needed something at the top.

I'm planning on really adding a bunch of new content soon, but I needed to redo the main image to give the site a cleaner, more professional look. The old 'logo' was just a picture I took of the skyline, but you wouldn't ever know if was the Chicago skyline based on the angle.

Long story short... the site's content is really lacking, and I know that. The site actually started as an experiment in SEO, and I've achieved pretty good SERP rankings. The adsense ads perform well too. But without better content, the site doesn't really come across as top quality. I'm just hoping the new logo is a step in the right direction.

First, I like the simple layout. There isn't much competing of attention, so I know where to look.

Thinks I would change:

• The logo: Like Hiker said, the reflection could use some work. I also saw some color (orange/red) when I looked hard. A little hint of visible yellow (or another warm color) will give the logo some more pizzazz.
• Also some warm color in the webpage would do wonders - now it's too blue. You use yellow for mouseover in the top links: maybe you can use this sporadically in the content area.
• In general, I don't like navigation above a large logo: I tend to not be able to find it after I scrolled don't reading the page. Then I have to scroll all the way up again
• Also, some navlinks have a dropdown menu. For usability I would add a little down arrow to the links that have a dropdown menu.
• The slogan in the top left is lined out weird (horizontal). I would place it somewhere else within the page anyway. Maybe in a creative way above the logo.
• The text-links in the welcome question don't have mouse-over effects. For usability I would always add an obvious change of color and/or an underline effect.
• For me, the text underneath the welcome question doesn't really grab my attention. To fix this, you could add a two column part beneath the question. One saying "looking for something to eat" the other "looking for something to see" or something like that.

I hope this helps you to get some steps in the right direction

I see some 'little' things that I would recommend.

• move that reflection down a bit and fade it out a little more I think
• Perhaps shrink the entire logo a bit vertically. It uses a lot of the space above the fold. If you plan to add more content and more ads the more above the fold you get the better.
• Let visitors know some of your navigation has dropdowns with a plus or arrow or the link
• Your copyright and bottom nav could easily go on on line and remove a lot of whitespace from the bottom of your site.

Good job putting keywords as the first thing the engines see. Site looks clean. Looks awful in IE for Mac but its up to you if you want to try to fix that who really uses it right?

Haha, thanks. SEO is definitely something I'm way better at than graphic design and content writing. Almost all my traffic comes from the SERPs!

As for IE on Mac... I don't own a Mac, so I'm not able to test it on that platform. As a web developer, I try to check my sites in as many browsers and OS as possible, but I guess you miss some since there's so many out there. Does it look bad in other Mac browsers? Safari on Windows looked fine...

Safari and Firefox look just fine. I wouldnt worry to much about IE for Mac I just wanted to make you aware of it.