Ok, so I've done a really simple Front Page for my Game Development Team, ENVIZION. I was going for clean and dark, so let me know if this works. If not, I think I'll go with something a little brighter and a bit more intracate.

http://www.envizion.trap17.com

I have one major problem with your page - I can't see the navigation links. The text colour for non-active links does not contrast nearly enough with the background. On my laptop screen they are impossible to see unless you look at a weird angle, which is not the height of usability Also, the News, Community and Developers text size is very small, so you may want to bump that up a bit.

Just to let you know, frames are generally a bad idea. They are hard for search engines to index properly and never look the same between browsers. Look into using DIVs, there are plenty of tutorials about both here on Trap17 and elsewhere on the web.

Its nice but I think it could use more graphics, to make the graphical user interface more friendly. Im sorry but to be honest the navigation links are horrible, I cannot see them, I had to select the text to be able to read them. Well that is my opinion, try using a css menu for the navigation with on hover effects, that would make it more interesting, and edit the text in the main menu, add some margins or something. Its sort of difficult to read text all accros an entire page.

Overall layout is somewhat bland
Navigation is hard to see
The Two Color scheme is also bland, maybe a little more shade styles
More gfx could also help spice up the site :]

It looks good for a planned base to build off of, but it needs a good bit of work

Erm.. The layouts a bit simple - Images would be better to break it up but its okay, As stated in the post before it needs a good bit of work

Try learning CSS? CSS is really quite simple. Just needa copy and paste? Then edit? Your site is indeed pretty simple, nothing much unique () I suggest you do what i suggested.

your background is pretty plain, why not a glass effect or something, or a flash box with clolours and stuff, your navigation bar isn't good, actually its terrible, I can barely see what it says, I recommend changing the font color to FFFFFF, but good site overall, just need to change the font on the navigation bar and maybe a few more colours

I agree. Usually a plain site is a good thing as it helps with navigation. But as csp4.0 and others have said; the navigation is so hard to see no attention is drawn to it, therefore wasting such a plain background for nothing.

Overall I think there is a bigger flaw. Upon entering the home page I have no idea what the site is about. There's no FAQ or short introductory paragraph to help new users. I only found out what your site really did when I visited into the developers section and found a few anouncements about heads of teams.

One last tip: I'd recomend not only changing the colour of text in the navigation frame, but also giving the links more recognisable names. I know alot of people think that calling a forum a "Community" is professional looking, but it's complicates navigation even more.

On a plus, it seems you've managed to setup a decent forum. Perhaps lacking in members (Don't worry, I've been a forum admin before. I feel your pain) but you've got a loyal few that post regularly. Good luck in the future.

I see you went for a simple dark theme, in that context it is effective!
Although on your forum I am having trouble reading things clearly; it kind of hurts my eyes (really)!

I give your site layout a 6.3/10.