home-page navigation: categories with description text

Question

This is about the home page of a website which has 9 categories.

Each category is represented with a box which shows the category title with big bold fonts in the first line and then 3 lines of description text with smaller font size.

On this page user must select a category, fill a textbox and hit the ok button. There is nothing else he can/is expecting to do.

My layout is like this

Right now user clicks a category and the clicked category box's background turns to another color so it gives the feeling is "active". Then he fills some info to the textbox and then clicks the ok button. If user clicks ok button without selecting category or filling the textbox, balloons pop-up on appropriate positions explaining and pointing that he must select a category or fill the text box.

• Categories cant broke down or reorganized, they are 9.
• Descriptive text of each category is crucial, so it must be visible. Can't have hidden text that shows on hover etc...

The layout of the categories does not satisfy me, is there another approach to show 9 categories and their descriptive text?

Answer 1

I would make it clear to the user that there are two steps and that "selecting a category" is a first step and a required step. Also I would use a radio button for the category selection as it makes it clear for the user that he is actually selecting a choice (rather than just clicking and bg color changing)

^{download bmml source – Wireframes created with Balsamiq Mockups}

Answer 2

I'm thinking it might not appeal to you because it is a bit text-heavy. You could consider adding icons or imagery to represent each category. That might also give you some different options with the layout (for example, your icon/image could be to the left or above your text).

Centering the Category title above the supporting text might make it look a bit cleaner.

What kind of information will be in the boxes? Are they purchasing something, are they doing a search, or something else?

Good luck!