Does this Web site suck? - DPChallenge Forums

12/27/2006 01:39:28 AM · #1

So I just designed a photography Web site, and was wondering if I could get any critiques of it.

Does anything annoy you? Graphically how does it work? Is it hard to navigate? Does it look funny on different monitors?

All that and more...

The main thing I'm looking for is a critique of the photography page layout...how my gallery pages look. I want a critique before I go full on and design the other photo galleries in it and other pages.

The site is ://www.lisawareham.com

Message edited by author 2006-12-27 01:40:01.

12/27/2006 01:51:21 AM · #2

My comments on the design and layout really depend on how you are able to manipulate your code. Are you using a site-builder? Do you have access to the actual code? Do you understand HTML?

Fujifilm XF 18mm f/2 Lens X-Pro1

12/27/2006 01:53:31 AM · #3

Yep, I'm using a site-builder
Yes, I have access to the code
Uh...I really don't know much about html, but have a lot of friends that do.

nixter

Fujifilm X-Pro 1

12/27/2006 01:59:34 AM · #4

Lisa, the web site looks great, you have some fantastic images.
Two very small things that I found.
On the home page in the news section, I found the small font a little hard to read, not sure if this is my monitor or not, it's a 22" LCD. Maybe increase the font to the next size?

The other is not a problem just a nice to have. In your gallery, it would be nice to have navigation arrows or buttons that would take you to the next pic.

Apart from that, everything else looks fantastic and it's easy to get around. Great work!

Hope that helps you out some...

Nick

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM

12/27/2006 02:01:42 AM · #5

I would start by changing the white background from white to that dark gray you are using everywhere else. You can do this by finding the body tag <.body> (without the period) and change bgcolor="#FFFFFF" to bgcolor="#7E7F81".

jfriesen

Panasonic LUMIX GH5

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

12/27/2006 02:02:13 AM · #6

I like it!

It's not complicated and it gets the job done!

Blue Moon

Canon EOS-40D

12/27/2006 02:06:46 AM · #7

i like it

aliqui

Nikon D300s

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

12/27/2006 02:12:00 AM · #8

In all honesty I usually come into these threads and have a lot of changes to suggest to someone's website. I don't have much to suggest for yours. It looks very good. The only things I'd have to say have already been said by nixter. (Font size in the News area and the navigation arrows in the gallery.) About the white background; that's going to sway a lot. People are going to like and not like it. That's more of a taste thing than a design flaw.

Great job.

=)

roba

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro

12/27/2006 02:19:25 AM · #9

hey Lisa,

initial thoughts:

Pro's

- nice layout (very professional looking)
- LOVE the font underneath the pictures in each gallery.
- very nice "framing" within the galleries
- easy to navigate - uncluttered

Cons

- wherever my mouse is on the "main frame" I get a "save,print,email" pop-up that hides the face in the upper left corner. That seems a bit annoying.
- it would REALLY help the flow to have a BACK button from within each gallery. That way, the viewer would not need to return to the main screen using the NAV buttons on the side panel.
- i use a fairly high screen resolution, which renders the font in your NEWS box very small & makes it quite hard to read.

btw: nice work, your portfolio looks great (i recognized the Bell daimond mine from a recent challenge).

TechnoShroom

Canon EOS-30D

12/27/2006 03:23:12 AM · #10

Gallery-Press Mention section others have mentioned. The size is small but more troubling is that you're using an image of text rather than text. Text should be text and it should be relatively sized. This allows the user to scale the text in their browser if it is too small or too large as well as change the font all together to make it easier to read. As an image it is a waste of bandwidth, for the most part locked at the set size, and will often look like hell for users who's service or device compresses images (AOL, cell phones, PDA's, wireless broadband users, etc. for example).

Menu - The above also applies to your menu navigation. In addition there is no need for images to get the styling you want. The same can be created quickly and easily with CSS and you won't have to create new images when something changes plus avoids all the negatives mentioned above.

Backgrounds - Falls into the same sort of thing as the previous items. They are images and really shouldn't be. You can just set the colors with CSS.

Size - You've kinda set this up with a 1024x768 monitor in mind. However, not everyone uses that resolution and even if they did not everyone would use it set to the full width of the screen. Even with it set to the full width of a monitor, with that resolution, horizontal scroll bars still show up. It's a nitpick but I always hate seeing them when they are not needed. You might want to consider a flexible width layout or decreasing the width to fit in most browsers without the horizontal scrollbar.

I would consider a different host. Some might not care but others see a person using geocities/yahoo as unprofessional or less than trustworthy. If you don't change I would at least consider stopping the usage of sitebuilder as the code it generates isn't very clean or up to standards.

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

12/27/2006 03:45:59 AM · #11

Originally posted by TechnoShroom:

I would consider a different host. Some might not care but others see a person using geocities/yahoo as unprofessional or less than trustworthy. If you don't change I would at least consider stopping the usage of sitebuilder as the code it generates isn't very clean or up to standards.

I agree that the code is very cluttered. This can affect the download time of your page to some extent. Pick up a copy of HTML for Dummies. This is how I got my start and I found it very helpful and much less confusing than other books.

If you are interested in changing hosting companies I recommend the following:
GoDaddy.com is one of the cheapest out there if you are looking to keep it super cheap. Use promo code GB1 for 10% off.
DirectNIC.com is great if you don't require any dynamic languages like PHP and Perl. They are nicely priced.
1and1.com is my current hosting provider. They offer all the features I need and are priced well.

Message edited by author 2006-12-27 03:49:01.

mist

Canon EOS-60D

12/27/2006 04:13:27 AM · #12

A couple of minor things, that probably are specific to me -

1. There's no "feedback" from the menu to the left. A menu like that I would probably expect to change colour when the mouse is over it, or similar.

2. Make sure you include a web form for contacts.

NikonJeb

Nikon D850

Nikon AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f3.5-5.6G ED VR

12/27/2006 04:48:15 AM · #13

First the answer to your question.....a resounding NO!!!!

I know nothing about websites other than as a websurfer.......zero technical ability. So my comments are based purely on what you can expect from the average Joe who finds your site.

The thumbnails seem pretty small as does the white font on the black bacground off to the left.

It is easy to navigate and the setup to me is attractive

The site is nice in its simplicity.....too often IMO artists outdo themselves with flashy sites that overwhelm the work.

I would also suggest a feedback/comments section.

mist

Canon EOS-60D

Canon EF 28-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS USM

12/27/2006 05:04:54 AM · #14

Oh yes, I found the site was a tad slow loading. If it's professional you may wish to consider better hosting than yahoo.

Apple iPhone 5

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

12/27/2006 05:07:27 AM · #15

Originally posted by mist:

Oh yes, I found the site was a tad slow loading. If it's professional you may wish to consider better hosting than yahoo.

Design looks good. But I had the same problem as mist - The site loaded quite slowly for me.

General

Kodak Z7590

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

12/27/2006 06:44:06 AM · #16

Nope it doesn't suck. Color Scheme is bit say dull for my taste.Nice Images BTW.

nards656

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Tamron SP AF 24-135mm f/3.5-5.6 AD Aspherical IF for Canon

12/27/2006 07:41:56 AM · #17

It definitely does not suck :)

SteveJ

Canon EF-S 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM

12/27/2006 07:51:14 AM · #18

Looks fine to me. Being a complete nerd about web pages, html, etc...it looks clean, pretty quick loading on my server and uncluttered. Good job, await completion.

Kaizer

Canon EOS-350D Rebel XT

Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS

12/27/2006 07:55:22 AM · #19

Pretty cool if you ask me.

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 ED

12/27/2006 11:30:24 AM · #20

Originally posted by TechnoShroom:

Thanks for all of the comments everyone! I just woke up and was happy to see all of the feedback :)

OK, so I'll probably stop using SiteBuilder, I really know nothing about html and didn't know the difference between hosts.

What program(s) do you suggest I use? Frontpage? Photoshop?

I'll probably keep yahoo for at least a few weeks, as I don't have time to restart right now. The reason my text is in images is because sitebuilder doesn't have an option to un-underline links. Annoying...Is there a way to do it in the html code?

Apple iPhone 5

12/27/2006 01:31:01 PM · #21

Originally posted by Ware3927:

The reason my text is in images is because sitebuilder doesn't have an option to un-underline links. Annoying...Is there a way to do it in the html code?

...etc...

Photologist

Apple iPhone 15 Pro Max

Nikon AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 17-55mm f/2.8G IF-ED

12/27/2006 01:43:04 PM · #22

.

This site is very good. My only suggestion (and it's a usability thing) is that I like sites where one can navigate forwards and backwards through a gallery. In other words, a "<" (previous) or ">" (next) links at the bottom (or preferably, the top) of each photo would be ideal. Again, this is just my personal preference.

justamistere

Nikon D3s

12/27/2006 03:40:50 PM · #23

I would've like to see some type of color/animation/etc., mouseover response when I dragged my mouse over the Left-Margin menus. And also the currently selected menu choice should be a certain color or marked with some graphic.

12/27/2006 06:21:33 PM · #24

Originally posted by justamistere:

Hm...yeah, I guess a color change or border around the photo and what link you're over could be nice