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DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> New Website / Critiques / Honest Opinions please!!
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01/05/2009 07:51:09 PM · #1
//bludomain25.com/~jro/

This is the site I've been working on and am about to launch , and I wanted to know everyone's opinions before I do.

Please be 100% honest, you will not my feelings. I really do appreciate your true opinions!!!

Have a wonderful day, and thanks in advance
01/05/2009 08:16:39 PM · #2
Couple quick things I notice.

It's very easy to navigate, looks pretty cool and is relatively fast loading (I'm on a cable modem).

But you can't turn the music off before it finishes loading the main page and you need at least 1000 pixels of width to view it all.
01/05/2009 08:19:11 PM · #3
Wow - I think it is excellent! Of course it would be hard for any site that featured your photos to look bad, but for me, the background really compliments them. Only thing I had a problem with is the music - it is hard to click on the links when my fingers are busy snappin and I'm dancing around in my chair. :)

Not an in-depth review or critique, but intial impression and browsing around- two thumbs up.
01/05/2009 08:42:40 PM · #4
thanks so much, well noted!

i really appreciate it ;D
01/05/2009 08:48:27 PM · #5
When I click on "Blogs" it loads quickly. HOWEVER, when I click on "Enter Site", I get a "100% Loading Content....." that doesn't go any further. My browser (FireFox) is telling me that the loading is done in the lower left corner.
01/05/2009 08:50:04 PM · #6
Your new site took a while to load but I have a 256k connection, the music really bugged me as it chopped in out while loading and I couldn't turn it off.
I dislike having intro pages, I want to see content right away and have a prominent link to you blog from your gallery.
The flash seems overkill, javascript would have sufficed.
There is a stray '
' in the title (also breaks should be
btw...).
But overall the page is clean and your pictures stand out.
01/05/2009 09:10:47 PM · #7
the site is gorgeous but the music scared the shit out of me ... wasn't expecting it and had my volume up too loud ... personally I'm not a fan of music on a website ... the images load very quickly and the navigation is easy to use .... great job
01/05/2009 09:24:44 PM · #8
Thanks so much for the input everyone, keep it coming.

It's such a dice toss...every client I've asked their opinion on the music, they absolutely love it and say it makes the site (not a single negative response) and every single photographer that has looked at it says they hate the music

lol, oh the decisions ;)
01/05/2009 09:43:00 PM · #9
First of all, you've done a great job with this. It's easy to navigate, simple layout, cool and appropriate graphics and great photos. As a whole this site is really great and should serve you very, very well.

Second: I actually test websites for a living and I was an editor for a web content team for five years. I get REALLY anal about the things that I report to our developers, content people and designers. They have nightmares about what I'm going to find :) I can LOVE a site and still find ways to improve or tweak it. I report it all and then they (you) get to decide what to change. ;)

I'd like to see controls for the slideshow directly under the photo. The icons are really cool for the thumbnails and maybe putting a pair of them underneath the photo along with another icon for stopping would be great. I really like to flip through slideshows one-at-a-time and I can't do that now. If you have buttons that take you one forward and one back, it works a lot better than picking out thumbnails. Keep the thumbnails.

Put the mute button with the controls that go under the photo.

"Contact Me" is right on top of the white torn section of the background when I have my browser set so that it is as short as possible without scrolling. Shouldn't be too hard to move the tear to the right so that it doesn't interfere with the navigation bar.

Your logo should act as a Home button. It's a bigger, easier target to hit than the small home link.

Putting the names of your clients on the calendar might not be a good idea.

Some of the photos you have in the galleries are really close to each other in pose and have the same people in them. Even though they aren't IDENTICAL, I thought they were and went back and checked. I think you'd be well served by taking out the photos that are so similar. It kinda looks like you're either disorganized or trying to pad your portfolio just to make it look bigger.

What version of Flash is it built in? Be sure to go back as far as you can in versions so that people don't have to upgrade their Flash to see your site.

Your e-mail adress disppears on mouse-over on your Contact Me page because it's black and the background is so dark. I'd have it rollover to yellow, just like your nav bar.

Rather than calling the packages section "investment" I'd call it packages. I know what you're trying to do there, but investment sounds like you're trying to get people to buy into your business :)

Anyway, like I said, these are just things that I spotted and ways that you might think about changing them. Your site is going to do an awesome job for you whether you decide to do any of these or not.

By the way, the photo on the "clients" page is AWESOME! I love it.

Chip
01/05/2009 09:45:52 PM · #10
Originally posted by jerowe:

Thanks so much for the input everyone, keep it coming.

It's such a dice toss...every client I've asked their opinion on the music, they absolutely love it and say it makes the site (not a single negative response) and every single photographer that has looked at it says they hate the music

lol, oh the decisions ;)


One thing you can do is have a volume control and start with the music setting nice and low. They know it's there and they can turn it up if they want to hear it. People that don't like music on sites aren't blasted with it right away. I have my sound turned all the way down and it's still louder than I'd like it to be to start off.
01/05/2009 10:04:45 PM · #11
Originally posted by jerowe:

Thanks so much for the input everyone, keep it coming.

It's such a dice toss...every client I've asked their opinion on the music, they absolutely love it and say it makes the site (not a single negative response) and every single photographer that has looked at it says they hate the music

lol, oh the decisions ;)


I guess what bugs me the most is that someone wants to choose the music that I listen to ... usually I've got music of my own choice playing and I can't stand the conflicts ...
01/06/2009 05:54:02 AM · #12
After the splash page, the Flash bit won't load completely. I get stuck at 100% loading content with my Mozilla browser (Firefox version 3.0.5) on both of my computers. Loads fine in IE.

Message edited by author 2009-01-06 05:56:12.
01/06/2009 06:35:48 AM · #13
Looks OK on Chrome to me via DSL. Not a great lover of the background because it seems too dark for me. That's just an art choice...
01/06/2009 06:35:48 AM · #14
Love the site, hate the music.

I hate it when sites load up and I get unexpected music. If I'm playing iTunes it messes up what I'm listening to. If I'm not playing anything it's probably because I want some silence, so hearing the horn section blaring out irritates me...
01/06/2009 06:41:47 AM · #15
I would have to agree about the music - just don't like sites that play music by default. Especially when it starts playing before the site is even loaded. Other than that it looks nice.
01/06/2009 10:40:04 AM · #16
Hate to say this cause I love the song, but being a professional photographer who's interested in protecting an artist's copyrights my question is: Have you paid to use Jason Mraz's song?

Otherwise I though the site looked really nice and was easy to navigate.

01/06/2009 11:01:35 AM · #17
Good enough to be on this Thread.
01/06/2009 11:40:28 AM · #18
If the point of the site is to give to clients remove your splash page when you ask them to choose between the site/blog and send them automatically into the site. You already have a link to the blog in there anyway.

Also, I hate music on any website.
01/06/2009 02:54:33 PM · #19
Originally posted by jerowe:

It's such a dice toss...every client I've asked their opinion on the music, they absolutely love it and say it makes the site (not a single negative response) and every single photographer that has looked at it says they hate the music

While I was initially inclined to say that your clients opinons are more important, I think the context in which you received that feedback may skew your view and your decision. If you ask a client to look at your site and "tell me what you think", they are somewhat setup to give you positive feedback. You might get a very different reaction from a potential client (your target audience) who is sitting at their desk at work and secretly working on his wedding planning and the unexpected music comes blaring out and all the heads in the cube farm pop up. ;-)

I like the suggestion of setting the volume very low or mute by default.

Lots of great feedback from chip_k.
01/06/2009 03:07:04 PM · #20
I definitely agree w/ the music thing. The site is not as customizable on thing slike that, but i'm going to see if it's at all possible. right now it's either music or no music.

i REALLY appreciate the comments, thank you!
01/06/2009 03:19:28 PM · #21
Instinct had me clicking on the images in main screen, the left for hte site, the right for the blog, so that might not be a bad idea.
01/06/2009 03:20:59 PM · #22
Im never a fan of music on sites, cause 95% of the time, I have music on when im on the computer.
01/06/2009 03:33:27 PM · #23
After browsing through it for a few minutes, here is what I noticed:

-The picture link to enter the site does not work, only the text below.
-Music on a page is very controversial. I think it wouldn't be too bad, but your's is a little loud. The songs are good, just see if there is a way to bring the overall volume down lower.
-I think the layout is awesome, including all areas (background, font, etc.)
-The navigation is simple and quick.

Overall, very nice work on the page, and the photography is stellar too.
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