I'd love your feedback!! (Website)

kjt

Hey guys,
Well I've been planning on doing my own website for months now and I finally started to get around to it three weeks ago. Bit by bit I got cracking but to be honest most of the hard work went in the past three days, I've been working on this since 10am Yesterday... Yup, 20 hours and 20minutes later I'm finally finished.

It's been a long day/s. I'd love to get all of your opinions! If you like the colour, somethings rendering wrong, link not working, your personal thoughts on the images picked for the portfolio etc etc. Anything that could help to improve the site.

Thanks for taking the time guys!!
Kyle

links in the sig

AnimalRights

Ok.....I would know not that much about websites but I do very much like the originality of this site, it looks very very professional...
Only had a quick few minutes glance as I've to go out now.

AnimalRights

One thing I noticed was you have to link on a picture when you go to a page to view it, I'd prefer when you go to Sports/Macro whatever that the picture is there without having to press a link.

sineadw

I'm flying too, and on the teensy eee so there's not much point in looking on this. I have a proper gander later. I did have a quick look about though and a few things - The contrast on your text is very low - the background colour and text colour are too close. I know its not a very text heavy site (nor should it be) but it's hard enough to read online. I'd tweak that a bit.

The gallery isn't displaying very well on this? 800x600... there are two columns and they're unevenly spaced? Maybe thats what you were going for, but it looks a bit messy rendered this size. Also, the gallery crashed my browser session so maybe there's a script that's not running properly?

I'll get a proper look on the desktop later

kjt

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Sinead, I stopped designing for anything under 950px about a year ago. Afraid to say you 800x600 users are few and far between. Interesting that it crashed you browser, what os & browser were you using?

A few others have mentioned the text colour so I'll take that on board in the next few days. I also think I'll be coming up with a new header/logo. That was a bit of a last minute thing.

Thanks again Sinead!

One thing I noticed was you have to link on a picture when you go to a page to view it, I'd prefer when you go to Sports/Macro whatever that the picture is there without having to press a link.

Do you mean the small boxed images on the main page? You'd like to click them and have the full sized images pop up opposed to going to the portfolio page and then having to click again?

Thanks Animal!

sineadw

Right - on the big screen now.. (I'm bored and hiding from a college paper ).

The banner image and flash thing are taking up waaaaaaay too much of your valuable real estate imho. You have a big empty space to the left of your logotype that's crying out to have something moved up to it. The flash slideshow you have maybe? (which is nice btw - like the photo frame thing ) . Even on the big screen I'm having to go way down the page to get to the info. Have a look at the above the fold concept. Yours is too empty... If it were my site I'd move the flash and the nav elements into your banner space on the left of the page, and move everything else up.

I like the logotype, but I'm not sure the colour or font are in harmony with the rest of your design. Your palette for the css is really lovely - I love the green you're using and the blue icons. The banner is sitting very heavy up there though? I'm not sure the colour is complementing it. You could have a look at some palette wheels maybe? The font of the logo looks a bit thin and stretched for the page. I'm terribly conservative with fonts though so that's probably just me I really like what you've done with the letterforms

The gallery's displaying better on this. I'm still not sure about the two column layout though. Maybe a little design flourish to the right - something very simple and discreet in the vertical maybe would help it? It has the feel of a table that's not rendering properly at the mo.

As for the other pages, I'd maybe introduce some images? You want your photos shown off, so show them off!

Sorry if this seems very negative. The site has some really lovely elements in it and the pictures you've chosen are stunning. I think with a bit of tweaking you can show them off better is all. And I figure you'd rather I be honest than say "oh yeah it's PERFECT!"... And its all just my opinion anyway..

sineadw

kjt wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback guys.

Sinead, I stopped designing for anything under 950px about a year ago. Afraid to say you 800x600 users are few and far between. Interesting that it crashed you browser, what os & browser were you using?

I'm on an EEE pc running Ubuntu and Firefox. Or I was Its working fine on Windows. I think it might have been a stat counter issue?

Actually with micro netbooks being given away with broadband you'd be surprised how many people are running 800x now, and its set to rise. I always do a quick check these days when I'm setting up a site, just in case.. The paper I'm hiding from is on interface design principles. You'd be shocked how many people are still on 256 colour depth! :eek: Not that I'd design for them.. losers...

kjt

Thanks very much ofr taking the time Sinead (you must really not want to do that project :P).

Yes, your very right about being honest. I'd prefer one person to rip me apart then have 50people go "Ooo look at the pretty colours!", so thank you for the honesty.

A few of the things you mentioned are the things I rushed to get this done for Christmas, and clearly that's showing. I'll be tweaking it a bit more in the future. I like your idea about the flourishing type image on the portfolio, or possible change it into a three image tiled layout opposed to two.

As for the other pages, I'd maybe introduce some images? You want your photos shown off, so show them off!

Something similar to the sports/modelling page, have a few images on the right? I'm on it!

You'd be shocked how many people are still on 256 colour depth! Not that I'd design for them.. losers...

Haha, damn right. As long as it looks good on our screen, it will look good for everyone else, right?

Thanks again Sinead, muchó appreciated

Best of luck with your interface design principles paper.
wikipedia + copy/paste = straight A....?


EDIT: Great idea about the customising Lightview!!

sineadw

Oo and one more thing and I'll shut up Something I've seen a few people do and keep meaning to get around to on my own site is customising lightview. Just replacing a few of the gifs for navigation with your own icons and changing the css so it reflects the text of your site better and it no longer looks like another-page-with-lightview-gallery. Brilliant idea and so simple to do. Which kind of begs the question why I haven't done it myself yet... I'll get me coat...

Nisio

Hey Kyle,

Would you have the same background and formatting for the blog and website?

Oisin

AnimalRights

kjt wrote: »

Do you mean the small boxed images on the main page? You'd like to click them and have the full sized images pop up opposed to going to the portfolio page and then having to click again?

Thanks Animal!

Yeah, also np's here with crashing or anything..firefox user at a very high resolution.
and no1 uses 800x600 anymore!!!!

artyeva

this is such a tiny wee lickle small eency weency thing I kinda feel like a b**ch for mentioning it - but there's a typo in your introduction/banner bit - and typos make my eyes bleed I don't know much about design or techie stuff like that but... ok...yeah... *reaches for coat

Julesie

I guess what Artyeva is referring to is the apostrophe in "idea's".

Also I noticed that in some of your services blurbs you say "your in the right place", that should be "you're". Not trying to sound pedantic, I know its always easier to spot those little things when you haven't been knee deep in designing and building it.

I've only taken a very quick look but overall I like the look and feel of the site. I would agree with Sinead's comments regarding the site banner though.

Really liking your work though... Congrats on the site!!

Deliverance XXV

Pros:
Very clean and colourful website.
Looks very pleasing to the eye.
Your XHTML validates.
You use DIVs opposed to tables in website structuring.
Fast-ish loading
Nice small amount of Flash usage on homepage.

Cons:
There are a few typos but that's only a small thing which can be fixed in a minute.
You have a bad link on the 'about' page. When you say "drop me a line" your code directs to http://www.kyletunney.com/About/Contact/ opposed to http://www.kyletunney.com/Contact/.
Your menu IMO doesn't look right. Maybe if it was left aligned to be flush with the logo it might have a better effect?

Suggestions:
Maybe you could have the online contact form on the same page in contacting you. Rather than have someone navigate from the 'contact' page to contact you.
Maybe where you have your email available on your 'contact' page you could include a 'mailto:' link so people could contact you with one click rather than copying and pasting etc.
Having the logo 'Kyle Tunney Photography' act as a link back to the homepage.
On the 'portfolio' page it might look better if it were in rows of three. The page wouldn't be as long and it would beef up the width of the main content.

What does your favicon represent or is it some random image?

Overall I like the site. Bookmarked!

Anouilh

You have chosen one of my favourite shades of my favourite colour, blue, Kyle, so I think this is one of the finest sites I have ever seen.

The crisp template and layout make it look very professional.
I have to admit that launching it while I was on the Run Up to the Christmas means that it did not get the attention it deserves, but I'll look forward to enjoying the photos over the next few days. I hope that there are photos of Buddy in there. The photos you uploaded last Summer are exceptional.

Here's wishing you every success with your photography in 2009.

kjt

Nisio wrote: »

Hey Kyle,
Would you have the same background and formatting for the blog and website?
Oisin

Hey Oisin,
The blog has a completely different look to the website as I designed it a few months ago just to get something online and it would take a few days to redesign/code the blog to look the same. Something I may do in a few months though. Good point!

Deliverance XXV wrote: »

Pros:
You have a bad link on the 'about' page. When you say "drop me a line" your code directs to http://www.kyletunney.com/About/Contact/ opposed to http://www.kyletunney.com/Contact/.
Your menu IMO doesn't look right. Maybe if it was left aligned to be flush with the logo it might have a better effect?

Suggestions:
Maybe you could have the online contact form on the same page in contacting you. Rather than have someone navigate from the 'contact' page to contact you.
Maybe where you have your email available on your 'contact' page you could include a 'mailto:' link so people could contact you with one click rather than copying and pasting etc.
Having the logo 'Kyle Tunney Photography' act as a link back to the homepage.
On the 'portfolio' page it might look better if it were in rows of three. The page wouldn't be as long and it would beef up the width of the main content.

What does your favicon represent or is it some random image?

Thanks for taking the time! A few people have mentioned the menu positioning, I may move this across.

Have the logo link to the home, good idea!

I think I will update the portfolio page, as you said it's a bit on the long side when theirs clearly lots of space on the right.

I'll take the contact idea's into consideration!

Oh and the favico was just done really quickly, it's the y/h swirl from the logo.

artyeva wrote: »

this is such a tiny wee lickle small eency weency thing I kinda feel like a b**ch for mentioning it - but there's a typo in your introduction/banner bit - and typos make my eyes bleed I don't know much about design or techie stuff like that but... ok...yeah... *reaches for coat

Not at all, thanks for pointing it out! I might be changing a good bit of the text in the next while to prepare it for better SERP's etc..

Julesie wrote: »

I guess what Artyeva is referring to is the apostrophe in "idea's".

Also I noticed that in some of your services blurbs you say "your in the right place", that should be "you're". Not trying to sound pedantic, I know its always easier to spot those little things when you haven't been knee deep in designing and building it.

I've only taken a very quick look but overall I like the look and feel of the site. I would agree with Sinead's comments regarding the site banner though.

Thanks!

Anouilh wrote: »

You have chosen one of my favourite shades of my favourite colour, blue, Kyle, so I think this is one of the finest sites I have ever seen.

The crisp template and layout make it look very professional.
I have to admit that launching it while I was on the Run Up to the Christmas means that it did not get the attention it deserves, but I'll look forward to enjoying the photos over the next few days. I hope that there are photos of Buddy in there. The photos you uploaded last Summer are exceptional.

Here's wishing you every success with your photography in 2009.

You see Maria, I knew you loved your blue, the only reason I choose blue!


Thanks for all the feedback guys, it's really appreciated!!

It looks like I'll be moving the menu over a bit, changing the logo, making the text darker, possibly changing the blog over to the same look/skin, updating the portfolio to a three-image wide gallery and the main change is going back to English classes.

Thanks!

Anouilh

kjt wrote: »

You see Maria, I knew you loved your blue, the only reason I choose blue!


Thanks for all the feedback guys, it's really appreciated!!
Thanks!

Thank you for this consideration.
The site should be a great hit...

kjt

Thanks for all the replies guys, really appreciated!
I've changed a good few things, all that is left to change is the logo and blog which will take the longest


Thanks again!

Anouilh

This case study on Logo Design is readable and has some good ideas:

http://thelogocompany.net/case-study-jdeanphotography.htm

I found it by searching

logo photography color rgb

kjt

I had a quick look over that, I'm used to doing all of that work as it stands. I didn't think much of the final logo either. Thanks though!

kjt

Hey guys,

Thanks for all the feedback. I've finally updated my blog. I was going through a lot of my link to other photographers/blogs and removed a fair few as they weren't linking back. pm/email me if you're interested in swapping links

Deliverance XXV

Fair play Kyle. It looks much better and far cleaner.

Nice use of the drop down list. Very smooth to use.

kjt

Cheers James

Zascar

I design website myself, and would be critical - but I jusy cannot fault you. Its excellent - one of the best I've seen!

kjt

Zascar wrote: »

I design website myself, and would be critical - but I jusy cannot fault you. Its excellent - one of the best I've seen!

As you probably know yourself, the hardest web design project to take on is your own and I worked my ass off on this one.

Thanks very much Colin!

paulkellypix

Looks good.

I used photobiz for mine

Well done!
Paul

spav

Looks great. I work in advertising so have looked after a fair few websites, and I think you've got a nice, clean, well structured site there, with great content too. As others have pointed out there are few gremlins here and there, but nothing major.

My only advice (and I'm probably stating the obvious here) is to make sure that you update the blog regularly - at least once a week. It doesn't have to be anything big, even just a cool (relevant) site you've seen, a new shot or whatever. Nothing makes a site look stale quicker than a neglected blog. Keep it updated and it gives people reasons to come back to the site. Plus, by linking to other sites and getting them to link back, it pushes you further up the Google rankings too.

My final suggestion - where you have 'I’d love to hear from you!!', could you make that a 'mail to' link, or perhaps a link to point you to the contact page?

Nice work

kjt

Good points Spav, I've updated that link and plan to work on the blog. You know yourself though, it's a time consuming process seen as I'm usually posting more then just one photo.



Thanks for everybodys input and feedback. It's really appreciated!!!
You've helped me complete this site and get it up to scratch pronto!