New Website (C&C)

Deliverance XXV

Hey all.

I'm just about finished a new website of mine.
For a while now I was looking for a photography website where not only can all my images
be dumped into but also a website I can use as a portfolio website. I was also looking for a simple
website where the focus was on structure and content. I quite like seeing images on dark
backgrounds hence the dark website colour scheme.

The idea behind this was that I was looking for a website with a certain display structure.
Even though I'm a big fan of Pix.ie and Flickr I just prefer a more simple categorised display/structure.

There are two pages left to be finished completely but it'll be a few days before I get near them so I
thought I'd share the website for C&C anyway so I can get any changes in all at the same time.
Pages that are unfinished are contact me and my locations.

I have no intention of making money from this project/website either through Google adwords or image
sales as photography for me is about enjoyment and being a hobby. (Unless I'm made redundant and need money to eat )

So that being said, is there anything you would change?

• Design?
• Colour scheme?
• Fonts?
• Content (hopefully not!)?
• Usability?
• Load speed?
• Navigation?
• Getting any issues/errors?

I am asking this in the photography forum opposed to the web development forum as I'd like the
photographically biased viewpoints of fellow photogs both amateur and professional.

www.photography-ireland.com

Thanks folks. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

daycent

Just on the name>

Are you not worried about confusion with photographyireland.net? Especially as you have a link to it on the hompage?

If you are not looking at a commercial venture, would it not make more sense to use your own name or something? Photography Ireland suggests to me a website with a load of contributors or one that represents photographers in Ireland etc.

Just a thought...

charybdis

Opinions follow.

Lose the "social bookmarking" links. Lose the "recommended links and online resources".

Put up less photographs, or at least break them up more.

Design, like photography, relies upon exclusion. Show your best work and get rid of anything else.

Deliverance XXV

daycent wrote: »

Just on the name>

Are you not worried about confusion with photographyireland.net? Especially as you have a link to it on the hompage?

If you are not looking at a commercial venture, would it not make more sense to use your own name or something? Photography Ireland suggests to me a website with a load of contributors or one that represents photographers in Ireland etc.

Just a thought...

Cheers for the feedback :-)

I have my .ie domain name and have used it as a photo-blog but would much rather use that as a general blog.
Photography-ireland.com is a domain I purchased over a year ago but never really did anything with it.
I own several domain names but decided to go with that one as it fits in tightly with what my favourite photographic genre is: Irish landscapes!

Deliverance XXV

charybdis wrote: »

Opinions follow.

Lose the "social bookmarking" links. Lose the "recommended links and online resources".

Put up less photographs, or at least break them up more.

Design, like photography, relies upon exclusion. Show your best work and get rid of anything else.

I'm considering moving the 'recommended links and online resources' into the 'contact me' page rather than
get rid of it so I can share useful links like earlier suggestions on Boards of free monitor calibration websites etc.
Share the love and all that

The whole reason I choose that one-page structure for each category was behind a (admittedly personal)
pet peeve when viewing profiles on image hosts and personal websites and having to view a different page every 6-12 photos and wait
for images to load up on every occasion. It puts me off the whole viewing experience. Maybe it's just me?!
What about making two columns of larger photos and longer rows?

Is it slow to load for anyone? Anyone on dial up/1Mb BB?

breadbin

i like it, looks very professional but fill up some of them 'my locations' you've none from mayo;)

Deliverance XXV

breadbin wrote: »

i like it, looks very professional but fill up some of them 'my locations' you've none from mayo;)

Ha! Cheers mate. Never got anywhere close to Mayo yet but would love to visit some time.

Chorcai

I found the text size is a tad bit small. Over all nice work !

Creamy Goodness

the rec. links are floating to the right, making them difficult to read. they should be put in a container and float them to the left of that container.

the icons to the top left look aliased to me, can you create anti-aliased icons? also the B icon isn't clear as to what it does until you hover over it, the rest of the icons you know without having to hover over it. you should change the B icon, and possibly the mail icon too, doesn't look right.

contact form error messages should never cover the form itself and should be highlighted more in red, i also should be able to close them, they should only disappear when i correct the error.

they were the few things that stood out at me, didn't go through it with a fine comb but hope it helps you.

Deliverance XXV

Chorcai wrote: »

I found the text size is a tad bit small. Over all nice work !

Creamy Goodness wrote: »

the rec. links are floating to the right, making them difficult to read. they should be put in a container and float them to the left of that container.

the icons to the top left look aliased to me, can you create anti-aliased icons? also the B icon isn't clear as to what it does until you hover over it, the rest of the icons you know without having to hover over it. you should change the B icon, and possibly the mail icon too, doesn't look right.

contact form error messages should never cover the form itself and should be highlighted more in red, i also should be able to close them, they should only disappear when i correct the error.

they were the few things that stood out at me, didn't go through it with a fine comb but hope it helps you.

You mean icons on the top right? Will definitely be looking into changing/editing the icons.

The contact form is created through a third party and as such the code is hidden. That page is going to be completely re-done.

Cheers guys, keep the feedback coming. It's genuinely constructive.

TinyExplosions

A couple of points...

The link text is quite dark, and there's not enough contrast between them and the black background for me (makes it quite hard to read imo). I'd maybe start with green for the links (but that's cos I'm old school and love a terminal window with green text on black -Amstrad FTW).

I'm not a fan of the white text on a black background. I'd go for something like #DDDDDD instead of pure #FFFFFF -it's subtle, but makes a difference! Also, when doing light on dark, I feel that it makes it easier to read if you make the font size and the line height bigger.

Finally, and this is purely my own pet peeve, but I hate it when a lightboxed image scrolls off the page! Once you click on a thumbnail, I'd like the larger image to be no bigger than my browser window. I know this is a controversial one, but it really bugs me to have to scroll vertically, and particularly horizontally when an image is opened.

scr33n

On a G5 Mac using Safari your header text is getting cut off



My opinions:

Larger 'key' image at top of page.
Text below the image, shouldn't be 1st billing
Social bookmarks at end of page.
If it's about landscape photography keep it at that e.g. remove
i. portraits (seems to be mostly wax mannequins???)
ii. travel & abroad (nothing to do with landscape photography in Ireland)
iii. nature & wildlife (flamingoes, lions ) take it out
Make the 'look and feel' more photography orientated (reads a bit like a platform for whoring your social networks)
Colour scheme, bad Oirish green
Locations section: great idea, google maps will work (fotoireland.com links = very confusing, need to link to the images on your site to make sense)
Edit the work (64 photos in Landscapes cut down to 20-30)

Overall impression, you've got some brilliant work

dave66

Nice site, I know what you mean about "having to view a different page every 6-12 photos and wait". Just a suggestion, on the home page where you show a selection of your favourite images, when somebodies puts the mouse on the image, as well as the image name/description perhaps include what "set" it belongs to.

I agree that the text is a little on the small side.

I like the Locations page, but agree that linking to fotoireland is confusing, it might be better to have a page (hosted on photography-ireland) where the images are located, so as to keep the same look and feel, rather than going out to fotoireland site.

I'd avoid saying "In this section I will share all the locations of my photography. In the future I might add Google Maps co-ordinates or a custom Google Maps map to this page." Just personal but would suggest being more positive: "In this section I share all the locations of my photography." Leave out the mention of Google maps and co-ordinates until you have it done.

If you are sharing location information (which I think is great) perhaps a little more detail on where the shot was taken from or how to get there.


I like the site though, nice clean and crisp.

Dublin_Gunner

scr33n wrote: »

On a G5 Mac using Safari your header text is getting cut off

[image removed]


Overall impression, you've got some brilliant work

Same here. On Intel Mac, Firefox 3.5.9.

Definitely some great pictures on the site.

I don't like the 'useful links' section on the main page. If you wish to keep them, have them on a separate page and maybe you could put a little description in as to what you would generally use each site for.


The site loads very quickly for me in work - and I don;t have a great net connection here, so that's definitely a bug thumbs up.

You should maybe only have 1 main image on the front page, and have a 'gallery' page, split into your 'locations' maybe. You could maybe also have a map of Ireland instead of the text links, and highlight each town / area you've photographed in, so clicking on that part of the map will bring you to that gallery.

To much text is bad IMO.

Also, the 'about this website' blurb, contains links in the text, that are already along the top of the page. IMO there is no need for repetition here.

You could have a small blurb about who you are and what you do, and leave the links along the top as self explanatory.

Social network links I'd put down the bottom of the page, and have them smaller. As someone else said, it seems like the site is almost more for social networking than showcasing your photography.

Overall though, I like the design. Dark works well (though not too sure about the green) with photographs, as it gives the images a natural 'frame' on the page. I'd remove the grey 'frame' around each image though, and just have the black background frame each shot.

Good work, and best of luck with the site

sineadw

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Same here. On Intel Mac, Firefox 3.5.9.

And here, in chrome on a linux 1024x768

Didn't get any further than that really, but on a quick glance, the text at the top of your home page is taking up all your most valuable real estate! Its a photography site, so let the shots have the top spot and move the text (that I guarantee only 20% of your visitors will even read the first line of) down underneath. Or lose it completely.

dinneenp

Hi,
Not to take away from your site, a lot of good stuff.
Is the site to promote/sell photos? You have some very nice photos.
Could have already been mentioned:
1. e-mail, facebook links way too big.they take away from the header/title. Why no RSS feed?
2. Facebook should like to your 'company/professional page' (like this. You're trying to sell stuff, why does someone want to see your personal facebook page with your likes, relationship statua?

Same goes for Flickr link- create a new profile.etc. It should be professional. haven't checked twitter link or others but same applies.
3. horizontal links. Don't have link for every category.
homepage should be 'home'
Instead of seperate links for each photo category just have 'photos', 'portfolio' 'my work' (or whatever you want to call it) and they list categories (with one pic for each) on new page.
My locations might be a good idea but at first I didn't understand it. though it might be your 'office locations'.
Contact me- rename to 'contact'.
Being honest contact page is awful! Looks like it was done in 10 mins. Why is everything middle aligned?
Change font & size for 'name', 'e-mail', 'message' and reduce size of submit button.
Grammer- you say 'find me' but 'contact us'. be consistent.
Xbox live, PSN etc- why include these? You're trying to sell, not make friends!
You dont' have an 'about me' page. You have this information on homepage instead.
Put a portrait of you on your about me page- makes it more personal.
Whatever page I'm on should be different colour that other links (to distinguish that I'm on this page). Also include what equiptment.


4. homepage
remove 'recommended links and online resources'
remove 'about this website'.
Homepage shouldn't have too much clutter/things competiting for my attention.
Font size is too small I think.
don't have Click here to view website terms of use/privacy policy on homepage. have it on about page.
What's the story with the bright blue border around the pics?

5. Photo category pages
Personally I think the pictures should have differnet names rather than just the place. It makes it more personal.
Also you have several photos with same names (Kilkenny, Co Kilkenny).
You have too many images on the one page. Break it up onto several pages.

Good luck with it. Post an update after you (or designer/developer) make any changes.

Cheers,
Pa.

Deliverance XXV

Okay some great suggestions there guys. I'm going to make a few prototypes with your change ideas once I get a chance and post them up to see what you think.

There are a lot of varying ideas/differing aspects here about which way to go but will try go through them all and see the finished product.

Here are a couple answers/replies to some questions:

Regarding...
The contact me page - As I said it's not finished yet but will soon!
Making money - As I also said this is a non-profit project and have no interest in selling anything. I intend to make no money from it.
Social Networking aspect - I'm a fan of social networking and just wanted to link all sites together.
Odd sized Lightbox display - This should be a easy but necessary fix.

Will have a look at all the other little issues on Sunday as have a busy weekend schedule.

I changed the header specs. Is everyone still getting the cut-off header?

Thanks again all, much appreciated.

Waking-Dreams

Design, like photography, relies upon exclusion. Show your best work and get rid of anything else.

I would second this opinion. You do have to exclude pictures, as hard as it is, and it's something I encounter all the time where I take two or three similar pics of the same scene/subject which all look great but for displaying online, one is enough.
You have some great photos there. I think you have plenty of feedback to work with. Make some changes and give us an update. I know it can be hard to take other people's views onboard when you've no doubt spent some time on it (I submitted my own website for C&C a couple of years ago) but it's all part of the process and will be for the best.

Dublin_Gunner

One more suggestion - put it in your sig with your other sites!

ALso, the header is now working for me, though I'm now on Win 7 & FF 3.6.3

mehfesto

The only things I'd change are the font for the header (it's not band, but I think if you capitalised 'Photography' and 'Ireland'for example and perhaps the headings in the grey bar it'd look more professional).

And I'm not sure about that green either. It looks okay against the black, but against the greyer tone up top, it's not working for me. Then again, I'm not one to talk - I use a bright pink on my page. But maybe tone it down a little, try a pastel-type green maybe? Just a suggestion. -There's also a very slight black vertical bar to the right of the page header, which doesn't appear over on the right. I'm sure it'd be easy sorted. Just looks a bit odd!

Otherwise it's lovely. The images open great when clicked. It'd be nice to put the info you have at the top of the home page into an About page, but that's just my preference.