New website C&C

paudie

Hey guys, just wondering if you wouldn't having a look at paud.ie and letting me know what you think and how it looks on your screen please.

Pretty happy with the domain name

sineadw

Nice I'm in the middle of designing mine. Going for black and white and nice and simple too. It loads well and the images are a nice size and navigation is clear (although its not immediately apparent you can scroll through on the larger image. Can you move the next arrow so that its underneath? Or more apparent? I know it seems petty but some people would miss it, and to have to navigate with the thumbnails alone would seem like a huge PITA).

I assume you're aiming at the surfing community?

One thing I would say - the logo looks a bit off. The text looks condensed too much and the font is different to the one you're using on the site? Also not crazy about the gradient.. I'd leave it plain white on black or do something else. Again, it seems petty but its all in the little details.

Great domain

latchiko

Looks great on my screen. Great selection of shots too. The second image in the second page of the gig section (MJEX) seems to be missing the larger file though.

Well done on the domain!

Fajitas!

I just had a quick look at it there, I do like it, but I think you need to have a slightly more generic page to start off on, rather than going straight into a gallery - Will say more later

FreeAnd..

personally i would change the font to something more 'professional' and possibly change the background from white to something more complimentary to the photos like a darkish gray to black...just quick observations

AnimalRights

Fajitas! wrote: »

I just had a quick look at it there, I do like it, but I think you need to have a slightly more generic page to start off on, rather than going straight into a gallery

Hole in one.

Hugh_C

AnimalRights wrote: »

Hole in one.

Golf it isn't

AnimalRights

Back of the net.

sineadw

Fajitas! wrote: »

I just had a quick look at it there, I do like it, but I think you need to have a slightly more generic page to start off on, rather than going straight into a gallery - Will say more later

Hmmm... interested in your reasoning here... Purely because I'm trying to decide my own layout too. Don't you think if someone is looking for a photography site then the pre-amble is unnecessary? That adding extra clicks and texts might put the visitor off? Honest question- not being smart

paudie

Thanks for all the feedback guys, I'll get working on your suggestions this evening hopefully.
I had planned on having a slideshow as the homepage, but my webmaster(brother) is really busy being a new dad so I just went with the viewer as it was something I was able to do myself pretty easily.

About the arrow thing, I can't change it in my free version of the gallery but there is a pro version available to buy, so I might look into it.
It used to be a black background with white borders/arrows but I preferred the white background and didn't get my colours right when changing them around.

Fajitas!

I think the first page is important, very important, whether it's just your name, or a quick selection of photos that describes your work - but I wouldn't go straight into a gallery, especially one I haven't chosen to go into myself.

dazftw

sineadw wrote: »

Hmmm... interested in your reasoning here... Purely because I'm trying to decide my own layout too. Don't you think if someone is looking for a photography site then the pre-amble is unnecessary? That adding extra clicks and texts might put the visitor off? Honest question- not being smart

I kinda agree with him, I went on paudies website and while I looked through everything and really liked it, I read what al said and then clicked on his website and it seems that little bit more professional because theres about 2 extra clicks for the gallery. It has like an intro so to speak..

paudie

Yeah I'd like something like Al's second page, I think the inital page is pointless though, just an extra click to get into the website.

Liking the layout of the rest of the site though, nice one.

Fajitas!

The splash page is an unnessicary evil at the moment, I'd like to get rid of it... I'll be doing a big make over of all the work on it soon, so may look at it then. I also don't think the site works in Firefox 3

Ricky91t

Fajitas! wrote: »

The splash page is an unnessicary evil at the moment, I'd like to get rid of it... I'll be doing a big make over of all the work on it soon, so may look at it then. I also don't think the site works in Firefox 3

Fine in ff3 for me

Fajitas!

Fantastic

latchiko

One thing I forgot to mention, but is a little subjective anyway, is to consider moving you favourite images to the start of each gallery. The casual browser may only look at the first 3-4 images in each section so make sure these are your best. You have a cracker of a surf shot towards the end of the second page of surf photos but I wonder how many people will get that far..

sineadw

Fajitas! wrote: »

I also don't think the site works in Firefox 3

Yeah fine here too Actually, I do think it works with the intro onto yours Faj (and paudies would too I guess) because you have quite a lot of work up. I only plan on having maybe 12 - 15 shots on mine, in one gallery, so I think I can do it all on one page. Hmmm... not sure which way to go now..

Just out of curiosity Al - why do you have to have the splash page?

Calina

I'm maybe not the best to comment given the holy grief I've had with my own sites lately.

However, back on topic:

Paudie - very cool domain.

Regarding the layout...I'd be with the others who suggest straight into one gallery is maybe not the greatest. I don't know what your options are with your set up but what I do with my own is straight onto a list of albums rather than straight into a gallery. The other option, if possible is a randomised selection of images with the RHS navigations pointing to the albums.

However, if you tell me it's messy to change I am not going to say anything because I tore my hair out with my own site and am still not happy on it.

In terms of layout...my instinct is to prefer navigation to the left, top or bottom and image centre or right. However, as I am an old fogey webwise you are free to completely ignore that one.

I'm not a great fan of Times New Roman in webpages, it looks sort of 1995ish to me so I'd look at maybe changing that to something else if you can. Mine is a mixture of Arial and Verdana.

I do like the logo, and I like its positioning on the RHS of the screen. I think it would be worth thinking about putting in an about page if you like and what would be nice would be slideshows. If they are there, I am afraid I cannot find them.

Will also add that as usual the photography is fantastic and I am just a little envious.

Dink

Really, really nice site. I see what Calina means with the Times New Roman tho!!

sineadw

Dink wrote: »

Really, really nice site. I see what Calina means with the Times New Roman tho!!

verdana ftw!

TiM_rEAPeR

Please, please, please. Just retain this is as your weekly trivia. A font is known as all the different sizes and weights that are contained within a TYPEFACE. Saying 'different font', means either a different typeface size.. bold, italic, medium etc.

Typeface: Helvetica, Gill Sans... or for those who dare to annoy Comic Sans.

Dink

sineadw wrote: »

verdana ftw!

Ooops.. I think....

FreeAnd..

of all the things to get worked up over :rolleyes: - some more trivia for you .... Since the introduction of personal computers, a broader definition for font has evolved. The term font is now often used as a metonym for typeface.

TiM_rEAPeR

FreeAnd.. wrote: »

of all the things to get worked up over :rolleyes: - some more trivia for you .... Since the introduction of personal computers, a broader definition for font has evolved. The term font is now often used as a metonym for typeface.

This is true but its all about industry, industry, industry. The otherwise resultant is the slow decline of the english language as we know it.

paddylonglegs

Hi Paudie,You have great shots and I love the navigation of the gallery.Just a couple of observations that might help the layout:

- The page is quite unbalanced in terms of layout - the white gallery on the right is a contrast to the dark empty left side.To balance this out you could look at introducing something into the dark space to balance it,black and white image,graphic,text, or develop your navigation buttons to fit into this part.

- I agree with the others on choice of type,times roman isn't generally a web style typeface but is used more for print.Scan the web for some cool sites that use a typeface that you think might work - the site is nice and minimal/simplistic so you could develop that style.

- The navigation of the gallery is great,one thing about it is the small thumbs in the gallery are quite close to the right hand side which is aggitating for the eye when viewing it. Moving them slightly to the left will give a bit more white space and will not be fighting with the edge of the screen. Just to knit-pick, is it possible for you to make the larger image the same size as the block of thumnails,just to keep it geometric?I know you don't want to make the image too big for chance of getting ripped off,but it might be nice to have it slightly bigger.

I know its so hard to take crits on something that you have worked on and planned out so hard,but if you want to make this your site for the next ten or twenty years then its worth working on it now so that you are happy with it.

Best of luck with it

mike65

Its works fine in Opera 9.5 so thumbs up from me. Very quick in fact.

Its a bit impersonal at the moment a profile written in the first person would help engage viewers.

Mike.

paudie

Ok, was a bit busy at the w/e I'll look at changing the typeface/font during the week.

Question?
Do I have to pick a type that everybody will have on there computer or if I use one from dafont.com, for example, will everyone see the same thing?

By the way, Paddylonglegs, you shouldn't have that dark space on the left, that seems to happen on older versions of Internet Explorer, can't seem to fix it at all, although I'm exactly html fluent.

paddylonglegs

paudie wrote: »

Ok, was a bit busy at the w/e I'll look at changing the typeface/font during the week.

Question?
Do I have to pick a type that everybody will have on there computer or if I use one from dafont.com, for example, will everyone see the same thing?

By the way, Paddylonglegs, you shouldn't have that dark space on the left, that seems to happen on older versions of Internet Explorer, can't seem to fix it at all, although I'm exactly html fluent.

If your navigation buttons are uploaded as artwork (jpeg) then the type won't be affected.But your content that you edit yourself may be affected if you use an irregular type and might not work on every browser.

YeahOK

A couple of things here;

1. What is the purpose of your site? Is it somewhere to showcase your photo's for mates & friends, somewhere to refer people to your portfolio,somewhere to sell your work, or somewhere to try and get booked for shoots? Depending on the answer to this you might want to consider changing your layout to include a brief intro as Fajita's has said. Otherwise, if I arrive on paud.ie I have no clue what I'm looking at other than a couple of nice photos. The answer to this question will drive everything else you do with your site.

2. Typeface / Font - bin the Times New Roman as has aready been said. Use something generic that is available across all platforms. Arial or Verdana as someone else has said is a pretty safe bet and looks a little more up to date imo.

3. Contact Information - you have an e-mail address on here, but I've no clue who Paudie is? You might think about adding a little bit of blurb about who you are here or adding an "about" section. What you specialise in etc. Who's the face behind the name? You may or may not want to add a phone number & or postal address. I know, who posts stuff anymore, but you'd be surprised the level of comfort a postal address gives people, particularly if your looking to part them from their cash & sell photos through your site.

4. Photo arrangement - get the best stuff up front. You might have visitors who will only look at the first page, so get the best stuff out front and wow them at first glance. Some of the best stuff on your surf category is in page 2 imo.

Other than that it looks the dogs!

P.S. I'm using Safari and it works just peachy!

paudie

Cool thanks for the feedback guys.
Am currently in negotiations with my webmaster/brother to see what we can do.

Cheers again