Website updated - what do you think? EDIT: some changes made

Simple and effective, but I don't like the way the images on the homepage are laid out. Not sure why, I just don't. I would also suggest adding a slight bit of padding onto the body.

Other than that, good layout, very "to the point".
 
Instant thoughts are there's a lot of wasted space at the top. I'm running a browser window at roughly the 'default' size of 1024x768 and I've got to scroll down to be able to see the bottom row of three photos.

None of the pictures appear to be hyperlinked, nor are they rotated. And while they are a nice selection there doesn't appear to be any 'point' to them other than to be there. It would be much nicer if each of them linked to a larger version within the galleries or they changed every time you visited the site. The layout doesn't really appeal to me and feels cluttered against the otherwise streamlined feel to the site.

Nothing massively wrong with the 'Contact' page other than having to scroll down yet again. Should be easy enough to get this all to fit into a 'standard' browser window. Wouldn't say I'm overly keen on the green text as it's not easily readable, but that appears to be your site theme so I'll assume you'll keep it as it is.

The ''Gallery' page has the same scrolling problem and is, again, spaced out too much for my liking. Not keen on the 'Cycling' gallery being framed in white with the others being framed in grey or black as it looks unbalanced. The 'Weddings' photo would also appear to be out of alignment with the other two on that row. And I certainly don't like the way the galleries open in a new browser window. That's a pet hate of mine and it looks so much more professional to keep everything in the same window.

Each gallery is nice enough and I'm pleased that you can click on the photo to return to the main gallery view. One issue I have is that with all the different photos of varying aspect ratios, the pages look somewhat muddled and cluttered. With all the varying amounts of black space between them it seems to lack structure and clarity.

The other issue is that when you click on the 'Mike Conway Photography' link at the top of each gallery it returns you to a gallery screen that's not the one on the 'main' site and doesn't include the 'Weddings' gallery. And speaking of the 'Weddings' one, I'm not convinced by it opening your new site. I think that could be worked better.

The 'Services' page is fine and the green text works better in this setting. Same goes for the 'Contact' page but I'd like to see the contact form built into the page rather than opening in a separate window.

(XP Pro + Firefox 3.0.4)
 
Very nice indeed ,i'm no expert,far from it .I find it nice and easy to use,IMO it's pleasing to the eye.Infact it's exactly the sort am after :D .I want one :)
 
i'm on a 1920 x 1200 screen, and there's a scroll bar on the left?! Perhaps get rid of some of the blank space so it fits the screen?

Otherwise, liking it!
 
glitch said:
Instant thoughts are there's a lot of wasted space at the top. I'm running a browser window at roughly the 'default' size of 1024x768 and I've got to scroll down to be able to see the bottom row of three photos.

None of the pictures appear to be hyperlinked, nor are they rotated. And while they are a nice selection there doesn't appear to be any 'point' to them other than to be there. It would be much nicer if each of them linked to a larger version within the galleries or they changed every time you visited the site. The layout doesn't really appeal to me and feels cluttered against the otherwise streamlined feel to the site.

Nothing massively wrong with the 'Contact' page other than having to scroll down yet again. Should be easy enough to get this all to fit into a 'standard' browser window. Wouldn't say I'm overly keen on the green text as it's not easily readable, but that appears to be your site theme so I'll assume you'll keep it as it is.

The ''Gallery' page has the same scrolling problem and is, again, spaced out too much for my liking. Not keen on the 'Cycling' gallery being framed in white with the others being framed in grey or black as it looks unbalanced. The 'Weddings' photo would also appear to be out of alignment with the other two on that row. And I certainly don't like the way the galleries open in a new browser window. That's a pet hate of mine and it looks so much more professional to keep everything in the same window.

Each gallery is nice enough and I'm pleased that you can click on the photo to return to the main gallery view. One issue I have is that with all the different photos of varying aspect ratios, the pages look somewhat muddled and cluttered. With all the varying amounts of black space between them it seems to lack structure and clarity.

The other issue is that when you click on the 'Mike Conway Photography' link at the top of each gallery it returns you to a gallery screen that's not the one on the 'main' site and doesn't include the 'Weddings' gallery. And speaking of the 'Weddings' one, I'm not convinced by it opening your new site. I think that could be worked better.

The 'Services' page is fine and the green text works better in this setting. Same goes for the 'Contact' page but I'd like to see the contact form built into the page rather than opening in a separate window.

(XP Pro + Firefox 3.0.4)
Click to expand...


As the man says ... it's nothing fancy, it's simple and to the point .
 
glitch said:
Instant thoughts are there's a lot of wasted space at the top. I'm running a browser window at roughly the 'default' size of 1024x768 and I've got to scroll down to be able to see the bottom row of three photos.

None of the pictures appear to be hyperlinked, nor are they rotated. And while they are a nice selection there doesn't appear to be any 'point' to them other than to be there. It would be much nicer if each of them linked to a larger version within the galleries or they changed every time you visited the site. The layout doesn't really appeal to me and feels cluttered against the otherwise streamlined feel to the site.

Nothing massively wrong with the 'Contact' page other than having to scroll down yet again. Should be easy enough to get this all to fit into a 'standard' browser window. Wouldn't say I'm overly keen on the green text as it's not easily readable, but that appears to be your site theme so I'll assume you'll keep it as it is.

The ''Gallery' page has the same scrolling problem and is, again, spaced out too much for my liking. Not keen on the 'Cycling' gallery being framed in white with the others being framed in grey or black as it looks unbalanced. The 'Weddings' photo would also appear to be out of alignment with the other two on that row. And I certainly don't like the way the galleries open in a new browser window. That's a pet hate of mine and it looks so much more professional to keep everything in the same window.

Each gallery is nice enough and I'm pleased that you can click on the photo to return to the main gallery view. One issue I have is that with all the different photos of varying aspect ratios, the pages look somewhat muddled and cluttered. With all the varying amounts of black space between them it seems to lack structure and clarity.

The other issue is that when you click on the 'Mike Conway Photography' link at the top of each gallery it returns you to a gallery screen that's not the one on the 'main' site and doesn't include the 'Weddings' gallery. And speaking of the 'Weddings' one, I'm not convinced by it opening your new site. I think that could be worked better.

The 'Services' page is fine and the green text works better in this setting. Same goes for the 'Contact' page but I'd like to see the contact form built into the page rather than opening in a separate window.

(XP Pro + Firefox 3.0.4)
Click to expand...

Wow - this is in-depth and all valid points. Thanks for taking the time to answer.

Regarding being sent to another website for the gallery - I know where you're coming from - it isn't clean and simple, however, I've found that using Jalbum really is the best way to display photos with Paypal links (which is essential for my cycling events). Wedding unfortunately were not included on Jalbum because I didnt want them to have Paypal options... the photos I've got are just examples of what I've done and don't want them available to buy. Jalbum applies Paypal to everything to put in it unless you can figure out scripts in the html code... and I couldn't be arsed to learn!

Green text on black - well, that stays for now or at least until I grow up a bit more! :lol:

Things I can do - hyperlink the home page images and tidy them up. I don't know how to get them to change with a refresh, but I'll look into it... :thinking:

I didn't really consider the screen size, though I should as I'm working on a 24-inch iMac monitor, so 'everything' fits! I'll see if I can remove some unwanted space.

Also, I know how to fix the varying sizes and 'black spaces' between the photos - just a quick setting in Jalbum.

Once again thanks for your comments - very useful :thumbs:
 
ekimeno said:
Wow - this is in-depth and all valid points. Thanks for taking the time to answer.
Click to expand...
You're most welcome. I had a cup of tea on the go, you'd asked for help so I thought I'd spare 5 minutes. Glad to be of service.

ekimeno said:
I don't know how to get them to change with a refresh, but I'll look into it... :thinking:
Click to expand...
One way would be to employ a PHP script to rotate the images from a chosen selection.
 
On the About page... The text being an image isn't smart at all... The quality of said image will vary depending on OS/Screen etc. and as you insist (like all Mac generated websites :) ) on using White on Black it is unreadable on my 22" CRT...

To be honest you could do with another couple of points of font size - though most browsers can do this, your About image won't zoom properly.

B.
 
BenMottram said:
On the About page... The text being an image isn't smart at all... The quality of said image will vary depending on OS/Screen etc. and as you insist (like all Mac generated websites :) ) on using White on Black it is unreadable on my 22" CRT...

To be honest you could do with another couple of points of font size - though most browsers can do this, your About image won't zoom properly.

B.
Click to expand...

Cool, I'll fix that - it's a default setting in iWeb.
 
Asked for Apple Quicktime plug-in for me, using Firefox.

Other than that you need to rename you homepage to something other than 'home'
 
Because at the moment it's just called 'home'.

It should be called "Mike Conway Photography - Fantastic Photography at Low, Low, prices" (or, whatever).

If someone book-marked you homepage now, it would appear in the users bookmark as "home".

Change your <title>'s tags on each page.

'Contact' page title should be "Mike Conway Photography - Contact Us"
'About' page should be "Mike Conway Photography - About us"

Etc ...
 
ratzz, thanks - I understand what you're saying and could and change this on the html, however, I'm using a program called iWeb (a mac app) that makes the pages for you, so basically every time I update my website, the html that I'd previously edited will be overwritten and I'd have to remember to go back in and change the <title> tags.

But, yes, it needs to be done - if only I could figure out a way to do this using iWeb.

EDIT: Well, went and manually changed the title tags and also got rid of the QT slide show and replaced it with a simple image. I still can't figure out how to rotate this image with others in my gallery - if anyone has any advice to give regarding this, please share. Please note, though, that I am a complete novice at php and java, though there are round-a-bout ways of incorporating this into iWeb... most of which confuse the hell out of me!
 
If your webhost supports PHP this is the easiest way I know of doing this.

1. Create a directory on your server that includes all the images you would like to rotate.

2. Open Notepad and copy the text below into it.
PHP: 
<?php
$files = glob('***.PNG,*.png,*.JPG,*.jpg,*.GIF,*.gif**', GLOB_BRACE);
readfile($files[array_rand($files)]);
?>

3. Click on 'File' then 'Save As'. Now change the 'Save as type' to 'All Files' and save as 'rotate.php'

4. Upload this PHP file to the same directory as your images.

5. Replace this HTML in your 'Home.html' page:
Code: 
<img src="Home_files/People_021.jpg" alt="" style="border: none; height: 512px; width: 346px; " />

With this:
Code: 
<img src="/folder_name/rotate.php" />

6. Upload your altered 'Home.html' file to your webhost.

7. Check if it all works!

My HTML is very rusty so I'm not sure if that will place the rotating images exactly where you want them in terms of the overall layout of your page. You might need to append the replacement HTML code with similar instructions as to your original direct image link.

If you've got any problems with creating the PHP script you can download it from here by right-clicking on the link. I'll keep it there until you say you're done with it.

NB. Original credit for the PHP script must go to Rob Miller.
 
I quite like the look of the site, but I'm not a fan of the galleries opening in a new window/tab.
 
purpleclouds said:
I quite like the look of the site, but I'm not a fan of the galleries opening in a new window/tab.
Click to expand...

Thanks, and I agree that opening the galleries in a new window is a bit odd. I may change this to open in a new page on my site, but within an iframe...
 
glitch said:
If your webhost supports PHP this is the easiest way I know of doing this.
Click to expand...

Thanks, I'm trying that out now and will let you know if I can get it to work. :thumbs:

EDIT: OK - not working. I've somehow gone and crashed my site using some weird commands that my webhost gave me. I'm going to have to understand this a bit more before trying again...
 
ekimeno said:
Thanks, I'm trying that out now and will let you know if I can get it to work. :thumbs:

EDIT: OK - not working. I've somehow gone and crashed my site using some weird commands that my webhost gave me. I'm going to have to understand this a bit more before trying again...
Click to expand...

PM Sent ...
 
ratzz - thanks for your PM.

Well, I've finally managed to get the site up and running again and won't do any more messing around until I know what I'm doing!

Got it working just in time too as a client needed access to part of the site this morning! ;)
 
Right!

I've now included the photos from Jalbum in my gallery as part of an iframe, so you don't leave my site - all integrated! :naughty:

Really chuffed now - what do you all think?
 
I'd say that's a dramatic improvement over the previous method. Seems so much more streamlined like this.

Have any joy with the PHP?
 
glitch said:
I'd say that's a dramatic improvement over the previous method. Seems so much more streamlined like this.

Have any joy with the PHP?
Click to expand...

Thanks. No joy at all with php I'm afraid. I went for advice on setting up php with my host and it cost me my site being down for 12-hours, though this was probably completely my non-understanding of setting all this up.

Probably best to stick with what I understand properly for now ;)
 
My advice is:

Make the website simple to navigate.
Make is simple on the eye.
Forget trying to make it trendy and up with the latest technology.

The most important thing to consider when creating a website (in my opinion) is making sure people see it. Its no good having an all singing, all dancing website if its ranked 3999 in the search engines.

Spend time on the metatags. Page titles are critical, make sure you name all your pages with words you suspect people will use in search engines.

Once the site is registered in search engines spend a few hours searching for it and clicking it.

I think, visually, your website does the job intended it looks good to the non trained eye. You should concentrate on getting as high up the search engine rankings as you can.

Well done.
 
Quaker said:
My advice is:

Make the website simple to navigate.
Make is simple on the eye.
Forget trying to make it trendy and up with the latest technology.

The most important thing to consider when creating a website (in my opinion) is making sure people see it. Its no good having an all singing, all dancing website if its ranked 3999 in the search engines.

Spend time on the metatags. Page titles are critical, make sure you name all your pages with words you suspect people will use in search engines.

Once the site is registered in search engines spend a few hours searching for it and clicking it.

I think, visually, your website does the job intended it looks good to the non trained eye. You should concentrate on getting as high up the search engine rankings as you can.

Well done.
Click to expand...

Thanks for this advice - yes, I haven't concentrated on the search engine aspect - how do you find out how high up you rank btw?
 
The one thing that struck me was that I could get from your site to the wedding site but not back again. As I was in Firefox, I had the chance to click on your web site tab to get back. I'm not sure all browsers give the user the same feature. I think it should be equally easy to get from one site to the other.
 
ekimeno said:
Thanks for this advice - yes, I haven't concentrated on the search engine aspect - how do you find out how high up you rank btw?
Click to expand...

Type into Google what you think people may type to find a website covering your area of business.

When the results come to screen see how many pages you have to visit before you find your own website.

If its after the first 2 pages, you wont get a look in.

If you use deanlewis' site as an example = type into google "bean bags for nikon/canon" and deans site is on the first page, exactly where he needs it to be.
 
rh1944 said:
The one thing that struck me was that I could get from your site to the wedding site but not back again. As I was in Firefox, I had the chance to click on your web site tab to get back. I'm not sure all browsers give the user the same feature. I think it should be equally easy to get from one site to the other.
Click to expand...

Hey Russell - this should have been fixed now - all links from the gallery open in the same page. The wedding site now opens up as an iframe on my site. I know that a few hours ago this wasn't the case, but it's since been changed.
 
Quaker said:
Type into Google what you think people may type to find a website covering your area of business.

When the results come to screen see how many pages you have to visit before you find your own website.

If its after the first 2 pages, you wont get a look in.

If you use deanlewis' site as an example = type into google "bean bags for nikon/canon" and deans site is on the first page, exactly where he needs it to be.
Click to expand...

Yeah - my site doesn't appear for the first 5 pages - I gave up after that!

Of course there are hundreds if not thousands of photographers who do the same as me... what makes me unique or so special that I should be higher up in the rankings...
 
ekimeno said:
what makes me unique or so special that I should be higher up in the rankings...
Click to expand...

Spending hours and hours registering your site with different search engines. Using your metatags better than other photographers with websites. Searching for and clicking on the link to your website from search engines.. over and over.

Do some research into it and see what y0ou can do to make your site higher than the rest.
 
Thanks Quaker. I've added some meta tags which I think are pretty descriptive and have already registered to Google, Yahoo and Lycos search engines. As for clicking on my website from various search engines - I don't know :lol:
 
Sorry Mike I still can't find a link that takes me from the Wedding site to your Other Services site. I can go the other way with ease.
 
rh1944 said:
Sorry Mike I still can't find a link that takes me from the Wedding site to your Other Services site. I can go the other way with ease.
Click to expand...

Right - got you now :bonk:

I'll fix it eventually - I'm sick and tired of working on my sites at the minute! :bang:
 
White on grey for your click throughs to your wedding site for example aren't overly readable, why not use the rather nice green you use for the "Mike Conway Photography" heading?

B.
 
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