Guess I'll Post My Site Too

[suzie63jc]

Please check out my site at www.magic-memories.org (http://www.magic-memories.org). Feedback is both welcomed and appreciated.

Thanks,

[jerryph]

Please take my comments as constructive and not insulting, because that is how they are intended to be. :)

I am not fond of the site design at all, it is convoluted, not well structured and seems like it is all over the place.

First... try to select one type of technology and stick with it in terms of a central layout. You start off with a flash intro that leads into a PHP page that exceeds the length downwards of even my 23" LCD.

Choose either flash, PHP, HTML, dHTML, whatever, but stick to one format if you can. You will note that all the best photographer sites RUN away from flash technology... because they cannot control the metadata and hence assist search engines in ranking their sites high on searches.

The main and home pages should comfortably fit on a page size of 800X600. The menu choices should be obvious, the colours easy on the eyes (again choosing standard colours is a smart thing so that it is more compatible with more different kinds of web browsers).

Your home page scrolls down to your pictures. The pictures section should not be on the home page but in their own section (menu choice).

Your home page has cropped pictures on the left and right sides. Though you may have done this on purpose, the first thing I did was look for the scroll bar at the bottom and wonder why the page was made so wide. When I saw that the page was made intentionally, it became an "error" to me and detracted from the "visual pleasantness" of looking at the series of 1/2 cut pictures.

Talking about your pictures section... nowhere does it even give the hint that clicking on a picture opens up a slide show, yet that is what happens when you click on a picture, expecting to see that picture in a size larger than a thumbnail.

It then goes on to open a secondary full sized window displaying your pictures. Talking about that... your picture sizes are ALL OVER the place. They should all be resized to a single standard, something like 500-600 pixels on the long side. Yours have pics that are both too small and way to large. Catagorize your pictures by topics (wedding, sports, portraiture, etc...).

When you design your website, in terms of functionality, you have to be almost imagining that you are holding the hand of a small child and showing them a series of rooms, that's how I think when I design my sites. I was working on learning flash, and designed my work site here (www.syner-g.org), take a look for some ideas.

I also recommend that you do a google for popular photographers, see how they designed their websites... borrow their ideas and integrate them into yours. You will fast see some drastic and positive changes. :)

You put a lot of effort into the site, but I think with a little work, it can be improved. :)

[suzie63jc]

Jerry,

Thank you for checking the site and all your suggestions. I really didn't like the layout either, but wasn't sure what to do with it. It was a template. I have looked at other sites for ideas, and would love to have something set-up closer to others I have seen, but again, I wasn't real sure exactly what I wanted. Your critique has actually helped me to look at it more objectively and I think I have a few ideas on how to improve it, but will take me awhile to get through all of it and get everything changed. Once this is done I would love it if you would take a look again and give me further suggestions.

[suzie63jc]

Okay I have redone my website and would welcome visits, critique and suggestions for improvement.

Thank you

[dkippen]

Suzie - WOW, what a difference. This is so much cleaner and organized.

I am by no means great at critique, but here is my take. While I understand the use of a scrolling banner, I sometimes find it distracting. Also, it looks like two different fonts were used.