Criticism or otherwise on my new website wouldbe appreciated

[weebolddavy Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hi Folks
This is my first post as a new user of Proshow Gold. After thinking about starting my own business as a photographer for almost 20 years I'm almost ready for the official launch. I would appreciate your comments good or otherwise on my website and in particular on the PSG show under the Links tab on my site www.tartandragons.co.uk

Thanks to everyone for their freely given advice, it has been invaluable to my learning process.

Regards

Davy Caldwell

[heckydog Profile Private message]

A couple of my observations:

On your Home page I thought there was an awful lot of black space on the right side as you read down the page past the photos. Perhaps you could have the text expand under the photos to fill in the space and shorten the page length.

The Watch Our Show menu links to the Links menu right next to it. Why not just have Watch Our Show go directly to the show? It confused me a little, which I admit isn't hard to do Use Links for other links as they become available.

Your link goes to the Photodex site which means people will have to have Photodex Presenter to watch it or they'll be asked to download software. Many people won't bother with that. Better to have your own flash file.

I liked your show. I would make the watermark smaller and try to be more uniform in its placement. It will still serve the purpose without being quite as noticeable. There are ways with photoshop to make it appear transparent.

HTH

Joe

[stickgirl Profile Private message]

Hi Davy - Welcome to the forum.

I checked your website and will give you my honest impression of what my experience was.

Home page - I find the banner above the photos rather annoying, because it blinks, and because it is so much wider than the photo itself. Since the photos being displayed must be for sale, I would put wording to the right of the photo that leads a person to a page where they can be purchased.

I didn't read everything on the page because there is too much there. I would eliminate the "welcome to our website" and have the remaining words reflect what the purpose of your company is - what you specialize in. On the parts that I did read, you could put the majority of it on an "About Us" page.

Watch our show/Links - Why have someone click on the "Watch our show" tab, only to make them click on the "Links" tab to actually see the show? I would combine the two and also inform people they will need to download presenter in order to watch the show. Some will be unwilling to do this, so you may want to have two different viewing formats available.

Our Services - Too many words and over use of the word "our" - our services, our portraits, our limited edition photographs. For each section, I would limit it to what that specific package includes and then list optional items below that. Under portraits, the first two paragraphs say the same thing.

Special Offers - Give the package details and emphasize what they are getting for free. The "not only that" section reminds me of the many products sold on tv where in the commercial you hear, "but wait there's more"

Print prices - this imformation should be given on the limited editions page, not on a page of its own.

On many of the pages, I found the exclamation mark used too many times. Some sentences need emphasized, others do not.

I did watch the show and didn't care for the exploding captions. I don't find them very professional. I can't remember and don't have time to watch it again, but as I recall, some of the captions didn't remain on the screen long enough to be read entirely.

Your photography is excellent and I wish you much success in your new business.

My critique of your website is honest and I hope you don't find me too harsh. I'm sure others will like it the way it is presented.

I wish you much success in your new business.

Kathy

[BarbaraC Profile Private messageWebsite]

Davy, I noticed the amount of black space too, but after having dealt with trying to please all screen resolutions simultaneously when building my own pages, I'm wondering if you might have designed this so it looked just right on your own screen. Try to find various friends with varying resolutions to take a look at the pages so they can tell you how their resolution changes the design. Or, at the cost of messing up the icon arrangement on your Desktop, you can change the resolution on your own monitor.

An extremely important thing to remember on the Internet is that people have very short attention spans. Try finding a way to cut down on the amount of text. Also, you might separate it into more readable blocks.

In the final analysis, building Web pages is a pain in the butt, isn't it?

Barbara

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Both Joe and Kathy have the major points on the website, and the photodex presentation.

Your Home page needs a better layout. The singular colomn of text on the left hand side was difficult to read. Larger paragraph breaks would help, and something needs to be done to the big blank area.

I'll take a hint from Mikey, 'try reading out aloud your captions on the screen'. They are there no where long enough. There is at least one spelling mistake in the captions, but it went so fast I have forgotten it.

Brian

[marmart Profile Private message]

Your photography is excellent. My observations of your website do mirror others comments, so I won't repeat them.

I will say, however, the exploding text is something that I, for the most part reserve for use in kids programs and I don't think lends itself IMHO to the professionalism of your show.

All in all, for designing this yourself, you have done a pretty good job! Good luck with your ventures.

Mary

[weebolddavy Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hi Folks
Thank you all for your input it's appreciated. There are a number of things I can change and a number of things I can do nothing about because of the template from which the site is made.
First Joe (and everyone else who pointed it out!) The black space to the right is part of the template. The text can only go in one place. All the photos had to be a maximum of 600 pixels wide or long so I thought the show would be an ideal way in letting viewers see the photos at full screen. The Watch out Show/Link comment. I first of all put the link to the show under the 'Watch our Show' tab but the link wasn't 'live' and had to be copied and pasted. On the Link tab the link was 'live'. I don't understand these things must be something to do with the html setup on the page
Kathy; I agree with the blinking banners on the home page, I will see to this by the weekend as I will the other things I can change. As for using the word 'our' too often I must agree, my copywriting skills need a bit of polish. The not only that came from copywriting 'gurus' I have been learning from for writing fliers and brochures.
Brian; The captions were originally onscreen longer but as I developed the show and added more photos and titles it over ran the length of the music, so I clipped a second off here and a half second off there to get it all to fit, but your point is taken I will see what I can do.
Thanks folks it's been a fruitful post for me, your comments will be taken on board and I will change what I can given my very limited understanding of building web sites! Watch this space

Davy

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Davy

As far as caption timing goes, if you get rid of the 'exploding' text, as suggested by others, and use a flyon/flyoff type it does give a fraction of a second longer to read the text as it is still in one line. This may help if you do not want to change slide times.

Have you ever noticed your web address 'tart and rag ons'

Brian

[weebolddavy Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hi Joe Thanks for the feedback. The name Tartan Dragons comes that I stayed in Kirkintilloch near Glasgow and i moved here to Mid-Wales with my partner 4 years ago to look after her mother who had Alzhiemers. I'm the tartan, she's the dragon!!!

Regards

Davy

[Herriot2 Profile Private messageWebsiteYIM]

Hi Folks
This is my first post as a new user of Proshow Gold. After thinking about starting my own business as a photographer for almost 20 years I'm almost ready for the official launch. I would appreciate your comments good or otherwise on my website and in particular on the PSG show under the Links tab on my site www.tartandragons.co.uk

Thanks to everyone for their freely given advice, it has been invaluable to my learning process.

Regards

Davy Caldwell

Davy

I like the web sites colour scheme. Like most people I think that the amount of text on the Home pages spoils it a bit.

Maybe you can move the whole of the text to an About page - add another menu option called About, for example move the text there.

On the home page remove the "Welcome to our web page" it's very amatureish IMHO but the rest of the website is pretty professional looking.

Simply say something along the lines of

"With over 25 years experience as a photographer doing a wide variety of work, concentrating mainly on portraiture, Tartan Dragon Photography offer a range of services, many of which are not available elsewhere in Mid-Wales. We pride ourselves in being both creative and innovative. Customer satisfaction is at the forefront of our companys' vision. Feel free to browse our website and email us using the Contact Us page if you require any further help. Yours David Caldwell, Tartan Dragons"

You could add a hyperlink to the Contact Us text above if the template will allow it. Note the above is just an example

Ignoring the black space people are on about, which is a valid point, for a moment, if you reduce what people have to read you will have more chance of people staying for longer. one reviewer didn't read all of the text for that reason and normally I wouldn't but because I think you have done an otherwise excellent job with the website I wanted to be able to help (I am a Systems Support Analyst and web development is part of that job). There is research that says that people only stay on a page for a few seconds so you need to get them quick. Anyway that should reduce the black space and the front page will look better IMHO

Also you need to be aware of accessibility issues with regard to the law (in the UK) as well. The photos should, for example have an alternative text tag that screen readers can read when a mouse is hovered over the picture. If the text is increased in size using IE7's magnifier the text does increase but the main menu ribbon overlaps. Good clear text though. And yes even though your company deals in primarily a visual medium you are legally bound to cater for those who have a site impairment. I know that where I work (local college) we are duty and legally bound to ensure that accessibility is part and parcel of our design but as a small compnay I don't know if you are under the same law - check it out in.

Check the college website out...at http://www.adamsmithcollege.ac.uk/ resize the page, move your mouse over the images etc.

Hope this helps

Peter

[weebolddavy Profile Private messageWebsite]

Hi Peter
I've taken most of what you and everyone else has suggested onboard and it has made one heck of a difference to both the website and the slideshow. Everything looks much more professional and slick. I started to put the website together over the Christmas holiday and in the meantime discovered Proshow Gold so I've been trying to pick that up also. I've been fine tuning and fine tuning constantly but I needed someone who hasn't been looking at it day after day to come along and point out my errors, to you all I'll be eternally grateful!
I've still got a few things that need changing and I'll do that after I've had a decent sleep as I've been burning the midnight oils.....again!
Peter I noticed that some of my Limited Edition photos have captions when you roll the mouse over them and some don't. The ones that don't are also featured on the Home page. When I add a caption to these I get the flashing banner above the home page photos that I only just managed to get rid of.

I can't tell you how pleased I am with the results of your suggestions. If I could get my show onto my website as a flash file it would be great, but can a flash show be shown to fill the screen to get the visual benefit from my photography?

Any further suggestions will be gratefully received. Thanks a million.

Davy www.tartandragons.co.uk

[nannybear Profile Private messageWebsite]

I think it looks fabulous now. Everything I would have said had been said so I didn't post but I did go check it out. This makes a world of difference. Great job Davy!! Cheers Jan

[Herriot2 Profile Private messageWebsiteYIM]

Davy

I like the web sites colour scheme. Like most people I think that the amount of text on the Home pages spoils it a bit.

Maybe you can move the whole of the text to an About page - add another menu option called About, for example move the text there.

On the home page remove the "Welcome to our web page" it's very amatureish IMHO but the rest of the website is pretty professional looking.

Simply say something along the lines of

"With over 25 years experience as a photographer doing a wide variety of work, concentrating mainly on portraiture, Tartan Dragon Photography offer a ..."

<SNIP>

Davy, you are most welcome. I have checked it out and it does make a big difference. First impressions are all important in the world of the three W's.

Considering that your are new to this you are doing a good job (great photos by the way)

If I can be of service at all please feel free to email herriot2@yahoo.com and I'll only be too glad to help (that goes for anyone here, cvos I can help with what I am comfortable with it may go some way to help for the help people give me both on here and the other proshow groups)

erorr correction In my last post i mentioned people with a site impairment!! I obviously meant sight impairment I must get a non dyslexic keyboard

Regards from a freezing Glenrothes.

Peter

[briancbb Profile Private message]

Davy

That is now so much better.

On my screen when I go to 'Gallery' the second menu at the top overlaps the main headings.

Also, looking through the slide show again I have found the spelling mistake I mentioned in a previous post. At the start of the 'plaques' sequence you mention wording can be 'humerous', this should be 'humorous'.

That is now a very professional website.

Brian

[videogal]

Davy,

On the page with the photo correction, I would put the B&W creased photos
side by side. Have just one set of photos on each line. That would be less
confusing. So you just see the before and after next to each other.

~videogal