My website upgrade- Your thoughts please

[tony fanning]

Nearly finished upgrading my website.
Have a look and give me your thoughts please.
Not done too many weddings so the portfolio isn`t really extensive.
let me know if the navigation all works OK on all platforms please. I don`t have a Mac.
Use the link in my sig.

Cheers

[tim]

Animated gif bad.
Images should be clickable to see portfolios for that topic.
"Please view the portfolios or slideshow to see the style and quality of his current work" should be a link.
Menu jumps around (width wise) when you put mouse over it.
Not a big fan of the red.
Portfolio page is too simple and boring (just some links) IMHO.
Prices page hard to read with images behind them. Goes for other pages too. Really bad idea IMHO.
"About us" page - "about us" not centered.
Selective color with gold rings is a bit much for my taste, reduce saturation and consider a sepia background.

Overall good info, layout could use some work. Just my $0.02 and hope that helps :)

[tony fanning]

Thanks Tim. I havn`t got any animated gifs???
I`m still working on the portfolios page.
What platform are you using Tim?
The menu buttons thing is a glitch but I kinda like the way they move. If I hear any more views to the negative I`ll try to sort it out.

Thanks for your thoughts.

[sblais]

Way too slow for me... I'm from the other side of the pond mind you, but if it's that slow in UK, I would close it before looking at it. I actually gave up trying to look at your portfolio.

My comments/pointers/personal preferences:


I don't like the "stars" by your company name. It looks cheesy.
It's better to have text than images on your web site to display the information. It helps with SEO and loads more quickly!
I don't like the quote about photography being expensive vs priceless... Again too cheesy and it looks like you are trying to justify why your prices are so high (even if they may be competitive).
I don't like the fact that images are used as backgrounds. There is text on top of them. We can't see them, so why bother. Have a plain background and pictures on the side to complement and compliment the text.


Hope that's not too harsh. Just my $0.02 worth, so it's up to you to decide if what I said makes sense or not :D

EDIT: I didn't read Tim's post before writing this... :oops: so some information looks like in duplicate :roll:

[JaertX]

I've attached a screenshot of the gifs Tim is talking about.

Not to beat a dead horse, some of my comments are the same, but here goes:

The portfolio page needs cleaning up...the text links are clunky.
The text over an image can work in some cases, but it's hard to read on your site.
Having to scroll on any page is bad and looks poorly planned. Just some cleanup needed for that.

Anyway...I think the portfolio pages themselves look good!

[mkmagic]

Tony,
I have to agrree I am not a fan of the red background either. It is just to much.
I do however really llike your album pages. What software is that and how do you assemble your books?

My brotheris getting married in August and O would like to tell him about your style. What should he ask for?

[tony fanning]

Hi mkmagic, I use a flash programme called Simple Viewer. It`s free and you can download it from
http://www.airtightinteractive.com/simpleviewer/
I did these sample album pages in Photoshop.
Thanks for your comments guys

[csm328]

I don't like the blue link 'please view the portfolios or slideshow...' against the background. really had to squint.

[slappy sam]

-The blue text on red background is hard to read. Also, the red background is a bit strong
-Text on images is very hard to read, like in the wedding info section.
-The stars are a bit cheesy, also just a graphics flaw of the banner is that the stars get cut off. To avoid this, make the text on a layer above the background, make a new layer and throw the stars in this layer. Save the whole thing as a .png and it will be transparent, so you should be able to keep the whole stars in there.
-I like your portfolio page (with the flash). Pretty clean and has some nice effects without being too over the top.
-Possibly color the navigation links differently. When I first got to the site, it took me a minute to figure out how to get all your photos (ok, not that long, but this is something to think about to make the menu buttons stand out more).

Overall I definetly like your site, with a bit more work (mostly on color) I think it will be great.

After looking at Tim's post I do agree with a few things. The animated gif is unprofessional in my opinion. The menu buttons should not jump around when you scroll over them. The portfolio page (before u get into the things with flash) should have those images centered in the middle of the screen with text below them and SPACING between the images.

Sorry, not trying to be harsh here, but I'm designing a site too and I know I'd want people to be as honest as possible with me. Also, I frequent some graphics design forums, as well as doing it myself, so I've learned to be pretty critical.

[tony fanning]

Once again, thanks for the advice .