Critique my web site

[Conk]

Normally I would post for photo critique here but I'd like some feedback on how my website looks thus far.
An advanced thanks.
http://www.cloverdalephotography.com

[Big_B]

Yeah its fine conk. Its easy to navigate and find what you are looking for, which is always a good start :)

If I had one criticism, its that I don't generally go in for black backgrounds. I think they tend to be a bit dark/moody, where as I prefer photograpy sites that are bright and cheerful.

[Conk]

Yeah its fine conk. Its easy to navigate and find what you are looking for, which is always a good start :)

If I had one criticism, its that I don't generally go in for black backgrounds. I think they tend to be a bit dark/moody, where as I prefer photograpy sites that are bright and cheerful.

Thanks Big_B.

[Molydood]

seems fine to me

[ssim]

I think it looks good Conk. Navigates easily. As to the colors, I like the darker background.

Sheldon

[Belmondo]

Ditto to all the above.

Tom

[GenEOS]

It seems a bit heavy on the right side. On my browser it appears as if everything needs to be moved to the left a bit to be more centered. I am viewing on the latest IE6.x browser in a Windows inviroment.
But looks nice and navigates well.

I would remove the under construction thing. I can tell you....it will always be under construction....

This photo is awesome:
http://www.cloverdalephotography.com/html/full_size_4.html
I love it.

I follow these comments with a disclaimer that I in no way am a website expert or even stayed at Holiday Inn Express, so my comments are relative. Website design is an artform and I am still using crayons.

[Big_B]

Website design is an artform and I am still using crayons.

Ha ha!! I'll remember that one. :lol: :lol:

[stopbath]

All in all, it looks good at the start, but there are a few points which you may wish to address to improve your site.

Remove the "under construction" sign.

It is fine to have things "in progress" but don't advertise to your users that you have not finished things yet. Similarly links to "future" pages should never be shown until those pages are usable. It is very frustrating to click on a link for something and have it not work... It's a waste of time.

The text is formated incorrectly. (See the contacts page) Don't use a wack of spaces to start a new line. HTML text should flow. Use <br/> to start a new line, use <p> and </p> to define a paragraph.

You might wish to investigate Cascading Style Sheets which will allow you to update the look and feel of your entire web site with one change to a single file... CSS does add complexity in setting up, but is much easier to maintain.

[Conk]

Thank you very much everyone. I will definately remove the under construction sign. I'll also get the other galleries out of there untill I'm ready to post the images. Great help y'all! :D

[stopbath]

That looks better. Still have the text formatting problem on the Contact page, and I just noticed this: The pages to not reformat to different sizes. This means that someone viewing the web site with a small browser window may give up on your site as they are required to scroll too much.

For some reason the web page is hard coded to a certain size, and the page is formatted using a table but there is NO table of information on the page. Try not to use a table to format normal text. It may look ok, but text readers have a hard time with it.

Try this. Load the web page, and then resize the web browser to 1/4 screen. A good page will automatically reformat to that size and still be quite usable. (Navigation tools still are all in the window at one time, though they may take up two rows. Paragraphs of text reformat to remain intact, though the user may have to scroll down, they don't need side to side scrolling.)

A few more things to think about. Your screen title is a graphic. But there is no alternative data for it. Really, this would be best served by dumping the graphic, and using text and a display font. The benefit of using text for your title instead of a picture, is that when folks don't load pictures into the browser, they still get all the information you require. Text will reformat easily, but a graphic does not....

Design your pages to reformat to different sizes and still work well (use percentages to keep the formating how you want it as the page is resized - don't force things to be a certain size at all times.)
Use pictures for pictures, and text for text. Use text to quickly describe a picture for those browsers not showing pictures. Use tables for tables of data, not as a shortcut to page formatting...

check out http://www.w3.org for more (way more) information on HTML...

[Leighow]

CONK -- 1st REACTIONS

THIS DOES NOT SELL .... on page 1 or on any other page.

You have to decide what you want me to do ... I am not interetsed in YOUR future plans.

You are into Pets ... let's get that across -- forget the remote controlled aeroplanes .. nice hobby .. BUT not want you want to sell.

How to proceed ? That depends on what you want to SELL and what image you want to convey.

We need to define the action and impact that you want, how to get it with pics and FEW words -- then worry about an HTML structure.
-- No need for 2 dozen photos
-- Need a few testimoninals from happy pet owners
-- Probably a price list
-- etc

You can do it CONK -- you can do it....

CHECK OUT ... STUDY .. and live by .... www.useit.com
I want to see a "teaser" maybe an offer to fix my Pet photo for free.. that could lead to a studio/oytdoor session with MY pet.

[Conk]

I really appreciate the feedback Stopbath. I'm using Fusion 7 which allows me to not know a thing about html. After Howie's post, and the fact that he is 100% right, I'm not sure what to do. I feel like having someone build it for me but I can't afford that.

[Leighow]

I really appreciate the feedback Stopbath. I'm using Fusion 7 which allows me to not know a thing about html. After Howie's post, and the fact that he is 100% right, I'm not sure what to do. I feel like having someone build it for me but I can't afford that.

CONK

We'll build it for you. I post some core questions in the morning. Sleep tight!

[Conk]

Thanks Howie. I'll need all the help I can get.

[stopbath]

I really appreciate the feedback Stopbath. I'm using Fusion 7 which allows me to not know a thing about html. After Howie's post, and the fact that he is 100% right, I'm not sure what to do. I feel like having someone build it for me but I can't afford that.
It is a daunting task to get any web site user friendly as much as possible. Depending on the users, the requirements can get quite extensive!

On one hand you want flash and glitz to wow the users, on the other hand you want easy access to information that the users want and are searching for.

On one hand you want easy to create pages, but on the other hand you want pages that always look great.

Most importantly, you want the users to enjoy themselves and even buy something!

Since the Web site is your "brochure", you might want to get a few books from the library on creating marketable web sites...

[darwin]

As a professional web designer my critisisms are as follows:

The black, while it can be fitting usually gives off a sort of "underground-ish" or forbidden vibe. Businesses generally should have a lighter, more friendly tone.

Those buttons! Oh goodness they have to go. They look so generic like they were from a template or something to that effect. Just some nice CSS rollovers would work great.

If you're really worried about price, email me and we can talk. I'm a college student and do pretty good pages for pretty cheap. mjaleo@gmail.com and I'll hook you up.

[rick barclay]

You have a HOME button on your HOME page and a GALLERIES button
on you GALLERIES page. Those aren't necessary.

[ecobo]

The site is loading quite fast and as a design it's a good starting point.
But...
1. I don't like the black background. The statistics shows that 85% of the Internet surfers don't like black. Use some lighter color.
2. I don't like these buttons. They look too complicated and don't fit the entire page style.
3. The font of the header is not quite readable. Use some non-serif font.
4. The "Italic" font style is not the best choice for the body text. Consider to use "Normal" style.
5. Most important: Your site is not optimized for the search engines. You have not <DESCRIPTION> and <KEYWORDS> meta-tags. The <TITLE> tag of the home page is a simple "Home" word. Consider to use some more descriptive title to make the page SE friedly.
This is my opinion. Sorry if I am too exacting, but those things matter for me. I'm a professional designer.. :cry:

Edit: Contact me if you don't know what to do. I can help.

[roanjohn]

Edit, edit, edit.

Those pet photos are AMAZING!!! Those remote controled planes on the other hand............a few shots maybe, but not more than what you posted.

Agree with the black background.........doesn't really do it for me. Maybe grey!! or something light and neutral.

...........would really like to see how this will turn out.

Ro1

[4walls]

Hey there Conk,

You have some great shots there...I think the black is a little dark. Try something a bit more colorful.

I like to copy design ideas from other sites I see online. Companies like Microsoft and Apple have great looking websites (some of them, MSN is just plain crowded). Check out this one...I am thinking of making a template that looks something like this.

http://www.windowsmarketplace.com/

[c0ntr0lz]

the only really trouble i see with it is that it is centered but the text format is left adjusted, so it looks heavy on the left side. other than that it's a good site