Can I get some feedback on my new site?

[Menelaus]

Hey guys, just curious what you think about my new website. Everything is fully functional, just need to add pictures to the galleries.

http://www.scottryanphotography.com (http://www.scottryanphotography.com/)

If anything jumps out at you or flat out doesn't work, please let me know! Also, if you like anything in particular, I'd be happy to hear it.

-Scott

[Menelaus]

Nobody?

[Grumbledook]

looks a lot like most other smugmug sites

[Faolan]

The site seems cluttered and/or disjointed to me with no real cohesion to the various elements. The header section lacks a strong contrast as well.

Website is too big for a 1024x768 resolution which is the baseline size all sites should be built to these days and involves me scrolling down to see your content.

Speaking of content. If a person has Flash disabled you have no introduction text for the user on your entry page. Be a bit more friendly and introduce yourself and company!

HTML code, I would revisit the code and tidy it up. You have page content in your headers and also some pages look broken (services has a black bar across the top of the body section).

Galleries are slow to load, plus I would change the white background for your enlarged images to something a bit more neutral for your images.

Contact page width is too wide, not sure why but it's creating a horizontal scroll bar...

Guestbook is not really professional plus it can be used maliciously against you. Instead I would move your about your content here from services.

Finally it's a template advertising SmugMug and the template designer. This can work against you in that some people will think you're cheap and can't afford a 'proper' website.

Hope this helps.

[Menelaus]

Thanks for the honest assessment, Faolan. I figure I'll use smaller horizontal images for the flash, that should help.

I'm not seeing the black bar you are describing (services page) in either IE7 or FF3. Could you post a screen of what it looks like?

I agree about the background of the enlarged images, I'll see if I can make it darker.

I fixed the contact width by taking out some rogue HTML.

I'll probably ditch the guestbook altogether.

Unfortunately about the footer, I can't get rid of smugmug's attribution. I'm definitely not savvy enough to code a site from scratch, so that's just something that will have to be lived with. Hopefully, once I get some content up, people won't even notice.

Thanks again for your help.

[Faolan]

Here you go, I've left it at full res. Browser Opera 9.63.

Link removed

[Menelaus]

Thanks, I'll look into it.

[Menelaus]

Did a pretty major overhaul over the weekend...thoughts?

[SteveNC]

Every page is a different width, making it a bit disjointed.

I expected a slideshow (since it looks like you have a flash homepage) but nothing slideshowed :).

I would add a photo or some more colorful content to the services and contact pages.

I am not a fan of the large fonts, but that's personal opinion.

[ScottKCooper]

the lettering on the top left is cut off with the flash player window.

[Menelaus]

the lettering on the top left is cut off with the flash player window.
LOL, yeah, I'm in it working it over as we speak.

[Menelaus]

Ok, I've pared the site down to bare essentials, and added in some other elements (twitter, wordpress, facebook) while trying to keep everything as simplistic as possible.

Yes, I know it resembles other SmugMug sites, but for 99% of clients who haven't seen a SmugMug site, who cares? I'm just trying to get people information as efficiently as possible.

Any thoughts on this new look?

[Jonta]

Haven't seen the previous ones.
1: I CAN'T READ WHAT YOU WRITE! IT'S ALL CAPS!
2: "Your Name"? Too long. Name is enough
3: Do you really need all this information about me?

[rustyjaw]

When I scale the window down horizontally, the navigation text slides on top of your name.

As noted above, the small-caps type on the "services" page isn't very reader friendly. Normally small-caps is used to short passages. Consider using regular initial cap sentences.

The main image isn't centered horizontally, no matter what the size of the window it sits to the right. Also, the main image is kind of dark overall to my eyes.

I would suggest making the title and navigation type smaller, it dominates the design IMO. The photos should stand out, not the text.

Keep going, it can be frustrating putting a site together. There are so many variables and things that can go wrong.

Ed