my webite finally live!!

[benny g]

thanks to all on the forum that have contributed to the making of the site...

http://instinctiveimagery.com.au (http://instinctiveimagery.com.au/)

if you were in Australia i would buy you a beer!

please give me any feedback,ideas issues or critique...

thank you so much again

benny

[twofruitz]

Top website; I like it a lot.




Also; i'm in Australia and would like a free beer :)

[benny g]

Top website; I like it a lot.




Also; i'm in Australia and would like a free beer :)


no prob mate... shout is mine;)

[James Robert Gratiot]

Benny,

First impression...

Very nice site, but lose the music. People don't like music, especially when there's no way to turn it off or down.

[benny g]

hey thanks for the reply...

music is optional, you can turn it off at the bottom, just click on it and choose setting,( look for the moving levels) i thought it just added mood..interesting to hear opinions about that... the thing that i like about a lot of websites is a funky tune, or something to break the monotony..

cheers

[c2thew]

it looks good, but i personally think that the top portion of your website has too much "dead space." it alternates when you switch profiles which is nice, but people don't want to see small images. they want to be WOWED when you first click on a picture. or a sample or whatever.

music is a very personal flavor, make sure you get others to get feedback on the music in the background.

i love the flash animation over the words. very clean.

[Hikin Mike]

Kill the music, kill the music, kill the music, kill the music, kill the music, kill the music. I will click away before I find the OFF button. Think about your customers not YOU. :D

You need to decide where the header is and keep it the same. Other than that, it looks good.



and kill the music. ;)

[masher]

I can't see anything.
I browse with NoScript, so flash-only websites don't work for me.

Can Google index a flash-only website? How about an HTML version?

[benny g]

I can't see anything.
I browse with NoScript, so flash-only websites don't work for me.

Can Google index a flash-only website? How about an HTML version?

I'LL have to look into that for u mate, not to sure about it...

get back to you..'

[Faolan]

Double loader, counted 8 seconds before site loaded.. Not got the fastest link on the block but you only have 5 seconds to make a impression.

Hit your site, nothing about who you are. Just pretty pictures. Next! Oh hang on there is some text overlaid on the images.. Shame it's hard to read still doesn't tell me who you are though.

Music, you said it's optional I can't see any way to kill it and I seriously do want to kill it... Nothing worse than a website trying to impose it's preferences on me.

Profile page doesn't display properly in Opera, which is surprising as it's using Flash! It doesn't scroll for me, yet the social does.

I really hate the 'flowing' letterbox layout it's distracting and pointless. It minimises the content. I'm a speed reader and I like information I can access quickly. This design does the opposite and makes that information (when I find) hard to read.

You've got a poor implementation of a Flash checker, it flickers quickly before the page loads.

[benny g]

Thanks for taking the time to give your 2 cents... Here is a bit of info around some points you mentioned.

The 5 seconds to make an impression thing is an extremely outdated convention, especially in 2009. Not sure what bandwidth you are running but my audience is a 97% penetration DSL+ so it doesn't bother me. The audio is a little laggy but it's just a temporary track to test.

Hit my site, nothing about who I am... Since when do people stumble upon websites or start typing automatically into the address bar without deciding before hand to go to a site? I don't want blind people to go to my url. I EXPECT the people to go to my site to have accessed it via one of several social media touchpoints, press ads, word of mouth, email, blogs, search engine results etc etc etc. I don't need to say "hi I am a wedding photographer". I want my site to be about sophistication, simplicity and elegance and I am not going to compromise my brand with a whole lot of noise that is totally unnecessary for my demographic. For the record the psychology about wedding photography websites is all about selling a fantasy... The fantasy is all about the bride (mainly) and groom imagining themselves in the very poses and compositions that you are presenting to them in a subtle way... There's no need to shout and try and come across like an editorial.

The music is optional and the small equalizer navigation should suffice and is designed to be in the most basic placement where a user would expect to kill it (bottom right). For the record, there are section on your site which are labeled under "prints" and "presentation" that have auto play audio activity when it is unexpected.

The fluid letterbox design is pretty simple... It's intended to be focused on the photography and telling a story because that's what I believe my audience wants to see. Also I don't want to have "lots of information to access quickly" because I want to paint a picture, sell a dream, create a vision and draw people into my passion and my art... That is my main strategy that I have focused on with the site. Why have I done this? Purely on the psychology I mentioned before... The strongest consumer insight into the demographic that I am interested in and that is - "I want to imagine myself on my wedding day in these photos". The who, what, where and how much are a 2nd, 3rd and 4th strategy for me.

not meaning to sound harsh, just points of view man

once again... thanks for replying...

[Faolan]

Surprisingly 30% of my traffic is from non-DSL connections. Also many parts of Australia is stuck on dial-up or slow Sat-Links. Plus I'm curious why the multiple pre-loaders when loading your site, which only confuses the visitor. Most are used to a single pre-loader per section. As for what speed I'm on a 512Kb link.

You don't have to have to be blind to not being able to make out text, you can have vision problems that can render poorly contrasted text illegible. Whilst not classed as blind they'll still have difficulty reading that text. Are you ignoring that segment of that market?

As to music a lot of hits will occur during the daytime which means one of two things: home users or people using work computers... Now surfing the 'Net in many corporations is usually frowned upon so if you hit a site with music that's going to cause Prairie dogging then they are not likely to stay. Then you have public access points which don't have sound on top of this, all factors against music. If music is a key focus of your site then you've lost it. You can't force your view on someone with the 'Net. I also can't see the equaliser button at the bottom of your Flash presentation.

As to SEO. You'll not get much of that. Unless the Flash code is optimised for SEO even then it's ranked lower. Search Engines live and thrive on hard text data, that's what the 'Net was created from and is still the foundations. I realise what you're trying to do, and I wish you all all the best with it. However I do feel you're going to alienate some of your customers with some design decisions.

The 'Net has a multitude of access points from mobile devices (now accounting for around 5% of my traffic) to media centres hence why it's near impossible to control a storyline.

I'm not trying to bring your site down, I'm bringing up design points that may or may not affect your site and, more importantly, targetted audiences. As to music on my site? The only place that has such is the presentation and client sections, the rest of the site is music free so I'm a bit confused with that statement...

[Sam_ClevelandWebs]

I like it.
I think the music is fine. The only thing I would change as far as that goes is the EQ bars control, making them a bit brighter so it stands out more and catches the eye quicker. Monitors and color profiles differ so much, I'm sure there are some that make it that much harder to locate the on/off control.

Everything else about the site functions perfectly and looks outstanding. I normally dislike full flash sites, but this one I like. :)

[benny g]

Surprisingly 30% of my traffic is from non-DSL connections. Also many parts of Australia is stuck on dial-up or slow Sat-Links. Plus I'm curious why the multiple pre-loaders when loading your site, which only confuses the visitor. Most are used to a single pre-loader per section. As for what speed I'm on a 512Kb link.

You don't have to have to be blind to not being able to make out text, you can have vision problems that can render poorly contrasted text illegible. Whilst not classed as blind they'll still have difficulty reading that text. Are you ignoring that segment of that market?

As to music a lot of hits will occur during the daytime which means one of two things: home users or people using work computers... Now surfing the 'Net in many corporations is usually frowned upon so if you hit a site with music that's going to cause Prairie dogging then they are not likely to stay. Then you have public access points which don't have sound on top of this, all factors against music. If music is a key focus of your site then you've lost it. You can't force your view on someone with the 'Net. I also can't see the equaliser button at the bottom of your Flash presentation.

As to SEO. You'll not get much of that. Unless the Flash code is optimised for SEO even then it's ranked lower. Search Engines live and thrive on hard text data, that's what the 'Net was created from and is still the foundations. I realise what you're trying to do, and I wish you all all the best with it. However I do feel you're going to alienate some of your customers with some design decisions.

The 'Net has a multitude of access points from mobile devices (now accounting for around 5% of my traffic) to media centres hence why it's near impossible to control a storyline.

I'm not trying to bring your site down, I'm bringing up design points that may or may not affect your site and, more importantly, targetted audiences. As to music on my site? The only place that has such is the presentation and client sections, the rest of the site is music free so I'm a bit confused with that statement...


thanks again for replying,

yeah the music equalizer player can be changed opacity wise so i will do that. i understand that alot of people will open this website at work and have the need to turn it down. I'll amend that this afternoon.

the text data for the website will be found more in the blog which im hoping to update weekly.. ive heard that blogging and the like will constitute for more seo than any website alone will. From there the site will hopefully build. i have created this more as a portfolio, i appreciate the points raised but i myself, get easily bored with too much text...information overload...and am more visually stimulated by photos than i am by reading. i would prefer the targeted audience to go "wow, look at this hun" than "hold on a sec babe.. i'm just reading this.."

I can see what you are saying about the text overlay... ty.. i will raise the opacity of that also. I can understand how hard it will be for some people.

ps.. im not sure about the last time you visited here...but the majority of the country is now covered by the high end of the broadband world. adsl2+ is now the norm.. i am hoping that will be enough for most people...i cant remember the last person i spoke to that said they still had dial up;)

Seriously, thanks again for replying. If you were over here i would still buy you a beer.:)

benny

[Hikin Mike]

ps.. im not sure about the last time you visited here...but the majority of the country is now covered by the high end of the broadband world. adsl2+ is now the norm.. i am hoping that will be enough for most people...i cant remember the last person i spoke to that said they still had dial up;)

Seriously, thanks again for replying. If you were over here i would still buy you a beer.:)

benny

Sign up for Google Analytic and Webmaster Tools and find out. ;)

[BJWOK]

lovely site mate, well done on some stunning images and a beautiful layout... but.... BEN LEE???? are you kidding me? kill the music? just kill ben lee!!! :)

[benny g]

lovely site mate, well done on some stunning images and a beautiful layout... but.... BEN LEE???? are you kidding me? kill the music? just kill ben lee!!! :)


lol... thanks mate, appreciate it. ben lee is one of the tracks that seemed soothing enough for the site...

[BJWOK]

each to their own i guess ;)

[benny g]

each to their own i guess ;)


definitely!!! any suggestions bud?

[BJWOK]

maybe something by Thievery Corporation? chilled ambient style...

http://www.thieverycorporation.com/

[SOK]

... but.... BEN LEE???? are you kidding me? kill the music? just kill ben lee!!! :)

Someone was bound to beat me to it!

Your images are wonderful, but Ben Lee makes me want to click awaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!

I echo the 'kill the music' sentiments...and should point out that as an irrational and impatient potential customer, no degree of 'obviousness' will make the off switch accessible enough for me. I just don't like it. Obviously it's up to you whether you want to cater to people like me, or people who you reckon will like it.

Quick question; did you license that music? (I'm asking in a "I'm interested to know what process you went through" kind of way, not a "I'm the licensing police" kind of way.)

Finally, your site is very tasteful and professional looking....but I'm simply not a fan of fancy, swirly, arty flash sites. It's purely a personal preference thing. I think the work in your portfolio is stunning, but I was frustrated by the mucking around and loading times I had to endure to get to it.

Overall, I think you will impress and woo potential customers with your site, provided they have a little patience...and don't mind a bit of Ben Lee!

[benny g]

Someone was bound to beat me to it!

Your images are wonderful, but Ben Lee makes me want to click awaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!

I echo the 'kill the music' sentiments...and should point out that as an irrational and impatient potential customer, no degree of 'obviousness' will make the off switch accessible enough for me. I just don't like it. Obviously it's up to you whether you want to cater to people like me, or people who you reckon will like it.

Quick question; did you license that music? (I'm asking in a "I'm interested to know what process you went through" kind of way, not a "I'm the licensing police" kind of way.)


Finally, your site is very tasteful and professional looking....but I'm simply not a fan of fancy, swirly, arty flash sites. It's purely a personal preference thing. I think the work in your portfolio is stunning, but I was frustrated by the mucking around and loading times I had to endure to get to it.

Overall, I think you will impress and woo potential customers with your site, provided they have a little patience...and don't mind a bit of Ben Lee!


thankyou man.. i appreciate the feedback.will work on killing ben lee...
although that would be hurting one of my friends ;).. hope that answers the licensing query..
i wasn't filled in on the the compression thing till tonight so i will work on making the images not so compacted!

[benny g]

Cool site.. I love it.. Great shots.. I can't hear the music though.. Did you remove it or is it just my comp.. Nonetheless, I would love to share your website to my photo friends.. They would surely love your website.. Bookmarked it.. :)
try it again miss lover... was just tampering... have added a new track for opening titles now...? thoughts??

benny

[Stevie@JC]

that is a beaufiful website, just wish i had something like it

[blackshadow]

Another one saying lose the music! Not just because it is Ben Bloody Lee but because I don't want to be subjected to music unless I choose to be.

I think it looks very good but agree with the comments above on flash.