Website Critique

[cdifoto]

I knew that's what it was but for the life of me I couldn't think of the name. It's a derivative of OSC though I believe. I found it easier to take OSC and just modify that, and use the same system for extra pages, rather than embedding the store into an html site. I too spent quite some time hacking up the layout and CSS. Fortunately I had the tedious but valuable experience from doing my main store gradually and painfully over a 2-3 year span so doing the photo version was easier. I still tweak it every now and then but using a KISS approach made it rather quick in getting the core functionality and layout complete.

[rianhall]

Fortunately, I have no need right now for users to see private galleries. My goal was to have a place to show my own work and sell it too. That's made this project A LOT harder than I anticipated. Some shopping cart systems look too much like Amazon or other commercial sites and offer little to no GUI customizations. Others offer the GUI customizations but do not offer all of the options I want such as mats and framing. ZenCart doesn't have everything, but it sure offers a lot.

Originally Posted by cdifoto

Wouldn't hurt. I have mine separated...there's flash gallery that's just that, and the ordering is hidden for proofing; ie it's part of the site but there are no links to it from the "outside" website...if that makes sense. In other words, clients are given a link to their own proofs but non-clients do not have access unless they're told about it.

[Hikin Mike]

Originally Posted by rianhall

By the way, this is how it is supposed to appear in Firefox:

You're using a Mac right? I'm on a PC (unfortunately)

[cdifoto]

Well mine's for clients (weddings mostly) so I had to workaround the fact that I'm too stupid to figure out how to effectively password-protect the individual categories (now galleries). No one on the OSC forums seems to be able to figure it out or want to help with that anyway. Thus the easy way - eliminate links to them. There's still an index page for all the categories/galleries, but it also has no direct clickable access on my site and only those who know about it can get there because they have to type it into the address bar. Doesn't matter much though since no one has a reason to access it. My clients get their own subdomain url which points to the category so that makes it extremely easy to get to theirs and pass it out...all they need to remember is my domain and their own last name...and/or where they placed their contract because it's on there too.

As for displaying for those to purchase...you can obviously skip the whole hiding them thing but I'd have a small gallery of previews that auto-play just like you already do, and then provide a link or clickable graphic that says something like "Order prints of these images and many more here!"

[rianhall]

The Screenshot was taken on my work PC but I developed it on my MacBook Pro.

Originally Posted by Hikin Mike

You're using a Mac right? I'm on a PC (unfortunately)

[rianhall]

That's exactly what I am thinking of doing. In fact, I am thinking making is so the "Home" page consists of a slideshow displaying several of my images. Each of them will be clickable with a link to it's location in the store. Do you think that is a good idea?

Originally Posted by cdifoto

As for displaying for those to purchase...you can obviously skip the whole hiding them thing but I'd have a small gallery of previews that auto-play just like you already do, and then provide a link or clickable graphic that says something like "Order prints of these images and many more here!"

[Hikin Mike]

I just noticed on your sig line that it says "http://www.blueaspenphoto.com/", but when I click on it I see this: http://www.blueaspenphotography.com/

[cdifoto]

Originally Posted by rianhall

That's exactly what I am thinking of doing. In fact, I am thinking making is so the "Home" page consists of a slideshow displaying several of my images. Each of them will be clickable with a link to it's location in the store. Do you think that is a good idea?

That would be kinda cool as long as you make a note somewhere near the slideshow that clicking will take them to the photo. Or at least make the hover title be "Click to purchase this photo"

In other words, when designing a site, always let the viewer know what he or she is getting into by clicking.

[rianhall]

That was an older domain I was using. I have since changed it to http://www.blueaspenphoto.com. Unfortunately, I forgot to update my sig. It should be fixed now.

Originally Posted by Hikin Mike

I just noticed on your sig line that it says "http://www.blueaspenphoto.com/", but when I click on it I see this: http://www.blueaspenphotography.com/

[rianhall]

The effect I'm gonna shoot for is that the user will see a slideshow on the homepage. However, when they click on a pict they like, it will display a larger one and darken the background. The enlarged version will then have a link to the store where they can purchase it. I hope that makes sense. Click this link and then click the link titled "larger image" for a general idea of what I am talking about.

Originally Posted by cdifoto

That would be kinda cool as long as you make a note somewhere near the slideshow that clicking will take them to the photo. Or at least make the hover title be "Click to purchase this photo"

In other words, when designing a site, always let the viewer know what he or she is getting into by clicking.

[cdifoto]

Originally Posted by rianhall

The effect I'm gonna shoot for is that the user will see a slideshow on the homepage. However, when they click on a pict they like, it will display a larger one and darken the background. The enlarged version will then have a link to the store where they can purchase it. I hope that makes sense. Click this link and then click the link titled "larger image" for a general idea of what I am talking about.

Sounds like a good idea, but if you can do that, why don't you simplify things by doing that same code to all your images in a cleaner gallery, rather than having them look at the additional non-featured photos as if they're a product?

Make sense what I'm saying?

[rianhall]

I see your point. The problem I am running into is creating a site where users can view my images in a traditional gallery style while also being able to purchase them in a traditional shopping cart style. It's been damn near impossible to find something that merges the two in a user friendly manner.

To make matters worse, I am preparing for a show and need to get this done in less than month. lol

Originally Posted by cdifoto

Sounds like a good idea, but if you can do that, why don't you simplify things by doing that same code to all your images in a cleaner gallery, rather than having them look at the additional non-featured photos as if they're a product?

Make sense what I'm saying?

[PhotosGuy]

Would y'all agree that I should add a separate gallery so people can look at the images independently from the store?
&
My goal was to have a place to show my own work and sell it too.

Some people here hate my site, but it's designed to give an overview of my work & lead them to the samples (.com) or "sell site" (.net) in the smallest number of clicks possible.

And while there's a (almost hidden) option for a slide show, I resent people who only give me that option.

[rianhall]

Thanks for the info PhotosGuy. I am still looking into alternatives to allow users to see samples while also allowing them to purchase prints as easily as possible.

By the way everyone, I think I have fixed the layout issue y'all were seeing. I increased the font size and changed the menus so the gallery should no longer shift to the extreme right.

[cdifoto]

Much better re:alignment.