New website critique

Hey folks, I wanted to get some feedback from some of you on what you think about the overall front portal of my website. I still have to upload the rest of the pages but I'm having a wonderfully hard time with finding what I like. There are things I like and things I don't so feel free to let loose.

Reason for rebuilding the website, apparently my old host closed shop and i can't find anyone from there to retrieve my site. So, off to smugmug I went.

Let me know what you think I need or don't need. This is a critique of the opening page. I still have to upload the galleries and other pages.\

Please don't be afraid to rip it apart if need be.

Thanks in advance

Mark

Website is http://www.mdrfoto.com

It's okay to me, not amazing but okay. Overall leaning into the 'boring' category (for my taste).

The menu font on the left is a little boring compared to the nice cursive font that appears in the slide show. I would try to 'dress up' the menu font on the left, not too much though, just a touch so it matches the slide show font.

There is also a lot of black, uneven space during the slide show. Make sure the slide show pictures are evenly set against the black background. I would probably even change the black BG to something a little lighter..maybe even a really opaque image that blends in well with the rest of the slide show images.

Other than that, it's alight. It doesn't have a million flashing images and options, it's simple and seems easy to navigate which is important.

A few simple tweeks here an there and you'll have a really nice front page imo. Definitely on the right track.

Last thing - have your first and last name somewhere on the front page, just discreetly down the bottom somewhere so people associate your name with your work.

mdrtoys wrote in post #16722554
Reason for rebuilding the website, apparently my old host closed shop and i can't find anyone from there to retrieve my site.

Well, how kind of them to let you know. I like to take periodic backups from my web server for this reason.

Here's what I have for now:
1. Add more images - looks like one sample per category
2. Too many categories - I'd limit it to people photos
All depends on how you want to market yourself. Don't dilute the main page.
3. Text font is hard to read. Too stylish and small.
4. I'd remove the text from the slideshow and put some text below the image slider about your photography services.

my first thought is get rid of the fade transition, it's really annoying and looks fairly dated.

Also, the small cursive mouse-over text is REALLY hard to read.

1. The mouse over colour for the menu text is too close to the background colour, making it almost invisible.
2. The portfolio is broken. It loads a page with one image.

steelbluesleepr wrote in post #16722758
my first thought is get rid of the fade transition, it's really annoying and looks fairly dated.

Also, the small cursive mouse-over text is REALLY hard to read.

A cross fade transition is the simplest kind outside of a cut. Are fades really out and cuts preferred? Curious.

DavidAndrew wrote in post #16723054
A cross fade transition is the simplest kind outside of a cut. Are fades really out and cuts preferred? Curious.

Going to ask that too. I think the fade could be faster. That might improve the appearance.

Updated now, thanks for all the critiques

The design looks much better, but the "real estate," "family and children," "wedding," "blog," and "contact" buttons at the top now don't do anything; only the "about me," "pricing," and "home" work.

I also can't scroll through the pictures at will.

mdrtoys wrote in post #16722554
Reason for rebuilding the website, apparently my old host closed shop and i can't find anyone from there to retrieve my site. So, off to smugmug I went.

Hopefully you learned to back things up now.

Since it's in the preliminary stages, there's not much I can comment on but one thing that caught my eye was the name. I'm assuming your "company name" is MDR Foto, but it reads Photography of Mark Rigsby (MR). It seems a little weird to me. Maybe add your middle name? I don't know. Just something that stuck out.

If you're going to use a slideshow, I would show only 'landscape' format photos. It just doesn't look good to have different formats. Mainly because your logo seems to be larger than your portrait-format photos.

On your 'About Me' page, is there a photos? Looks like it should, but I don't see it.

Looking at you "logo", the kerning on your last name, especially the 'SBY' is a bit tight.

If your trying to use your website to drive clients via you search engines, you need to read my SEO link in my sig.

If viewing on mobile (iPad in my case), your logo on your homepage is too big and wont scale. It was fine on other pages though, just not the home page. It cut off half of photography and your last name.

Thanks Mike, I haven't even begun to do the SEO yet. I'm pretty adept at it since I was able to get my last website at number 2 on the first page. But, I will definitely read your post since I'm always looking for ways to push it higher.

Andrew,

Thanks, I'll look into that. It's supposed to scale on every page

Ok, I've completely revamped it to kind of spiff it up. Let me know