New Sedura Website

Hi all, we just put up a new website. Curious about feedback on it.

I'm debating heavily about a couple of things:
-Splash screen
-Music starting on load

My biggest requirement for a site this round was that it had a full-screen image that would resize very well up to a larger monitor resolution to show off our work as more of a portfolio. I also finally broke away from the smugmug ties for our front end. It also needed to still be very fast, and extremely easy to maintain.

Our previous site is still up also for comparison.
http://www.seduradesig​ns.com/

Nice site! Very professional looking. Dennis

Personally, when a website starts audio without asking, I leave immediately. There are numerous reasons; browsing on a laptop in a public place, I already have music playing, I might be browsing in front of the TV with others watching, etc. My opinion, and I'm aware that it borders on a pet peeve, so take my feedback with a grain of salt.

I have been waiting at 93% for 4 minutes . I use Firefox as the browser

I definitely like it, though I have a few minor nitpicks:

1) I *hate* music on websites. I would definitely prefer it more without the audio.

2) I found the slideshow aspect a little confusing at first. I didn't notice right away that it was a slideshow, and spent some time looking for forward/back buttons with no luck. I would make the navigation through the pictures at the bottom stand out a little more, and see if there's a way to work in some sort of indication that it's a slideshow.

3) I had some trouble with the navigation at the bottom of the galleries. I would mouse over an image that I wanted to see, and it would move, but then that movement would cause a different image to move under the mouse, and it just sort of cascaded, and I'd end up moving the nav through four or five pictures on accident. I'd definitely fiddle with that a little - either don't have the moused-over image drag the others along with it, or add some easing or something so that the images don't move as much when near the mouse.

Other than those thing, I like it very much! Congrats on the new site!

-1 for Music as well, its just annoying and if you surf at night you have to worry about waking people up. Very VERY annoying.

don't like the music and the bottom NAV does not appear to work very well, other than that it looks very professional

Thanks all. Agreed on the music, I've killed it.

I choose not to maximize my window for any site because honestly, I have never met a site that I wanted to focus on enough to allow it to take over my entire screen. I had to leave when your site told me that if I didn't want to make it bigger, I would not be allowed to see it at all. The music is still there for me, just letting you know. I didn't see the actual site, though.

Another -1 for music.
It also tells me my window isn't big enough. My screen resolution is well withing the parameters and if you expect me to remove menu bars, sliders, etc naturally present in a browser just to view your page, that won't work out in the long run.

Kill the music.

Its very hard to navigate. And not enought to read. I know you are not a novelist. But you still need content for the prospectiv clients. The words will hook them just as much as the images. So why not have both hooks in the water?

I personally don't mind the music. Just keep in mind who your potential clients are. No disrespect to anyone here, but photographers aren't necessarily your customer base. I had this conversation with a very well respected webmaster, graphic artist and one that I personally consider my targeted demo, and she feels that if the music brings something special to your site, there's no harm. I'm probably going to put my music back up soon on my site.

I will say that your site is pretty hard on bandwidth. I'm on a very hi speed connection (T1) and it's slow.

Lastly, granted I'm viewing this on a 15 monitor, but I get this message in the middle of the screen that says my resolution is low. Which is fine, but it sucks because it won't go away...

Great site. It really looks good and you have some impressive images too..

Very true bigbaby. It is very hard to look at your own stuff as if you were someone looking for you. Its easy to think... This will impress everybody. When in fact the customers will miss it all togather. Its best to get opinions from the ones you are targeting.

I dont like music on sites as it assumes EVERYBODY likes it. While you may love the song. Thoes that dont will go away if they cant turn it off. There are too many photographers and you can turn customers away simply because of the music on your site. Sure some will put up with it, but is losing even 1 customer worth it? You will not lose customers because of no music. That said Music on the gallery pages is not to bad. Here is where you really want to set the mood. But try to pick something generic.

I am always reading about people hate music on websites. I have had nothing but compliments on mine specifically on the music. At a wedding the past weekend the bride and groom said they absolutely loved my new site, and just sat there mesmerized listening to the songs and watching the slideshows over and over. You have to find music that hits your target audience and matches your style and shots you display. Most people from here just want to get photo inspiration steal ideas and critique others work. For photo critiques trust people here, for website critiques ask your friends/clients/non-photographers to tell you what they think. I myself love good photos with good music that fits and isn't on the Radio Disney's top 10.

Its one thing to have it in your slide show. Its a whole other to have it play at your website as soon as the page opens.