Twilightscapes.com - redesign

I've spent a good bit of time recently, overhauling my website. I changed the appearance as well as a complete re-write of the core code behind it (it's powered by WordPress).

Anyways, I've done a lot of testing but you know how that goes! So, I'd love it if you can check out the site, browse around, search for something, etc.... oh and please leave a comment on a photo or two, I'd appreciate it very very much.

If you spot anything out of whack or not working correctly, please let me know.

A few goals and considerations:

• No flash
  
• Site must validate
  
• Site must function without javascript
  
• Site must function in IE6 and greater
  
• Site must work on iPhone and iPads
  
• Site must be CMS driven
  

• Add search functionality
  
• Add commenting functionality
  
• Add exif info functionality
  
• Improve navigation - easier to navigate from page to page, section to section.
  

I find going from photo to photo a bit nauseating (like motion sickness) because the whole page moves instead of just the photo. Wait... wasn't the old site like that too? lol

Otherwise I like the site so far.

Thanks Will... Yeah, the old site was the same concept. Except, I've made the "supernav" bar at the top, which makes it possible to navigate to any image in the gallery. I figured some people may use that and for others they may use the side to side. I like that there's flexibility in how you get around.

I was thinking about having an option to disable effects, but then once I completed the supernav bar, I figured that pretty much handles it without having to set a cookie. I am already setting a cookie though, in order to remember how you like the photo info panel that slides down. If you open it and then navigate to another page, that page will then open with the panel slid down and open. If you close it, it should then remain closed for subsequent pages. This is also good for when you comment on things, as the page refreshes to send the comment, but then the panel is open back up and takes you to your comment. It's a little touch, but I think it's a nice one.

I think you need your logo, at least, on the home page. I would also create a favicon. I'm not sure if I like your new 'SuperNav'. I don't hate it, but I guess I need to get used to it. I have the same issues from your old site. There's still a lot of missing "content" that I can't see using my 1024 x 768 monitor. The small icons below your photos need a "title" tag IMO. You may have the "alt" tag, but I don't see them since I use Firefox. I tried to leave a comment on one of the pictures, but I coudn't.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Mike... yeah, I've tested everything and it fits except for portrait orientation where the very very bottom of images are cut off. I've decided I don't really cary about that too much. The design maximizes the space for photos as much as possible and this was one area where I just don't think it will affect that many people.

I haven't gotten any other remarks about this issue from anyone else, so for now, I'm just going to chalk it up to a one-off and see what happens with everyone else.

If anyone else has issues with content not showing, please let me know!

As for the comment form... hmm. weird. What happened? Did you see the slide down panel and the comments form? When you submitted the form, what happened? When the page refreshes, it should then drop open the panel again, and show your comment - which might be in moderation (but it should tell you that too.)

Operator error...LOL!! I saw the "LEAVE A REPLY" and didn't see the scroll bar and thought it was clickable.

Aha! I was worried about users not seeing stuff down there... I may need to do something about that somehow.

I agree with the title tags and the favicon which is on the list of to-dos.

Thanks again Mike.

great pictures!

where was the "train kept a rollin'" picture taken at? as well as the "old cemetery" picture from the older site.

stayhumble wrote in post #11745920
great pictures!

where was the "train kept a rollin'" picture taken at? as well as the "old cemetery" picture from the older site.

Thank you!

The train shot was the trestle across the Bay of St. Louis in coastal Mississippi.

The cemetery shot was from a very old cemetery near downtown Biloxi, MS.

By the way, there is GPS links on the photo info page, that will show you exactly where each image was taken.

Thanks again for stopping by, I appreciate it.

Not sure if it was designed this way, but every time i move the mouse over any of the nav buttons at the top of the screen (about button, contact button, etc), a box pulls down showing the gallery images.

I'm using the latest chrome browser on mac osx. Nice looking site though, very clean layout.

Yes, that's by design. It's sort of like a mega dropdown. Allowing you to see all of the images in the gallery, click one and go.

Thanks!

- Overall clean and nice design

- Not a fan of the flying pictures navigating the gallery

- Gallery view looks tizzy and distracting imo

- Not sure why the galleries are split up, do they each have different themes? As someone who hasn't seen your work before, I dont' know where to start.

- There's no way of quickly looking through the gallery, and I don't know how many images are in each - so don't know how long I'm going to have to sit there clicking through

Thank you tomtom1, I appreciate the feedback.. Good stuff, too.

I split the galleries, simply to make things manageable. There are 20 photos per gallery. There's not really any particular place to start. My goal was to get you into the galleries as soon as possible, so the mega drop down has 20 of my favorite images in it, for non-gallery pages.. and then if you're in any particular gallery, the mega drop down shows the image for that particular gallery.

I do like the idea of showing something like "Showing image 4 of 20" next to the sideways navigation. I'll have to think of a way to do that codewise.

Anyways, good input... thanks!

great

Your home page is the only thing that threw me. It looks a bit like a temporary page you put up to tell us POTN folks about the changes, blended with a blog. But then nothing else on your site looks like a blog. I'm sooo confused In any event, I think you could take some of your "twilight" text from your about page, put up your logo (and personally I'd remove the large one from every page of your gallery), and make a real home page.

Photos are very nice, and the gallery setup didn't make me dizzy.

I like that little electric outlet, and tried to click on it thinking it was an Easter egg.

Dave