Web Site Critique Needed

[ChrisAdval]

I did request a critique on my other site which is now for just commercial audiences. Here's one for my non-commercial market.

Chris Adval Photography

overall critique please, note its a template and then manipulated in CSS/Dreamweaver.

Some notes on the template I cannot change right now is limit amount of photos shown on slide show and number of tabs (buttons/links).

[sarahashleyphotos]

The landing page and the rest of the website do not match. I prefer the simple black and white of the rest of the website. Id get rid of the border on the images on the landing page. Also every link on the landing page seems to go to your seniors part of the site instead of engagements going to engagements and parties going to parties.

[ChrisAdval]

The landing page and the rest of the website do not match. I prefer the simple black and white of the rest of the website. Id get rid of the border on the images on the landing page. Also every link on the landing page seems to go to your seniors part of the site instead of engagements going to engagements and parties going to parties.

I don't understand, when you click the link on the landing page it seems to take you to the seniors part of the site? It's only one page, how is that possible? or do you mean it only shows senior type of photography (fashion) on the photos?

The borders only display for internet explorer, but I'll see if I can remove it with code.

Thanks

UPDATE: Took off the borders for IE viewers can't view them and updated images to show engagement/couple shots and party shots (in prices tab)

[Twinpanther]

Using Chrome on a PC for my point of view.

I think I get what Sarah is talking about. The blue brickish landing page doesn't match the images page. Kinda like you're being redirected to another site.

Also, when you click on "Seniors" or "Private Parties" or "Engagements" I think most folks are expecting to go to a page with example images of that specific kind of photography. It looks like no matter which you click on it takes you to the same page. If they all take you to the same page why have them separated?

One last thing. Once on that new page there is no easy way to get back to your "Home" page for commercial or whatever.

The images are beautiful though. Hope you get it just the way you want.

[ChrisAdval]

changed the blue landing page to match my business card designs. I wish I could add more photos or tabs but I guess this template was meant to be simple which is good since non-commercial prefers more simple than complex or over information. I've updated the images on the slider and added images to the price tab, and revamped the open page... let me know on you new critiques.

Not sure what you mean keep them separated, I put it there as what types of photography I offer... Wish I could lead the viewer to a specific page but the template is just one page using tab scripts.

[CarissaLyn]

Because all 3 of the service types are links, they seem like they should take you to 3 distinct galleries. I was confused about the same thing. If they don't, I'd make them just text and not links, and have one "click here" or whatever, to enter the site. As someone else mentioned, there's also no link back to the landing page, which might be ok if people would have no reason to navigate between the 2 sites, but ti still just makes it feel a little off because usually there's a link back.

The biggest thing for me is that the gallery with the full screen photos has text from the nav bar and the thumbnails at the bottom covering huge chunks of photos, even over the models' faces and eyes. I did find the button in the top to make them smaller (again, not intuitive) but even then they were still blocked a lot.

Lastly, the landing page loaded very slowly for me on Chrome the first time I opened it. What size is your background image? Should be as small as you can get away with, your main page needs to load nice and fast.

Oh, one more I guess. The FB links at the bottom of the main page, all on top of each other, are kind of awkward. They also make the page too tll for my screen so there's a scrollbar. I do some web design, and scrollbars make me cringe, plus it means people might not even see the links. Can you put them next to each other horizontally?

[ChrisAdval]

Because all 3 of the service types are links, they seem like they should take you to 3 distinct galleries. I was confused about the same thing. If they don't, I'd make them just text and not links, and have one "click here" or whatever, to enter the site. As someone else mentioned, there's also no link back to the landing page, which might be ok if people would have no reason to navigate between the 2 sites, but ti still just makes it feel a little off because usually there's a link back.

The biggest thing for me is that the gallery with the full screen photos has text from the nav bar and the thumbnails at the bottom covering huge chunks of photos, even over the models' faces and eyes. I did find the button in the top to make them smaller (again, not intuitive) but even then they were still blocked a lot.

Lastly, the landing page loaded very slowly for me on Chrome the first time I opened it. What size is your background image? Should be as small as you can get away with, your main page needs to load nice and fast.

Oh, one more I guess. The FB links at the bottom of the main page, all on top of each other, are kind of awkward. They also make the page too tll for my screen so there's a scrollbar. I do some web design, and scrollbars make me cringe, plus it means people might not even see the links. Can you put them next to each other horizontally?

the banner is a bit smaller now and no background image any longer, is it still too tall?

[CarissaLyn]

Yeah still too tall- I suspect there's some padding at the top as there's a good amount of blank space up there even with a smaller banner. It's hard to get it to look perfect on everyone's machine (especially if you aren't controlling the code and css) but my height is 768 which is fairly common.

[Biomech]

I saw scrap the splash page, it serves no purpose and was a bit of a fad during the late 90's :P

I like the shots you do have though

Can you make the main navigation so that the blocks are shorter and solid black with no gradient?

In fact, can you make the main nav just a single tab so that people have to click it to make it pop out? (like the feedback tab on here: http://www.jamieorourke.co.uk/)


Making me want to change mine again now.. :P

[veritasimagery]

The top banner on the landing page is rather confusing. The three "tabs" for Seniors, Private Parties, and Engagements look more like they are three separate links rather than simply saying what you offer. I get what you are trying to do by making them look "cool" with the fonts, but it is really confusing for the person browsing. Things like that shouldn't have to be explained for the general user to understand. Maybe it would be better to just simply say that you offer these services in the "About Me" section, or in a separate "Services" section.