My new photoblog design

[DCramer]

After a few hard days of work, I have finally got my photoblog redesigned and focused on presenting my pictures. http://digilab.co.za

so tell me what you think. comments would be appreciated.

[alex3410]

i really like it, the roll over to see the text means there is more room for the images and looks very good, however some of them only have the title under the image so was a little confusing until i figured it out by moving over another image. Also the only problem with having the information under the image is you can have both on screen at the same time but i guess its not that important.

I do really like it and it works well with your images (which are also very good as well )

[Sime]

Originally Posted by DCramer

After a few hard days of work, I have finally got my photoblog redesigned and focused on presenting my pictures. http://bit.ly/13MwAD

so tell me what you think. comments would be appreciated.

Dave, Just a point - I love bt.ly but sometimes people are a little hesitant to click a link that looks odd / is not what they're used to.

Peeps - David's link can be found here and is legitimate and quite cool.

Only thought - I wish I could click anywhere on the image rather than have to go up to the name and click it. Confuzzled me for a sec

Nice website

Sime

[Free]

Hi Mate,

It looks great, nice and simple which I love in a design.

A few useability issues though...
Firstly, as Alex mentioned, that some photos don't have a description can make things confusing at first.

Secondly, for half a second when you hover over an image it looks to be clickable, then (I'm guessing) the ********** kicks in and overrides this to display the description. Then once the description appears (or empty grey box if there is no description) the only clickable area is a very small red title that also doubles as a link with nothing at all to show it's a link.

Personally, I think this is a big problem. People expect to be able to click on a thumbnail to see a bigger image, when a description appears instead, with only the smallest link to lead to the bigger image I think, most people will miss it. I still tried to click the grey square and the description text before I tried the title. Perhaps you could make the entire square or at least the description text clickable too?

I guess it all comes down to the purpose of the website. Is it to share pics with family and friends? Or for potential clients? If it's the first, then you've got a winner, you can tell your mates that can't figure it out how it works. If it's for business you can;t expect people to bother trying to learn it

Cheers
Free

[OsmosisStudios]

I quite like it, which is rare.

I do agree with Free, though: your system needs a bit of work. One option is that instead of having the thumbnails rollover to a textbox, have them rollover to an image of text and make that image linked to the larger file. This solves the problem, if making the site a bit heavier (white/black are fairly small images)

Great photoblog: an interesting way to present it.

[jagoble25]

I liked it and enjoyed your pics. I wasn't going to check it out beacuse the link looked funny, but then I saw simes post.

[dakwegmo]

Let me also say that the system is a little confusing. I fully expected to be able to click on the image and see a full size image, or the x comments and read the comments. Instead I get a description of the image and a greatly reduced target area for clicking. Most people aren't going to take the time to figure it out, they'll just get frustrated and leave.

Once I did figure out the links, I was looking for an obvious way to return to the main image list, but didn't immediately see it. The categories you have aren't the most intuitive. I did just hit back on my browser, but that's not the best user experience.

Also, when browsing a photography site, I don't always want to go back to looking at all your thumbnails. I'd rather just click through images. Some method of navigating to the next/previous image in each gallery would be nice.

Overall, the looks is great, and you've got some outstanding photos on your site. With some tweaking I think it could be even better.

[DCramer]

@Sime - thanks - Just got so used to bit.ly didnt even think about it. I changed the link in the post.

The site is aimed at sharing my shots with friends and family, not aimed at business.

I have changed the clicking mechanisim so now the whole block with title and description is clickable. Thanks to everyone for picking this up.

I'll go add a next image navigation in full view for ease of viewing.

Thanks again every one - you have been a great help and motivation !

[Gulpa]

The site looks OK, now that you have tweaked it.

I've only got two remarks:

1) there is a red vertical line next to some images (Joshua & Bernie). I don't know what's the significance... tried to figure it out, but have no idea

2) It would be good if you have a "Back" button or "Home"... i looked around a bit until I figured out that I need to click on the top banner.


Otherwise, it's really cool. I think the post\image size is just right and the design is simple but effective.

[DCramer]

@Gulpa - The red line is a month seperation, subtle i know but i like it Will take a think on a home link.
thanks for the input!

I have added comments to all remaining photos. .. I really hate writing them lol.