Critique My Website Rebuild Please!

[CLKunst]

Hello~

I am about 75% of the way through my desperately overdue website rebuild. Please give me some food for thought as I come into the home stretch with this one. I would like to be able to do a PDF style web order form too but I have no idea where to begin with that so if anyone has anything to share in that category as well I'm all ears and eyes.

Here's the site: http://www.clicksphotography.net


Thanks!
Cindy

[Chunk]

I suggest using the clicks.html for the homepage (I don't like hompages that are just a stop) and have all the elements sized smaller and arranged to fit on one screen with no scrolling. I don't think you need to describe the different areas on that page, leave that for the area pages.

Be consistant with your borders.

[readingr]

CJ,

Other than the windows starting up from the main window in new windows, and there seems to be too many clicks to get to the main pictures, once you get to the pictures it looks good to me. Some lovely pictures.

Can I suggest that you reduce the number of levels and add more information at higher levels, that way you'll feel there is less clicking to do to get anywhere.

If your not sure what I'm trying to say, just send me an e-mail, and I'll explain better.

Roger

[Asylum Steve]

CL, there's something wrong with the code on your site. When I clicked on the splash page link to go to the menu page, it took a very long time to completely load, then the page kept freezing up.

Scrolling was delayed about ten seconds each time I tried, then IE totally froze up. I had no choice but to close ALL my open browser windows using the task mgr. I repeated this three times, and the same thing happened each time.

Disconcerning, to say the least... :mad2:

Anyway, I'm not good enough at diagnosing these things to know why this happened, but I did make some observations up to that point:

One, I completely agree that the splash link should not open in a new window. There's a time and place for that (usually a LINK page where you do not want the viewer to leave your site), but the way you use it is neither.

As for your splash page, on my browser (1024x768), there is a slight horizontal scroll. No big deal, but it shows that whomever designed the page made it a bit too large for that screen resolution. A picky annoyance...

The GIANT text at the bottom of the page is really something you'd expect to find on a myspace-type page or an amateur site. Not very professional...

The word "photography" in your logo is very hard to read. It is slightly degraded. If that image file is a GIF, you should consider making it a jpeg. Better detail in small type. Even so, you should consider making "photography" larger so it reads better.

That's about it. The glitch with the browser freeze is so bad, I would not go back to this site. I mean, what's the point?

[CLKunst]

Thank you Chunk, Roger and Steve for the responses. This is exactly what I needed.

I originally started using the splash page as a filter for my counter but it really doesn't do anything but add an extra hit to the process so I will probably yank it. I will also make the frame widths equal so everything looks the same thanks for the solid design advice there Chunk. As I've said, I've fiddled with every piece of this so much I was having a hard time seeing it as a whole.

Roger - I understand what you are saying about getting to the meat and potatoes more directly. I'll apply your comments when I start re-doing the redo on Monday.

Steve - :yikes: :cryin: "That's about it. The glitch with the browser freeze is so bad, I would not go back to this site. I mean, what's the point?" That is exactly why I needed this test drive from a variety of sources. I can only guess that the browser freeze you experienced is coming from a very small web size quick time movie I have toward the bottom of the menu page to promote my video collages. I guess I'll have to nix that altogether to make sure no one else has that kind of a problem. As far as the print type goes it looks smaller in my editor but huge on the screen so I already had that at the top of my list to resize everything to fit in the page without scrolling. Thanks for confirming that for me ~ I'll also look into bringing the PHOTOGRAPHY out more solidly.

[Asylum Steve]

I can only guess that the browser freeze you experienced is coming from a very small web size quick time movie I have toward the bottom of the menu page to promote my video collages...

That's it. And unfortunately, it is my problem. Any Quicktime files completely mess up my browser and my video card. To make a long story short, it all came about when I got an iPod, as Quicktime is now packaged with iTunes.

I made the mistake of upgrading to the latest version of both, and voila...:cryin:

Well, we can't expect you to (or anyone for that matter) to NOT have any video on their site because MY system is screwed up, now can we? Of course, you can always link to the vid, so viewers have the choice of viewing it or not.

This is good, as it reminds me I have to fix that QT thingy. Maybe I'll do it this week...

[CLKunst]

Well, we can't expect you to (or anyone for that matter) to NOT have any video on their site because MY system is screwed up, now can we? Of course, you can always link to the vid, so viewers have the choice of viewing it or not.

:cornut: I am resuming breathing now. But I think I will follow your suggestion and leave the video clip to it's designated page where there is more of a clear warning about the presence of a QT movie and the need for patience while loading. I was just trying to squeeze in a little extra demonstrative "Flash" onto that front page. Sometimes enough is too much eh?

[swmdrayfan]

Cindy...looks good to me--even if I had a problem earlier.
John

[CLKunst]

Was your problem on the menu page as well? I've cleared the splash page now and I do like the way it launches directly into the site but the menu page is now the first to come up so anyone having trouble with the Quick Time Movie will now be instantly frustrated if the page won't open. Thanks for giving it a look over John, I always appreciate hearing what you have to say.

[readingr]

I might have figured out why your site hangs on some systems.

Most of the machines at home are set up for tight security so they don't allow ActiveX by default. Guess what your site hangs on these machines.

I try not to use ActiveX as a lot of systems prevent them by default because of the security issues with ActiveX.

I still don't like the front page taking me into another index page. I would prefer a navigation section which remains on the screen with the main body changing. That way it makes it much simpler to find what you want.

The text seems to have gotten bigger to taking up far to much space. This could have been there before but it seems worse on this machine. Sorry I have 2 laptops and 2 desktop machines that I use.

Hope that helps

Roger

[CLKunst]

I might have figured out why your site hangs on some systems.
Most of the machines at home are set up for tight security so they don't allow ActiveX by default. Guess what your site hangs on these machines.
I try not to use ActiveX as a lot of systems prevent them by default because of the security issues with ActiveX.

It's a what now?
I am such a Luddite when it comes to this kind of thing. I do all my website building with Freeway Pro which has no code, the program sets that up for me and builds all the HTML. I just drag and drop stuff into place and hope it will work for everyone else as easily as it works for me. That's why the SOS for site critique.

I did yank the splash page so now you are taken directly to the menu page. I don't think I have a clue about how to set it up so that the content changes but the background stays the same. But since I deal with such a wide variety of clients I felt it best to keep everything separate. A different door for every facet of the business.

I'd love to know which switch to flip so that the font sizes stay accurate throughout. What I understand is that they may be adjusting based on the relative display resolution of the monitor you view it on. Can it do that or maybe it should and it isn't? See how confused I am.

Short answer is leave the QT movie to the Collage page where there is at least a warning that a Quick Time movie is loading and yank the little loop on the menu page so that it doesn't do it's Active X thing. Right?

[readingr]

It's a what now?
I am such a Luddite when it comes to this kind of thing. I do all my website building with Freeway Pro which has no code, the program sets that up for me and builds all the HTML. I just drag and drop stuff into place and hope it will work for everyone else as easily as it works for me. That's why the SOS for site critique.

I did yank the splash page so now you are taken directly to the menu page. I don't think I have a clue about how to set it up so that the content changes but the background stays the same. But since I deal with such a wide variety of clients I felt it best to keep everything separate. A different door for every facet of the business.

I'd love to know which switch to flip so that the font sizes stay accurate throughout. What I understand is that they may be adjusting based on the relative display resolution of the monitor you view it on. Can it do that or maybe it should and it isn't? See how confused I am.

Short answer is leave the QT movie to the Collage page where there is at least a warning that a Quick Time movie is loading and yank the little loop on the menu page so that it doesn't do it's Active X thing. Right?

Cindy,

I don't know that software, I use JAlbum which is free and I modified their standard templates to do what I want.

If you look at mine and want to see the code on how tao achieve this, I'd be happy to send it to you as an example of what can be done.

I can send the source for my site or the JAlbum templates I created.

Roger

[readingr]

I forgot to mention that you need some way back from the other pages to the main page other than just the Back button, e.g. go directly to home do not pass go...

Roger

[CLKunst]

I forgot to mention that you need some way back from the other pages to the main page other than just the Back button, e.g. go directly to home do not pass go...

Roger

I noticed that yesterday too and built in two returns to every page, one on the CLicKs logo, the second at the bottom of the page as a button among the other information menu buttons. The only place I can't put them is in the simple viewer galleries but using the back button on your browser there takes you immediately back to the page you entered the gallery from instead of through each picture you just viewed so I felt that was efficient enough.

[pympster]

Looks very good! Very tidy aswell!