My observations about websites

[Grandpaw]

I have to wonder when looking around at different websites if the person that set them up really wants visitors to look around and see what they have to offer. Many of the sites, especially photo sites, seem to just stick some stuff on the screen with no regard as to anyone being able to navigate through or read anything they have displayed. Many times I go to a website and they have either used dark lettering with a dark background or light lettering on a light background making it almost impossible to read anything. Another thing I have noticed is that many do not give you a navigation bar or show you how to get from one place to another ending up in frustrating the visitor and they leave without ever seeing but a very small fraction of the website.

I notice this a lot on the personal photography websites that I look at in the signatures on different forums that give you a link to their website to show off their pictures. My suggestion is that if you are going through all the trouble to take the photos and give links for people to see them, take a few minutes more time and try and make it easy to read and to navigate through your site. I can't tell you how many sites that I have gone to only to leave within a minute or two due to not being able to read anything easily or navigate through the site.

Mine may not be the fanciest, or most elaborate site, but I did take the time to make sure it is readable and that you can find your way around without too much difficulty. If you have a site and really want people to look at what you have posted, please try and make it as user friendly as possible, Jeff

[mwfanelli2]

I think the problem is caused by something very simple: nerds and geeks believe they can build a website. It is cheaper to do it yourself than to hire someone with an artistic bent to design it for you.

This also occurs on websites of big companies: I truly hate the Apple user forums: light blue type on a white background. Or the "new" Ars Technica site that is now a jumbled mess. These people should know better.

[Frog]

Well! I'm glad I'm not the only one.
And here I thought it was my age and failing eyesight.

One that bothers me is a dog forum I go to. The only thing that bugs me is that I cannot see the date of posts. I have to really squint or highlight the date.
I'm a frequent user of 'search' if I can find it.

[f86sabjf]

Dont feel bad Frog. I'm 44 and feel the same way but I will agree with Grandpaw about some of these sites unbelievable what they do

[Grandpaw]

My site is through Smugmug and you can easily change the colors of the backgrounds and fonts so that they stand out and are easy to read. Adding a navigation bar is also simple but a lot of people that use Smugmug don't bother and when you start looking at one gallery and want to go to another one you have to figure out how to do it. I also placed a thin yellow frame around my pictures so they would pop a little and you can distinguish the picture from the background. I did everything myself so it took a little time to play with it to get the look I wanted but I did manage to do it by myself and I am not a computer person.

I think it is a lot like people that buy cameras and learn just enough on how to use their camera to get a picture and then stop and go no further. Then they say "Why don't my pictures look like theirs" I have the same camera.

I know that much more can be done on Smugmug sites than I have done on mine but I haven't received any remarks about not being able to find things or read the print on my site. Getting real fancy is a whole other step but some people don't manage to get to the level of just plain useable, Jeff

Note: the only remark I have gotten was from John "Frog" when he said in the beginning that on my navigation bar that HOME and BACK TO THE GALLERIES went to the same place. I did that because some people would think of it as one way and some other people would think of it as the other and I did it both ways so that either one would find what they were looking for. I may not win any prizes with my site but I have not received any complaints about it's useability.

[ksbryan0]

Jeff, I am going to offer a different perspective here. I am glad that there are so many poorly constructed websites, because there are so many total sites for any given topic, the lousy ones are easy to weed out as I search for pertinent information in a format I can understand. So, in a nutshell, it allows the cream to come to the top more quickly!

However, I do agree that there are a lot of awful websites out there!