I am new new new here, and just opened my site, and have customized it a bit, and have a couple things that bug me. I have asked a few people I know to look at the site, but they only see images, not the site itself. I would LOVE any critique on my smugmug site. I just purchased a year, so hopefully it will work. I will be replacing 90% of the images with new versions w/o my personal WM so they can buy it clean, but needed to set up galleries to get the site done.

I have one bug is the "Gallery" page I will post a question here or ask help why it is in a straight line, I want it two or three across before a new row.

Regardless my URL is www.ConciergePhoto.com or of course craig-solomon.smugmug.com (same)

Originally Posted by cls241 I am new new new here, and just opened my site, and have customized it a bit, and have a couple things that bug me. I have asked a few people I know to look at the site, but they only see images, not the site itself. I would LOVE any critique on my smugmug site. I just purchased a year, so hopefully it will work. I will be replacing 90% of the images with new versions w/o my personal WM so they can buy it clean, but needed to set up galleries to get the site done. I have one bug is the "Gallery" page I will post a question here or ask help why it is in a straight line, I want it two or three across before a new row. Regardless my URL is www.ConciergePhoto.com or of course craig-solomon.smugmug.com (same)

Your smugmug site looks good to me. I did see one minor error with your footer, it clips it off on a small window (for a tablet sized screen).

Better yet, I would get rid of the footer, and merge both websites together into one! Your craigsolomon.com website is top notch, I would get your smugmug site to match visually, and add the page links to your craigsolomon.com nav bar.

I changed over to Squarespace 6 for my hosting business since the whole price change deal, but I was still hoping to get some C+C on my site from a number of viewers. I haven't implemented any sales tools yet, but I will be soon. I'd love to hear thought on anything from content, to design, to usability, etc. Especially looking for usability info, such as if it's difficult to figure out how to use something. Anyway, please let me know. Thanks!

Originally Posted by Soppy I changed over to Squarespace 6 for my hosting business since the whole price change deal, but I was still hoping to get some C+C on my site from a number of viewers.

The empty space at the top of your site plus your banner / navbar takes up half of the vertical space on my laptop. The design may work on a monitor but it is extremely annoying on a laptop or small screen. See The purpose (and size) of a banner image.

When I click on a photo to see it larger it enlarges a bit from the large thumbnail image but in my opinion it doesn't enlarge enough. (Again, I am looking on a laptop; my comment may or may not be valid when your site is viewed on a large monitor.)

The captions you show at the top of your gallery have little relationship to the navbar entries. How will a viewer know how they entered the set of photos if they want to return later?

--- Denise

Originally Posted by denisegoldberg The empty space at the top of your site plus your banner / navbar takes up half of the vertical space on my laptop. The design may work on a monitor but it is extremely annoying on a laptop or small screen. See The purpose (and size) of a banner image. When I click on a photo to see it larger it enlarges a bit from the large thumbnail image but in my opinion it doesn't enlarge enough. (Again, I am looking on a laptop; my comment may or may not be valid when your site is viewed on a large monitor.) The captions you show at the top of your gallery have little relationship to the navbar entries. How will a viewer know how they entered the set of photos if they want to return later? --- Denise

In addition to Denise's items, Squarespace 6 seems to allow you a clean & minimalist site. How much customization is allowed?

I just upgraded my subscription level and took a stab at customizing my site. Its definitely a bit more complicated than I hoped. I'm having trouble setting up some of the links and gallery styles I want (like drop down menus). Looks like I'll have to spend some time reading. Here's the 60 minute effort though: http://www.gc5photography.com/

Originally Posted by GC5 I just upgraded my subscription level and took a stab at customizing my site. Its definitely a bit more complicated than I hoped. I'm having trouble setting up some of the links and gallery styles I want (like drop down menus). Looks like I'll have to spend some time reading. Here's the 60 minute effort though: http://www.gc5photography.com/

Your slideshow is rather small & I'd recommend implementing either John Friend's HTML5 slideshow or Fastline Media's Full screen slideshow. Were you aware that all of your images are available to be downloaded???? There is no right-click protection, your smallest size available is XX3 & (in some cases) Original, the download/save feature is available & there is no photographer credit (watermark) of any type!

While your blog is implemented into your current navbar, I was unable to find a way back to your site. Granted, I could just hit the "back" button in my browser, but what if I'd spent 5-10 minutes perusing your blog? Think about your visitors (is your blog more important than your site?).....

Thanks Travis. I hadn't realized they weren't click protected. I think I have corrected that.

Good point on the blog. I obviously just put it together but will have it back-linking shortly.

Is it possible to customize text color on individual pages? I seem to only be making site wide changes, but wanted different color text on some pages, particularly the gallery collection page.

Thanks again.

Originally Posted by GC5 I hadn't realized they weren't click protected. I think I have corrected that.

I just took a look at your site. You have enabled right click protection on some galleries but those galleries still allow access to the Original.

Are you aware that right click protection is merely a stumbling block? It doesn't really protect anything. It is very important that you disable access to the Orignals. See ORIGINALS = a gateway to free photos, & right click protection is NOT PROTECTION.

--- Denise

Thanks - fixed that now too. Any thoughts on design?

Originally Posted by GC5 Thanks - fixed that now too. Any thoughts on design?

Overall your site has a nice clean look, but there are a couple of things that jumped out at me.

First is the hover text for your navbar. I think hover text should change color but still be readable. When I hover over your navbar entries the text turns to white which is pretty much invisible against your background color.

Your "Galleries" navbar opens a category which is shown in the standard title next to thumb format. I think it would look better with the thumb above the title. The code to make that change is # 10 in the ADVANCED Customization FAQ.

Your blog and your smug site don't look like they belong together. Even with a different format I'd prefer to at least see the same logo in both.

Please add your site URL to your signature here so no one has to go searching through old posts to find it. Click the clipboard icon in the navbar above, then Edit Signature. Begin the URL with http:// to make it clickable.

--- Denise

Originally Posted by denisegoldberg The empty space at the top of your site plus your banner / navbar takes up half of the vertical space on my laptop. The design may work on a monitor but it is extremely annoying on a laptop or small screen. See The purpose (and size) of a banner image. When I click on a photo to see it larger it enlarges a bit from the large thumbnail image but in my opinion it doesn't enlarge enough. (Again, I am looking on a laptop; my comment may or may not be valid when your site is viewed on a large monitor.) The captions you show at the top of your gallery have little relationship to the navbar entries. How will a viewer know how they entered the set of photos if they want to return later? --- Denise

Hey Denise, thanks for the reply.

I took what you mentioned into consideration and lessened the padding and logo size slightly, but i didn't want to go any further for fear of ruining the design. Unfortunately, there's nothing I can do about the thumbnail size for now, but I will look into changing it in the future.

As for the captions not being descriptive, this is something that concerns me. Did I fix it by moving the titles to the bottom and adding a title to the page, or is it still somewhat confusing? I really appreciate that input.

Originally Posted by travischance In addition to Denise's items, Squarespace 6 seems to allow you a clean & minimalist site. How much customization is allowed?

Travis,
Squarespace offers the absolute most customization I have ever seen on an online platform. That being said it's a bit of a double edged sword, as it is heavily template based. If you find one you mostly like, then you can likely tweak the things you want fixed. The platform is NOT geared specifically for photographers (thought they do know this is a large part of their userbase), so they have a lot of customization options to allow for truly unique site design with no coding knowledge. The downside is that there isn't any way to alter the code without going to a full on developer account (no extra charge) and creating an entirely new template yourself. If the option to tweak isn't there, you probably can't change it (yet anyway, they seem to be updating very regularly).

In addition, they are a minimalist focused company. Their code is minimal (quicker page loading) and their designs are minimal which I personally love. Adding content to a page is extremely easy, as is setting up layouts that scale beautifully to differing resolutions, and a truly unique mobile site. I had found many of these things to be a massive pain with SmugMug, so working in Squarespace is quite nice to me. I find the integrated blogging CMS and baked in social account linking extremely nice as well. Free contact forms are a nice touch too.

The primary downside for photographers is that there is no fulfillment or ordering infrastructure offered in Squarespace. You need to use Fotomoto to do this, which sometimes works perfectly, other times it doesn't at all. The good news is the support for both Squarespace and Fotomoto is outstanding. Squarespace gives a 1hr estimated turnaround on email tickets, and offer live chat. Fotomoto take slightly longer but they are very helpful. When I was honest with myself, I realized I don't sell many prints online anyway, so this was something I was willing to compromise on.

As a note, they are hosted in NYC and are expecting to lose power to their data centers shortly, so it may be spotty if you follow these links, but try back later. As a testament to their dedication, they are currently carrying gas cans up to the 17th floor of their building to power their generator. I would encourage you to start a trial, I really can't go over everything they offer here, but I am absolutely a convert (the backend design is just as nice as the front). I did write a review a while back on my blog if this essay wasn't enough for you, that is here. If you do sign up, use this to save a bit.

I do realize this is SmugMug's forum, so I apologize if I'm stepping on toes here. I am still a SmugMug customer, I have simply found something I like more now, and SmugMug gave me reason to switch. I hold nothing against them and they have been great while I had them too. I am also not associated at all with Squarespace and don't get any kind of refferal credit for this or anything.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM me, as I don't want to hijack the thread.

here we go, any opinion is welcomed: http://gabrielbostan.smugmug.com/

I have done a total redesign of my site and implemented a new self fulfilment ordering system. Would be grateful for some feedback on usability. Many thanks

Gary
Www.gdmkimages.co.uk

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Originally Posted by GCM21 I have done a total redesign of my site and implemented a new self fulfilment ordering system. Would be grateful for some feedback on usability. Many thanks Gary Www.gdmkimages.co.uk Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

i dont want to be rude, you asked for opinions so here is mine: if you just can redesign or resize the watermark, is just like you are scared that someone will stole your pictures.
You know if someone want it, watermark is not a problem.

Beside that it is well documented with many details about your job.

good luck

Thanks for the feedback, I appreciate your view on the watermark. I have tried 5 or 6 watermarks and I'm not really happy with any of them. Back to the drawing board.

Cheers Gary

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

Originally Posted by oldhit here we go, any opinion is welcomed: http://gabrielbostan.smugmug.com/

You have a nice clean looking site. That's a good start!

The beginning word of your logo is black against a very dark background. When I first looked at your site I thought it was odd that Bostan was not directly above Photography. I had to look several times before I could see Gabriel in your logo. I'd recommend changing the colors used in your logo or changing the background color.

I think your gallerii page would look better with the thumb above the title instead of side-by-side. You can change the placement by adding the code from # 10 in the ADVANCED Customization FAQ.

It looks like you have a pro site and your photos are available for sale - but it looks like they are available at cost. If you allow sales at the smugmug default prices you won't be notified of sales and you won't earn a profit. Either disable printing or set prices for your site. See help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/por...-to-sell-them-.

I'd recommend that you lock your galleries into a viewing style instead of allowing the viewer to choose a style. In my experience viewers typically don't realize they can change; it seems better to select a style for them.

--- Denise

Originally Posted by GCM21 ...for some feedback on usability. Www.gdmkimages.co.uk

I find your site to be very busy; entering the site to see multiple sections of text doesn't entice me to look further.

I didn't find an obvious way to get from your blog back to your site.

On your text pages, mixes fonts and font size doesn't really work for me. The second font is much too small for comfortable reading.

Your images pages have quite a bit of text at the top of the page. On my laptop I can barely see one row of thumbs and I need to scroll to see the main image. I know many folks use large screen monitors, but I also know that people are browsing on smaller devices. Do you know what devices your viewers are using?

On the Images and Products dropdowns there is an entry that extends below the gray background. It appears to be a continuation of the previous entry but without knowing that it looks to a viewer like it's something that can't be clicked.

When I see a watermark across the main part of images I usually leave a site. I understand the need for watermarks (and I use one too), but when it is splashed across the image it detracts from the viewing experience. That said, I don't know your target audience, and I do know that obtrusive watermarks are needed in some circumstances.

--- Denise

Originally Posted by denisegoldberg You have a nice clean looking site. That's a good start! The beginning word of your logo is black against a very dark background. When I first looked at your site I thought it was odd that Bostan was not directly above Photography. I had to look several times before I could see Gabriel in your logo. I'd recommend changing the colors used in your logo or changing the background color. I think your gallerii page would look better with the thumb above the title instead of side-by-side. You can change the placement by adding the code from # 10 in the ADVANCED Customization FAQ. It looks like you have a pro site and your photos are available for sale - but it looks like they are available at cost. If you allow sales at the smugmug default prices you won't be notified of sales and you won't earn a profit. Either disable printing or set prices for your site. See help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/por...-to-sell-them-. I'd recommend that you lock your galleries into a viewing style instead of allowing the viewer to choose a style. In my experience viewers typically don't realize they can change; it seems better to select a style for them. --- Denise

Thank you very much for the constructive feedback.
Im on the way in "retouching" my site.
Again if you observe somethink else feel free no matter what. It took me almost 3-4 weeks to redesign my site and i think i need to finish the last details.

Again thank you,
Gabriel