Website feedback wanted

Raphy

Hi guys. I just finished my new website and was wondering if you could go and check it out and give me some feedback. There are some things i will eventually improve, but i'm not a web designer so it might take me a while to figure it all out...

Your feedback would be greatly appreciated!!

www.raphnogal.com

Thanks !

tradley

Takes Waaaaaay toooooo looooong to load

Raphy

tradley wrote:

Takes Waaaaaay toooooo looooong to load

WHAT? check your internet connection...

dogwood

tradley wrote:

Takes Waaaaaay toooooo looooong to load

I agree. That opening graphic does take quite a while to load.

Also, there's no navigation back to "home" once you're in a gallery. Yeah, easy enough to hit the back button, but most sites have a "home" button on every page just in case.

Overall, a nice site, just a little slow. I've yet to find a free flash site (ie simple viewer) that loads as fast as flash designed by a professional for a fee.

Raphy

dogwood wrote:

I agree. That opening graphic does take quite a while to load.

Also, there's no navigation back to "home" once you're in a gallery. Yeah, easy enough to hit the back button, but most sites have a "home" button on every page just in case.

Overall, a nice site, just a little slow. I've yet to find a free flash site (ie simple viewer) that loads as fast as flash designed by a professional for a fee.

hummm... i need to try this from a different computer. i guess becasue i loaded it so many times, it's cashed in my browser.

as for the back button, that is one thing i need to work on ... i'm just not sure how to get it back to the portfolio section as it is all flahs at that point...we'll see where i get.

and ya... i'm limited right now in terms of what i can do with a free template..

thanks for the feedback so far guys..

DavidTO

Yes. Slow.

Very nice, love your logo!

Hate music on a website. I find it intrusive. SFX are fine.

Hikin' Mike

Yep...Your intro is WAY too slow. If I were a customer, I would have clicked away. I would have clicked away when I saw music....I HATE music on a website. Other than that I like it.

Raphy

Thanks guys... i really need to speed this thing up... i guess ti's loading the entire flash site and not just the 1st page...

...and so i see that music is a no-no.... but what about the conveniently available on/off button ?

Thanks for all the feedback so far !!! keep them coming !!!

DavidTO

Raphy wrote:

Thanks guys... i really need to speed this thing up... i guess ti's loading the entire flash site and not just the 1st page...

...and so i see that music is a no-no.... but what about the conveniently available on/off button ?

Thanks for all the feedback so far !!! keep them coming !!!

My take on music is that those that don't mind it...don't mind it. But those that dislike it, hate it. No one on this earth thinks "Thank goodness this site has music! Finally! My prayers have been answered!" I would just lose it.

BradfordBenn

Non Flash Version
I like the color scheme and font selections, navigation makes sense. You might want to consider putting the nav buttons at the top of the page in case someone is running low resolution - not sure if you have scaling on the Flash.

You may want to consider having a front page that allows one to select a non-flash version. I realize that this means double the site, but it would be a shame if someone doesn't have Flash and then can't install it they can't see your site.

I also agree that the music doesn't really add any value.

In terms of the loading I agree with the problem, perhaps you want to do a preload movie in Flash.

Overall though I like the look, nice and professional.

OhEddie

I'm a CAD guy, so I use a laptop with 1900X1200 resolution. Granted most people don't use that high of a resolution, but for us that do, your font size is so small that I could not read anything. There are other sites with small font sizes, but I can still read them. Yours is the first that I have seen that I could not make out what the words were.

The good news... Your photography is better than most

And yes, I was ready to throw in the towel waiting for the opening page to load.

denisegoldberg

As others have already said, your site takes way too long to load. If you hadn't asked for feedback - I would have left the site before it loaded.

I find brown text on a black background difficult, if not impossible, to read. And the font size you have chosen is much too small. Dark on dark, plus tiny non-sizeable text. Both should be changed.

When your portfolio opens, it bears the title Photo categories, not portfolio. This could be confusing. The Photo categories heading is fuzzy, as is your logo.

When I clicked on the photo categories, a new browser tab opened for each category. You are not adding to the user experience by creating clutter.

--- Denise

wildviper

Like others have mentioned, well, I am sure you can guess what I am going to say. slow.

Also, the fonts are small and I agree with Denise, brown on black and small text. Didn't work for me.

Also, when I clicked on the Portfolio, I see the categories, but a nice rollover type effect would be cool. This way I know where I am going to press. Sometimes my cursor is in between two and not sure which one it will click.

Lastly, when I clicked on the category, it opened in a new window. Can't you have it pop up in the same window? Some pops up blockers may pop it out!

Raphy

Thanks for the continuing feedback! I know it's slow... right now i gotta live with it... thanks for pointing out the text and the photo categories/portfolio thing. I'll look into that!

As for the new browser, well...i just did it..... at first the portfolio category would open in the same browser and you had to use the browser back button (or i could have had a back button) but it took you back to the intro as opposed to the "portfolio" section... so at least this way if it open in a new browser, u can just close it and u'll be back at the portfolio categories as opposed to the beginning of the site....

until i can figure out how to link back into the middle of the flash movie, i'll have to leave it.

thanks so much for the feedback, i'm getting some great ideas and this will make me improve things along the way.

This is my 1st time doing anything web related, so this is a big challenge for me...

Thanks again everyone I really appreciate it!

dogwood

DavidTO wrote:

No one on this earth thinks "Thank goodness this site has music! Finally! My prayers have been answered!"

Well I actually did think this when I came across pandora

... though admittedly pandora is a streaming music website so that's sort of it's purpose.

DavidTO

dogwood wrote:

Well I actually did think this when I came across pandora

... though admittedly pandora is a streaming music website so that's sort of it's purpose.

Granted.

firstarsbrnwhite

the condensed type mixed with standard type in the logo throws me off alittle. The layout is pretty clean and the photos look nice on black.

patrick.danger

Raph -

If you really have no experience building websites then I'd say everything's coming up Nogal, this is a pretty great effort off-the-line. Having said that, I'm just gonna jump right in:

- Loading graphic: it's really not a big deal if your website takes a while to load all the assets it needs, especially if you're using flash, as long as you leverage some kind of instant feedback on the process like a loading sequence. There are ... a billion, literally, of these out there and last time I looked at flash it had a lot of templates. Just throw the logo up right away, right when the page loads, and put a loading bar underneath it. Something that simple can make all the difference.

- Typesetting: Almost everywhere you have a run of type longer than 8 words, 72 characters, or two lines you have to put a little thought into the setting. I think you could stand to bump up the line-height on your copy blocks (@home, @about me). There are some fairly specific rules for putting that on a professional grid, but if you don't want to spend a few hours reading up just use 18pt. line height to 14pt. text, or 15pt. line height to 12 pt. text. Or play with it and see what feels right. Either way, the difference can be subtle and powerful and this is one of those details that people tend to judge subconsciously.

- (nitpicking) From an interaction design standpoint, I have never liked gallery implementations that open other windows, but a lot of templates do it so it I assume it's much easier to go this direction. Inline galleries (ie: when you click, the content space on the current page is used to display photos rather than opening a new page) are much more convenient, consolidated and predictable. If the user explicitly *asks* for a big version of the photo, say, by clicking on it in the gallery index, then throwing up a new window with a large format version of the picture is a consistent, predictable UX.

- (nitpicking, advice) Use a contact *form* rather than a straight link to an email address. This drastically increases the amount of communication you get from end users, one of those mysteries. It also decreases the signal-to-noise ratio, but for many applications this is an acceptable trade-off. This is a great way to harvest contact info from potential customers, as well, though when asking for someone's email address it's considered good form to notify them what you will use it for.

Again, great job, great photos. You're already ahead of the portfolio site curve, and the on/off switch for the music is well done.

Raphy

Thanks again for the feedback. You guys have really helped me here - thank you.

Just a quick reply to a few comments:

- I tried having the individual portfolio categories open in the flash document, but it was so small that i wouldn't even be able to use 10 thumbnails, so i scrapped that for now until i can figure out how to make a BIGGER flash interface...

- I also tried having the individual portfolio categories open in an html page (in the SAME window), but when you clicked BACK, it took you to the start of the flash animation and not back to the portfolio categories ... If I could figure out how to make the BACK BUTTON in the html page take me back to a certain part of the flash (the portfolio categories section) - thn it would be all good.

- I will get a form going (i had one before i modifed teh template) but i had no idea how to set it all up...like where would the information the used enters go ? to my email ? i have no clue how to do this, so for now just an email addy will have to do until i can figure it out

- I'll try to throw in the loading bar as recommended

Thank you again for the comments and suggestions !

Cygnus Studios

I am not so sure that I like the portfolios opening in a new window each time. That is a personal preference. The golden brown text is hard to read, and very small.
You should also update the date in your copyright (home page).
The site is pretty easy to get around and well laid out. An option to enlarge the pics a little would be nice.
You may consider making it easier for people visiting to know that your pics are for sale. Keeping the info in the contact page may make sense to some people, but we all know that most visitors have very short attention spans.
When loading the site for the first time, the flash page takes way too long. I have cable internet and I was ready to move on. The rest of the site moves along nicely.