Thanks Denise
I didn't realise i could get rid of the smug mug header/footer :-)
Ill drop the photo into the galleries background to see if it works
and i have tried to put a logo into the header but it didn't work great, i will give that another go as you are 100% right, once you go into the galleries there is no name present etc.
great points, ill try these later after the day job.
Al
Hi nologophoto!
I think you have beautiful shots! If I'm not mistaken, your HOME and your BROWSE show the same exact thing. Perhaps have the HOME focus on less things and then they can BROWSE through your galleries?
I have been trying to simplify my site a little bit and now I am thinking my portfolio galleries (especially wedding gallery) have too many pictures. What is everyones opinion on this? Is it OK and shows we have done many weddings, or is it just overwhelming and should cut it down? Any other comments about the site would be great too.
Wow you have done so many weddings and bookings and I saw that through browsing your site. I do like how you decided to create a "portfolio" tab to showcase "hey this is what I can do" instead of having them go through each and every "client" gallery.
The first thing that jumped out at me is that the fake wood background you have chosen to use gives your site a very dated look.
The blog links on your menu appear to take the viewer to photo galleries. You might consider changing the menu entry to "galleries" or something that gives the viewer the idea that the menu entry will open your photo galleries.
In addition, the muted finish to the entries on the page opened by "blog" does not draw my eye to your galleries. That may only be personal preference though - when I see the haze over the photos I usually don't open anything.
The first thing that jumped out at me is that the fake wood background you have chosen to use gives your site a very dated look.
The blog links on your menu appear to take the viewer to photo galleries. You might consider changing the menu entry to "galleries" or something that gives the viewer the idea that the menu entry will open your photo galleries.
In addition, the muted finish to the entries on the page opened by "blog" does not draw my eye to your galleries. That may only be personal preference though - when I see the haze over the photos I usually don't open anything.
--- Denise
Hi Denise!
Thanks so much for the reply.
I've taken your comments into consideration. I've adjusted my "hazy" blog galleries and placed a title on top.
As for the background, I'm still searching for the right rustic image.
I think you have beautiful shots! If I'm not mistaken, your HOME and your BROWSE show the same exact thing. Perhaps have the HOME focus on less things and then they can BROWSE through your galleries?
Thanks Anna :-)
you are 100% correct, ill get to fixing that asap, thanks
I just contacted SmugMug support and the automated response mentioned this forum. I'm glad they did!
I was using my smugmug site as a super simple gallery to allow folks to purchase photos of various events. I also had a separate website and blog, all of them admittedly weak sauce. I recently started doing more photobooths, so I decided I needed an online presence to provide info about features, prices, etc. After starting and stopping a new Wordpress site and SquareSpace site, I decided to give the new SmugMug customization features another look. It turns out I can do everything I wanted with smugmug.
I focused on getting the Photobooth section up and running first. It took some time to figure out the right combination of folders and pages to get the URL structure I wanted, but I finally got it right. The key seemed to be that folders can be treated as nothing more than pages, as they have exactly the same customization features. From there I could nest the pages appropriately, including the actual photobooth event albums.
I added subnavigation to the top of all pages within the photobooth section - quite a pain to duplicate and maintain the menu on each page, but so be it.
To-do's:
- pepper the photobooth pages with samples (will be done after I organize a shoot to create my own promo shots)
- fill in some FAQs
- create a blog section. I haven't decided if I'm going to use the pseudo-blog features provided by pages or resurrect my Blogger account and just link to it.
- Totally redo my gallery structures so I can add back the "Browse" link. It is currently an embarrassing hodge podge.
The one thing that jumped out at me is that your portfolio is a slideshow (with a very slow refresh rate). I would like to see your work but I won't watch a slideshow - I prefer to peruse the photos on my own.
The Client Login link on your side navbar isn't active. I'd recommend removing it.
The one thing that jumped out at me is that your portfolio is a slideshow (with a very slow refresh rate). I would like to see your work but I won't watch a slideshow - I prefer to peruse the photos on my own.
The Client Login link on your side navbar isn't active. I'd recommend removing it.
--- Denise
Thanks Denise, I will tweak the porfolio area. Good suggestion to remove the client login area for now. Until I get everything restructured, it doesn't make sense.
Hello, I'm looking for some feedback on my website. I think it may be time for a refresh, but I want to make it easy for visitors to find the gallery or event they are looking for. One element I need to refine is the Global menu bar. I think it looks fine on a computer screen, but I noticed it takes up a huge section of the screen on mobile devices. I noticed I am getting about a third of my page views from mobile screens and I want to make sure my site is easy to navigate on the small screen as well.
Hello, I'm looking for some feedback on my website. I think it may be time for a refresh, but I want to make it easy for visitors to find the gallery or event they are looking for. One element I need to refine is the Global menu bar. I think it looks fine on a computer screen, but I noticed it takes up a huge section of the screen on mobile devices. I noticed I am getting about a third of my page views from mobile screens and I want to make sure my site is easy to navigate on the small screen as well.
You're right - your heading (logo, menu, and site name) take up a lot of space on a mobile device. I just compared your site with mine on my phone - I believe the difference is due to your small icon / logo. My site header collapses to 2 lines, menu and site name. Yours collapses to three. You might experiment with specific CSS for mobile. A starting point for that can be seen here - http://www.aaronmphotography.com/Customizations/Sitewide/Screen-Width-Customizations.
As for the rest of your site, once I see a slideshow on the homepage that takes up all of the visible vertical space I very rarely scroll down on the page - I use the menu to go to the next page of the site. It might be interesting to watch some of your viewers and see how they navigate the site.
Overall your site has a good clean look to it. The one thing that jumped out at me is that there is no page about you as the photographer.
... It might be interesting to watch some of your viewers and see how they navigate the site.
Overall your site has a good clean look to it. The one thing that jumped out at me is that there is no page about you as the photographer.
--- Denise
Denise, thank you for taking a look at my website. I am getting comfortable with the tools provided by SmugMug to customize the site, but I am not very comfortable with CSS and This is really the only website I work on. I took a look at the information provided by Arron, but it was a bit over my head. I'll need to spend some more time learning how to work with CSS in order to implement these tips.
I like the large slideshow, but it may be hindering the overall user experience. I'll try shrinking the size of the slideshow window to allow the Folder Links some more room to appear along the bottom of the page.
I will need to work on an "About Me" page - As a photo enthusiast I don't do much advertising or promotion so this is a little lower on the priority list.
ºoº DisneyMagic! A one stop shop for everything you love about Disney. ºoº DisneyMagic's main focus surrounds Disneyland Paris, but goes on a lot further to explore Disney in a variety of other ways, ranging from Disney collections; Artwork; Features; Videos; Even to the very man himself!
Ok - I made a few changes to the website. I'm not sure I resolved any of the original observations, but I do like the menu along the left side. I was able to adjust the sidebar to make it a bit narrower than the default setting. I also pinned the menu so it would remain visible when scrolling down a page. Finally, I changed the content block for my logo from "Single Picture" to "Logo" and it is responding better to the variety of screen sizes than when I had my logo in a content cell intended for a photo.
Between moving across the country, starting a new job, and buying a house, I've been away from SmugMug (and photography in general :) for a while, but have finally finished updating my website. General feedback and especially constructive criticism would be most welcome.
A couple things I know I want to fix / change: (i) the sub-links on the navbar need some alignment (and maybe color/etc.) help, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do this; (ii) I might want to figure out how to randomise the home page photo (not a slide show, but a random photo loading on each visit) but am not sure it's possible or if it would look good; (iii) gallery organization, photo captions, etc. need some work; and mostly (iv) I need to get shooting again!
Two things jumped out at me. One is what you already mentioned - sublinks in your menu look a bit odd since they are sitting on top of top level menu entries without any differentiation between the two. At first I wasn't even sure they were sub-menu entries.
Two things jumped out at me. One is what you already mentioned - sublinks in your menu look a bit odd since they are sitting on top of top level menu entries without any differentiation between the two. At first I wasn't even sure they were sub-menu entries.
I agree about the sub-links. I need to find some examples of good sub-links to see what the right way of differentiating them is from a graphic standpoint: different background color, box around the sub-link item (seems at odd with the overall design right now), etc. Of course suggestions would be welcome. (And then comes the challenge of figuring out the CSS. )
The profile photo is now fixed. I had an older information page with a single photo, which I was using as my profile photo. I deleted the older information page, and the profile photo disappeared. It's back now. Thanks for catching that!
After seeing the nice constructive critiques given here before... I wondered if you could do me the favor of looking into my - recently pretty new customized - site at www.lilleUlven.com
Hoping you'll spot areas where I can improve the look&feel of my site further.
(Should you find typos or sentences that need work, please don't hesitate to tell me - I am not a native English speaker but will do my very best to fix those too.)
After seeing the nice constructive critiques given here before... I wondered if you could do me the favor of looking into my - recently pretty new customized - site at www.lilleUlven.com
Hoping you'll spot areas where I can improve the look&feel of my site further.
(Should you find typos or sentences that need work, please don't hesitate to tell me - I am not a native English speaker but will do my very best to fix those too.)
Thanks in advance!
I'd recommend turning pinning off on your header. It overlaps with site content when you scroll down...
I'd recommend turning pinning off on your header. It overlaps with site content when you scroll down...
Dave
Thanks Dave.
Yea, I know about that one. What I would prefer - if that is possible is keep the pinning but have the page content disappear behind it (into invisibility).
But if that is not possible, I have to consider un-pinning again.
Thanks for your comment, it is very much appreciated!
I agree with pilotdave about unpinning the header.
I recommend removing the Login entry from your menu. That is only for you, and you can always log in from www.smugmug.com. Of course I can use your login link to log onto my site which will result in taking me away from your site.
Your Recently updated page uses tiny square images to represent the linked elements. That size photo isn't large enough to entice people to click on them to explore further.
I find your About page (http://www.lilleulven.com/Information/AboutLilleUlven/About) to be quite difficult to read. The header shows black type against a dark blue background and the black text against the ocean is not a comfortable read either.
I often will click the top level of a menu entry instead of directly selecting a lower-level page from the menu. If you are going to allow this you might want to go through all of your folders to make sure there is a featured image specified. When I clicked on http://www.lilleulven.com/TravelPhotos the USA entry shows only a folder icon against a blank square (even though there are galleries in that folder).
On your Contact and Response page you have included an email "here" but the link goes no where.
I corrected (changed the background photo) on the About page and the link on the Contact&Response page is fixed too ... helps to have the div setup correctly
The folder & Recent update page will be fixed tomorrow (European timezone means: it is time for bed now )
And well as I said... that header is giving me a headache... But I'll try to find a way to make the header opaque so that when scrolling the page it can stay on top yet the content would completely disappear behind it. As far as I have seen this should have been possible in the old smugmug but I haven't found a solution for the new one yet.
Thank you very much for your input - I would clearly not have found those ones!
Not sure if I should rather answer myself or edit my previous post...
But anyway - the changes are made
- The "Updated Recently"-Page had to go as I was unable to get the images shown in a bigger size and sharp - even though I am certain that they are sharp. So I guess one has to live with the RSS-feed then
- The Login is moved into a "social media icon" ... well I don't use youtube anyway so I configured it to be shown as a Smugmug icon in my colors
- All folders and galleries (well at least those that are accessible by the public) got their photos as well.
- My header problem is solved - I managed to get the header in the foreground and the page-content disappearing behind it when I am scrolling.
But I found a weird thing in Smugmug while doing so...
To get the header-color set in a way so that my page content does not show through if I have to scroll the page upward I changed the theme. Here I went into Advanced and set "Header color" to my desired color and "Header Alpha" to 100%. Saved, published. Looking great and is working. Nice.
But when I now go back into customize -> content and design -> theme -> Advanced ... Header Alpha is shown as 0%.
This might be because of some broken CSS-code only on my page as I was trying to achieve the desired effects by CSS customizations, but maybe it would be a good idea for someone to check out if that occurs on other pages as well?
Denise & Dave thank you very much for your valuable & constructive input for my little page!
Hi Tom -
The organization of your site looks good but I find the background slideshow to be quite distracting. It gets in the way of enjoying your photos since it tends to pull my eyes away from the primary content on the page. Changing to a background image (instead of a slideshow) would remove the constant change but it would not fix the problem for me.
A patterned or photo background makes the text in the gallery descriptions harder to read (depending on the background that is shown at the time).
Your contact page is clever with the contact button embedded in a photo. Unfortunately it took me a couple of glances to realize that your instructions to click the contact button referred to text with a photo. Leave that as is, but I'd also recommend adding a link to the contact page in your text.
Hi Tom -
The organization of your site looks good but I find the background slideshow to be quite distracting. It gets in the way of enjoying your photos since it tends to pull my eyes away from the primary content on the page. Changing to a background image (instead of a slideshow) would remove the constant change but it would not fix the problem for me.
A patterned or photo background makes the text in the gallery descriptions harder to read (depending on the background that is shown at the time).
Your contact page is clever with the contact button embedded in a photo. Unfortunately it took me a couple of glances to realize that your instructions to click the contact button referred to text with a photo. Leave that as is, but I'd also recommend adding a link to the contact page in your text.
--- Denise
Thanks Denise, I've changed the background to hopefully be more unobtrusive (and changed the overall layout actually. I've also added an extra contact text button in on the contact page.
Do you think it's better now?
Thanks again for the suggestions!
Thanks Denise, I've changed the background to hopefully be more unobtrusive (and changed the overall layout actually. I've also added an extra contact text button in on the contact page.
Do you think it's better now?
Hi Tom -
Yes, much better. My focus now is on your photos, right where it should be.
The only thing that might help is to make your menu bar background slightly more opaque. I think the entries would be easier to read.
Hi Brendan -
... sublinks in your menu look a bit odd since they are sitting on top of top level menu entries without any differentiation between the two. At first I wasn't even sure they were sub-menu entries.
--- Denise
Updated this as well (and even got it aligned). Not 100% sold on the color scheme, but I think it looks ok as a starting point at least.
Comments
Hi nologophoto!
I think you have beautiful shots! If I'm not mistaken, your HOME and your BROWSE show the same exact thing. Perhaps have the HOME focus on less things and then they can BROWSE through your galleries?
Wow you have done so many weddings and bookings and I saw that through browsing your site. I do like how you decided to create a "portfolio" tab to showcase "hey this is what I can do" instead of having them go through each and every "client" gallery.
The blog links on your menu appear to take the viewer to photo galleries. You might consider changing the menu entry to "galleries" or something that gives the viewer the idea that the menu entry will open your photo galleries.
In addition, the muted finish to the entries on the page opened by "blog" does not draw my eye to your galleries. That may only be personal preference though - when I see the haze over the photos I usually don't open anything.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Hi Denise!
Thanks so much for the reply.
I've taken your comments into consideration. I've adjusted my "hazy" blog galleries and placed a title on top.
As for the background, I'm still searching for the right rustic image.
Thanks!
Thanks Anna :-)
you are 100% correct, ill get to fixing that asap, thanks
Al
Hi there,
I just contacted SmugMug support and the automated response mentioned this forum. I'm glad they did!
I was using my smugmug site as a super simple gallery to allow folks to purchase photos of various events. I also had a separate website and blog, all of them admittedly weak sauce. I recently started doing more photobooths, so I decided I needed an online presence to provide info about features, prices, etc. After starting and stopping a new Wordpress site and SquareSpace site, I decided to give the new SmugMug customization features another look. It turns out I can do everything I wanted with smugmug.
My site: http://www.naterpix.com
I focused on getting the Photobooth section up and running first. It took some time to figure out the right combination of folders and pages to get the URL structure I wanted, but I finally got it right. The key seemed to be that folders can be treated as nothing more than pages, as they have exactly the same customization features. From there I could nest the pages appropriately, including the actual photobooth event albums.
I added subnavigation to the top of all pages within the photobooth section - quite a pain to duplicate and maintain the menu on each page, but so be it.
To-do's:
- pepper the photobooth pages with samples (will be done after I organize a shoot to create my own promo shots)
- fill in some FAQs
- create a blog section. I haven't decided if I'm going to use the pseudo-blog features provided by pages or resurrect my Blogger account and just link to it.
- Totally redo my gallery structures so I can add back the "Browse" link. It is currently an embarrassing hodge podge.
Thanks for any feedback!
The Client Login link on your side navbar isn't active. I'd recommend removing it.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Thanks Denise, I will tweak the porfolio area. Good suggestion to remove the client login area for now. Until I get everything restructured, it doesn't make sense.
Here is the link to my home page: http://johngerardphotography.smugmug.com
Thanks for your feedback.
-- John
As for the rest of your site, once I see a slideshow on the homepage that takes up all of the visible vertical space I very rarely scroll down on the page - I use the menu to go to the next page of the site. It might be interesting to watch some of your viewers and see how they navigate the site.
Overall your site has a good clean look to it. The one thing that jumped out at me is that there is no page about you as the photographer.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Currently in the process of re-branding! Let me know what you think and if there's anything I could improve
My Photography Blog.
My Popular Photos
- Photos of Edinburgh, Scottish Highlands and Islands, Fife.
Denise, thank you for taking a look at my website. I am getting comfortable with the tools provided by SmugMug to customize the site, but I am not very comfortable with CSS and This is really the only website I work on. I took a look at the information provided by Arron, but it was a bit over my head.
I like the large slideshow, but it may be hindering the overall user experience. I'll try shrinking the size of the slideshow window to allow the Folder Links some more room to appear along the bottom of the page.
I will need to work on an "About Me" page - As a photo enthusiast I don't do much advertising or promotion so this is a little lower on the priority list.
I'll post again when I make some modifications.
-- John
ºoº DisneyMagic! A one stop shop for everything you love about Disney. ºoº DisneyMagic's main focus surrounds Disneyland Paris, but goes on a lot further to explore Disney in a variety of other ways, ranging from Disney collections; Artwork; Features; Videos; Even to the very man himself!
www.disneymagic.ws
Hope you like!
David Lawson
Here is the link again: http://johngerardphotography.smugmug.com
-- John
Thoughts?
http://www.davidweiss.photography
My Website
Facebook | Twitter | | VSCOgrid | Instagram |
CC Welcomed. Use the contact link to do so.
Thank you for looking!
Steve
www.brendancoxphotography.com
A couple things I know I want to fix / change: (i) the sub-links on the navbar need some alignment (and maybe color/etc.) help, but I haven't been able to figure out how to do this; (ii) I might want to figure out how to randomise the home page photo (not a slide show, but a random photo loading on each visit) but am not sure it's possible or if it would look good; (iii) gallery organization, photo captions, etc. need some work; and mostly (iv) I need to get shooting again!
Overall your site looks very good.
Two things jumped out at me. One is what you already mentioned - sublinks in your menu look a bit odd since they are sitting on top of top level menu entries without any differentiation between the two. At first I wasn't even sure they were sub-menu entries.
Your contact page is using the standard smug photo. It should be using a photo of you - or at least a photo of your choice. You can fix this by setting a profile photo on your site. See help page at http://help.smugmug.com/customer/portal/articles/1266248-how-do-i-replace-the-silhouette-headshot-photo-with-my-own-.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Thanks Denise!
I agree about the sub-links. I need to find some examples of good sub-links to see what the right way of differentiating them is from a graphic standpoint: different background color, box around the sub-link item (seems at odd with the overall design right now), etc. Of course suggestions would be welcome. (And then comes the challenge of figuring out the CSS.
The profile photo is now fixed. I had an older information page with a single photo, which I was using as my profile photo. I deleted the older information page, and the profile photo disappeared. It's back now. Thanks for catching that!
Of course any other critiques are most welcome.
Cheers,
Brendan
After seeing the nice constructive critiques given here before... I wondered if you could do me the favor of looking into my - recently pretty new customized - site at www.lilleUlven.com
Hoping you'll spot areas where I can improve the look&feel of my site further.
(Should you find typos or sentences that need work, please don't hesitate to tell me - I am not a native English speaker but will do my very best to fix those too.)
Thanks in advance!
I'd recommend turning pinning off on your header. It overlaps with site content when you scroll down...
Dave
Thanks Dave.
Yea, I know about that one. What I would prefer - if that is possible is keep the pinning but have the page content disappear behind it (into invisibility).
But if that is not possible, I have to consider un-pinning again.
Thanks for your comment, it is very much appreciated!
Lille Ulven
I agree with pilotdave about unpinning the header.
I recommend removing the Login entry from your menu. That is only for you, and you can always log in from www.smugmug.com. Of course I can use your login link to log onto my site which will result in taking me away from your site.
Your Recently updated page uses tiny square images to represent the linked elements. That size photo isn't large enough to entice people to click on them to explore further.
I find your About page (http://www.lilleulven.com/Information/AboutLilleUlven/About) to be quite difficult to read. The header shows black type against a dark blue background and the black text against the ocean is not a comfortable read either.
I often will click the top level of a menu entry instead of directly selecting a lower-level page from the menu. If you are going to allow this you might want to go through all of your folders to make sure there is a featured image specified. When I clicked on http://www.lilleulven.com/TravelPhotos the USA entry shows only a folder icon against a blank square (even though there are galleries in that folder).
On your Contact and Response page you have included an email "here" but the link goes no where.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
I corrected (changed the background photo) on the About page and the link on the Contact&Response page is fixed too ... helps to have the div setup correctly
The folder & Recent update page will be fixed tomorrow (European timezone means: it is time for bed now
And well as I said... that header is giving me a headache... But I'll try to find a way to make the header opaque so that when scrolling the page it can stay on top yet the content would completely disappear behind it. As far as I have seen this should have been possible in the old smugmug but I haven't found a solution for the new one yet.
Thank you very much for your input - I would clearly not have found those ones!
Lille Ulven
But anyway - the changes are made
- The "Updated Recently"-Page had to go as I was unable to get the images shown in a bigger size and sharp - even though I am certain that they are sharp. So I guess one has to live with the RSS-feed then
- The Login is moved into a "social media icon" ... well I don't use youtube anyway so I configured it to be shown as a Smugmug icon in my colors
- All folders and galleries (well at least those that are accessible by the public) got their photos as well.
- My header problem is solved - I managed to get the header in the foreground and the page-content disappearing behind it when I am scrolling.
But I found a weird thing in Smugmug while doing so...
To get the header-color set in a way so that my page content does not show through if I have to scroll the page upward I changed the theme. Here I went into Advanced and set "Header color" to my desired color and "Header Alpha" to 100%. Saved, published. Looking great and is working. Nice.
But when I now go back into customize -> content and design -> theme -> Advanced ... Header Alpha is shown as 0%.
This might be because of some broken CSS-code only on my page as I was trying to achieve the desired effects by CSS customizations, but maybe it would be a good idea for someone to check out if that occurs on other pages as well?
Denise & Dave thank you very much for your valuable & constructive input for my little page!
Lille Ulven
[url]Http://www.edinburghphotography.com[/url]
Cheers!
My Photography Blog.
My Popular Photos
- Photos of Edinburgh, Scottish Highlands and Islands, Fife.
The organization of your site looks good but I find the background slideshow to be quite distracting. It gets in the way of enjoying your photos since it tends to pull my eyes away from the primary content on the page. Changing to a background image (instead of a slideshow) would remove the constant change but it would not fix the problem for me.
A patterned or photo background makes the text in the gallery descriptions harder to read (depending on the background that is shown at the time).
Your contact page is clever with the contact button embedded in a photo. Unfortunately it took me a couple of glances to realize that your instructions to click the contact button referred to text with a photo. Leave that as is, but I'd also recommend adding a link to the contact page in your text.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Thanks Denise, I've changed the background to hopefully be more unobtrusive (and changed the overall layout actually. I've also added an extra contact text button in on the contact page.
Do you think it's better now?
Thanks again for the suggestions!
Tom
My Photography Blog.
My Popular Photos
- Photos of Edinburgh, Scottish Highlands and Islands, Fife.
Yes, much better. My focus now is on your photos, right where it should be.
The only thing that might help is to make your menu bar background slightly more opaque. I think the entries would be easier to read.
--- Denise
Musings & ramblings at https://denisegoldberg.blogspot.com
Updated this as well (and even got it aligned). Not 100% sold on the color scheme, but I think it looks ok as a starting point at least.