Added new galleries and updated overall

cristpix

Week two of the trial and I've taken some forum advice and made adjustments. I have a few more galleries, titled and captioned in most shots, and added key words. It seems to look and flow pretty well to me -- thoughts, comments, feedback?

http://www.cristpix.smugmug.com

Cygnus Studios

It's an interesting collection of pictures.

Is your photography Jaye Crist or CristPix Creative Images? Seems odd to see both names on the home page.

Next, why have all your images on the home page and then have the same images broken down by gallery under the browse section.

While I am a huge fan and supporter of watermarks, they appear randomly on the thumbs.

Your breadcrumb trail only leads me back to the homepage and not to the browse page, which seems to defeat the purpose.

denisegoldberg

I find it interesting that you haven't provided any information about yourself and your site does not provide a way for viewers to contact you.

If you'd like to use the SmugMug contact form, see How do I create a contact page?.

--- Denise

cristpix

More to look into and change. The profile has my email in the about me section, hmmm. I did adjust the homepage view to select certain photos. I'm not clear on the breadcrumb feature, so will research that. Jaye Crist is my name, and CristPix is the business name, since I also do ceramic art and mixed media art, my artist name is associated to all that work, CristPix is just for photography. Thanks for the help!

denisegoldberg

cristpix wrote: »

The profile has my email in the about me section, hmmm.

The only thing I see in your about me section related to email (if you're referencing the part of your homepage that says CristPix Creative Images) is an icon that links to a gmail log in. It doesn't provide a way to contact you. If you want people to be able to reach out to you I'd suggest adding a contact link to your menu bar.

If you haven't already done this I'd recommend looking at your site from a browser where you are not logged in.

--- Denise

Cygnus Studios

Think about your website like walking a small child across the street. You have to hold their hand, explain about looking left and right, then telling them when to stop and when to go.

You understand what you want your website to do, but the viewers can't read your mind. It has to be simple with a direct route taking us where you want us to go. It should flow seamlessly back and forth.

cristpix wrote: »

Jaye Crist is my name, and CristPix is the business name, since I also do ceramic art and mixed media art, my artist name is associated to all that work, CristPix is just for photography. Thanks for the help!

Are you planning on showing your other art also or will this be for your photography? Having 2 different names on the same website is not really what you want from a business standpoint.

I cannot find an "about me" page. There is a sort of hidden email link, that is way too easy to miss. I didn't even know you had that until it was pointed out.



You really should have a tab in the menu for both a contact and about me.

Then there is the breadcrumb: When I click on browse, I get the choice of six galleries. Once I choose one, I no longer get the option of getting back to the browse section. My only choice is the home page.



If you create a page (choose whatever name for that page) and put all these galleries in that page, then the viewer has the option of going back. Personally I would replace the "browse" with page containing all the galleries, but that's just me.

denisegoldberg

Cygnus Studios wrote: »

Then there is the breadcrumb: When I click on browse, I get the choice of six galleries. Once I choose one, I no longer get the option of getting back to the browse section. My only choice is the home page.

...

If you create a page (choose whatever name for that page) and put all these galleries in that page, then the viewer has the option of going back. Personally I would replace the "browse" with page containing all the galleries, but that's just me.

Unfortunately creating a page and placing the galleries on that page won't fix the breadcrumb return. Home on the breadcrumb returns to the home page.

The breadcrumb on the page shows home and the page. Click to enter a folder on that page and the breadcrumb shows home and the folder name. You can see the behavior with a page on my site referencing the gallery page - http://www.denisegoldberg.com/Gallery/.

It would be a nice enhancement for the site owner to be able to specify where home on the breadcrumb should return.

--- Denise

denisegoldberg

Yesterday when I noted that clicking the link in your about section took me to a gmail log on page I was using a browser where I wasn't logged in to Google. Today I tried again using Firefox while I was logged in to my own gmail account. The response to clicking that link is shown in the screen shot below.

I highly recommend removing that content element from your page.

I finally saw your email address as text sitting below the content on your home page. That isn't clickable and it isn't readily obvious to your viewers. A viewer shouldn't need to search for a way to contact the web owner. Again, I recommend using the SmugMug contact page. This does not expose your email address and it allows viewers to easily contact you.

--- Denise

denisegoldberg

I'm always surprised when I see a web site using a hover color to highlight entries where the hover color almost matches the background. That makes the text disappear.

The screen shot below shows what it looks like when I hover over "browse" in your menu. To my eyes the menu entry is essentially missing.

--- Denise

Cygnus Studios

denisegoldberg wrote: »

Unfortunately creating a page and placing the galleries on that page won't fix the breadcrumb return. Home on the breadcrumb returns to the home page.

Maybe it's an owner (signed in thing) that I am getting.

When I go into my site, I have an unlisted folder for clients. I can click on that and see all 200 and some odd galleries there. In the breadcrumb I always get the option of going back to that folder with all the galleries (current clients) or the main folder (clients) or the home page.

I didn't even think about that option not being available to the public.

denisegoldberg

Cygnus Studios wrote: »

Maybe it's an owner (signed in thing) that I am getting.

When I go into my site, I have an unlisted folder for clients. I can click on that and see all 200 and some odd galleries there. In the breadcrumb I always get the option of going back to that folder with all the galleries (current clients) or the main folder (clients) or the home page.

I didn't even think about that option not being available to the public.

I took your statement about pages literally! The breadcrumb for a page shows the page, but once you click on something in that page, the breadcrumb changes to the thing you clicked on. Folders behave as you described above.

I have a page on my site that I use for access to my public folders - http://www.denisegoldberg.com/Gallery/. Once the viewer clicks on one of the folders on the page, the breadcrumb then shows home followed by the folder. I guess I could have created a top level folder and put all of the other folders in it but that's not how I wanted to set up the structure. It might be worth thinking about though.

--- Denise

Cygnus Studios

denisegoldberg wrote: »

I took your statement about pages literally!

Sorry, this is another case where the voices in my head were faster than my fingers when I originally replied. I keep forgetting that we have separately folders and pages and galleries, to me it's all a page.

As a visitor to a site: When I see multiple galleries that I might want to check out, it kind of makes sense to be able to view one, then go back and view the others in one step.

If I go into one, then have to go back to the home page and then navigate back to the gallery page, then to the individual galleries, more than likely I'm going to lose interest. Seems like a lot of unnecessary clicking to me or maybe that is just me overthinking the process.

denisegoldberg

Cygnus Studios wrote: »

...If I go into one, then have to go back to the home page and then navigate back to the gallery page, then to the individual galleries, more than likely I'm going to lose interest. Seems like a lot of unnecessary clicking to me or maybe that is just me overthinking the process.

I don't think you're overthinking it at all. I wish the breadcrumb worked that way relative to pages.

Maybe if I thought this through before publishing my new smug site I would have created a top level folder to contain all of the other folders. I didn't do that though, and I believe if I changed the structure now all of my previously published links would be broken. So I guess I'll just continue to live with my current structure.

--- Denise