unfavorable business marketing critique of my website

thenimirra · February 17, 2012

I had a very unsettling meeting yesterday with a business marketing specialist. When she critiqued my website she said it was hard to navigate and she had a hard time trying to figure out how to contact me. Even though there is a contact me button at the bottom of the splash page and on all subsequent pages, she said she didn't like that the only option she had was to input her email instead of having the option to get my email to put in her contacts.

Is this just her being persnickety or is this a legitimate concern? Please take a look at my website and let me know what you think regarding navigation, your ability to see my work and your ability to contact me. www.pictureyourworld.net

Nikolai · February 17, 2012

Well, I tend to agree.
Essentially you don't let the visitors to know your emial but you require them to disclose theirs.
While this is an acceptable behaviour for certain types of sites where the visitors are supposed to leave their contact info to get a feedback they want (quoting, support, etc.), this is not a conventional behaviour for a "contact me/us" page, where people simply expecting to see a phone/email (the latter as a mailto link) so they can pick and choose which/when to contact you.
The form you have "pushes" your visitors in two aspects:
* it requires a unilateral disclosure of a private information
* it requires an "act now" action (which is akin to "buy now" sales pitch)

I think you can continue have this form as an "If you prefer we can contact you" option, but I would definitely start with simply putting your email up there and letting your visitors to decide when and how they are going to use it.

HTH

System · February 17, 2012

I've done car shopping via the internet. I hate to have to give my name, address, phone, etc. when I am just shopping but have a question. If I were shopping for one of your products/services and had to give my personal info, I'd probably just pass on by to someone else. When shopping via internet, there is a certain amount of anonymity.
PLUS, when I hit the contact button at the bottom of your home page, It automatically has my email address. Kind of makes me nervous as to what else you can get from my computer...

thenimirra · February 17, 2012

Ok I see what everyone is saying. I've already started making some adjustments. Thank you! I didn't see the Contact Form as off putting; I thought it was a way for the client to express what they needed or was looking for if they chose not to call or email.

Moving Pictures · February 17, 2012

I'd say the consultant was kind. The website needs to be rebuilt by a professional.

Observations:

1) The main image has "photography | social media | consulting" and yet, when I click on "photography" nothing happens. Ditto for the other two apparent links. Yes, I get it. They aren't links - but most users will assume they are. All clicking does is create a pink square floating above the logo ... huh?

2) I go to photography (after the top link), and the way-small thumbnail for "wedding packages" is a set of three rear ends (!). To me, that says you're trying to be funny - and it ain't working. If I'm a woman, I'm not hiring you based on that first impression alone, because it's demeaning/insulting. Not funny.

3) There's some grammar errors in the writing/copywriting section. Not good. (You say Sheba won awards, and then the Denver news won awards for "our" coverage of the Columbine massacre that should be "its" coverage ... Really?

3) Once I get stuck in a section (as in the spot above, the nav bar is lost. I have to hit the "back" button to get to the selection menu. Which makes the "home" button sorta useless, since you gotta go back to home to find it.

4) The thumbnail for "patience and jack" under "weddings" shows a gal with a kid, and badly balanced blue flash. Not an impressive image. And it's damned tiny, which leads to:

5) Overall, your thumbnails are too small. As a newspaper-involved individual, you should know that too much white space isn't good. That's what you have here. I don't see any of your pics without a lot of work.

6) Your "fees" forces me to scroll down through a bunch of grey boxes. That's old-school web design. One page. If I have to scroll, you've lost me. Very early-nineties look, here.

7) Plus what folks said above about the contact info.

What's needed:
More images on the opening page, with a clear navigation system to go to certain locations. Don't show every picture of someone else's wedding, show a collective sampling of your best work - 10,15 pics. Big. BIG. Revamp the hierarchy, reduce the images, make them bigger.

thenimirra · February 17, 2012

Moving Pictures wrote: »

I'd say the consultant was kind. The website needs to be rebuilt by a professional.

Observations:

1) The main image has "photography | social media | consulting" and yet, when I click on "photography" nothing happens. Ditto for the other two apparent links. Yes, I get it. They aren't links - but most users will assume they are. All clicking does is create a pink square floating above the logo ... huh?

2) I go to photography (after the top link), and the way-small thumbnail for "wedding packages" is a set of three rear ends (!). To me, that says you're trying to be funny - and it ain't working. If I'm a woman, I'm not hiring you based on that first impression alone, because it's demeaning/insulting. Not funny.

3) There's some grammar errors in the writing/copywriting section. Not good. (You say Sheba won awards, and then the Denver news won awards for "our" coverage of the Columbine massacre that should be "its" coverage ... Really?

3) Once I get stuck in a section (as in the spot above, the nav bar is lost. I have to hit the "back" button to get to the selection menu. Which makes the "home" button sorta useless, since you gotta go back to home to find it.

4) The thumbnail for "patience and jack" under "weddings" shows a gal with a kid, and badly balanced blue flash. Not an impressive image. And it's damned tiny, which leads to:

5) Overall, your thumbnails are too small. As a newspaper-involved individual, you should know that too much white space isn't good. That's what you have here. I don't see any of your pics without a lot of work.

6) Your "fees" forces me to scroll down through a bunch of grey boxes. That's old-school web design. One page. If I have to scroll, you've lost me. Very early-nineties look, here.

7) Plus what folks said above about the contact info.

What's needed:
More images on the opening page, with a clear navigation system to go to certain locations. Don't show every picture of someone else's wedding, show a collective sampling of your best work - 10,15 pics. Big. BIG. Revamp the hierarchy, reduce the images, make them bigger.

Thanks for your comments, however, I think you are being subjective in many instances rather than be constructive as the previous responders were (ie, it's not a shot of three rear ends; many of my brides love that shot and love the fact that it showcases her bright pink shoes.) Alot of the things you've mentioned are decisions I've made, regarding the gray boxes and the number of images I choose to show. As far as white space, it's eseential in my design and most newspapers are moving toward it as well. I will re-read the grammar as I'm a reporter not a copy editor and copy editing isn't a strong suit.

Cygnus Studios · February 17, 2012

thenimirra wrote: »

I will re-read the grammar as I'm a reporter not a copy editor and copy editing isn't a strong suit.

One of the services that you offer is copy editing...

I noticed a few things that seem odd about your site.

The navigation bar appears and disappears randomly.

You have buy buttons on pages that don't offer images for sale.

Your price package doesn't explain much. Do I receive 1 hour or 10 hours of your time for these prices? Multiple outfit changes? Multiple locations? What kind of prints do I get for these prices? What if I want metallic or canvas, are the prices the same? Do you come to my home, do I go to your studio, do we meet at the park? What if you have to travel to meet me?

Your services page also has some things that make me wonder. Copyright release? Maybe you mean usage agreement here. You also seem to jump around quite a bit in hourly rates. In one area you offer 2 hours and unlimited edited images for $350 and in another 1 hour and 25 pics for $350. In your wedding package 2 photographers at $250 per hour. Other packages are $150 per ???

Finally you have the share button everywhere. Granted the images are limited to large size, but do you really want direct links to your images without so much as a watermark?

denisegoldberg · February 17, 2012

I've come into this after (it appears) you have made some changes. One thing that jumped out at me is that you placed your email address in clear text on your contact form. That's a good way to invite spam. If you want to show your email address, either use a method like the one shown in this post, or use an image instead of text.

Using galleries locked into Journal style with text as captions is not a good way to present text information. On a laptop I can see part of one image and must scroll for all of the text. A nicely formatted text page would be much more user-friendly.

--- Denise

thenimirra · February 17, 2012

Steve, again thanks for taking the time to respond.

I'm working on making my logo clickable and I will go through all the other things you mentioned because the goal is to make my site as presentable as I can until I can afford to have a professional redesign the whole thing (something I'm still saving up for).

thenimirra · February 17, 2012

denisegoldberg wrote: »

I've come into this after (it appears) you have made some changes. One thing that jumped out at me is that you placed your email address in clear text on your contact form. That's a good way to invite spam. If you want to show your email address, either use a method like the one shown in this post, or use an image instead of text.

Using galleries locked into Journal style with text as captions is not a good way to present text information. On a laptop I can see part of one image and must scroll for all of the text. A nicely formatted text page would be much more user-friendly.

--- Denise

I've been working at this all day! Haven't gotten any editing done.

I will change that because I was concerned about spam.

Denise, what other style would you suggest I use instead of the Journal with captions?

I'm open to suggestions and thanks

Moving Pictures · February 17, 2012

thenimirra wrote: »

Thanks for your comments, however, I think you are being subjective in many instances rather than be constructive as the previous responders were (ie, it's not a shot of three rear ends; many of my brides love that shot and love the fact that it showcases her bright pink shoes.)

As a reporter, allegedly a veteran, you should know that sometimes the things you think you wrote about aren't what a copy editor is going to look at. The slot may come to you and go "did you really need the 63-word lead?" What you THOUGHT you had done, isn't always what people will see.

I'll point out the obvious: YOU may think that people want to see wedding-dress butts connected to the link "wedding packages" but clearly at least one individual (who, for what its worth took time to go through the site on his day off, for free - and, for what its worth, used to design websites back in the day) thought otherwise.

thenimirra · February 17, 2012

There is no allegedly. I was a reporter for 15 years and left in November to pursue my photography full time.

denisegoldberg · February 17, 2012

thenimirra wrote: »

what other style would you suggest I use instead of the Journal with captions?

Try Journal (Old) instead of Journal. That will put the photo on one side and the caption on the other. If you want to see a gallery in that style, take a look at this gallery on my site. I've made the gallery a little wider than the default width for that style.

Your other option is an HTML-only gallery. That gives you control of the look of the gallery (with some CSS and HTML). If you want to go that route, describe what you are after or create a graphic that shows the design and someone will be able to help format it. Best if you post in the customizing forum for something like that. Examples of HTML-only galleries on my site are the Kaleidoscope page, my About page, and Recent galleries.

Allen has a couple of starting tutorials at http://allen-steve.smugmug.com/gallery/3819841 and http://allen-steve.smugmug.com/gallery/2224895_3bpro.

--- Denise

thenimirra · February 17, 2012

I had that format before, Denise. I will go back to it for all the reasons you and others have named!

denisegoldberg · February 17, 2012

On the email in your contact form question, I would recommend using an image if possible. Of if it's easier to leave it as text, use something like "FirstName . LastName at site.com". Note the spaces plus the word "at" instead of the @. It won't be clickable but a person would be able to construct the address.

Using the other method I pointed to requires that there is an email client on the computer. That probably works on someone's home computer but wouldn't work if they were using a computer that isn't their own.

--- Denise

thenimirra · February 17, 2012

Thanks Denise!

Pupator · February 18, 2012

I think the biggest problem you have is that you're trying to use Smugmug for this kind of site. You'd be much better served with a Wordpress, Concrete5, or SquareSpace site that you then connected to your Smugmug galleries to show and sell pictures.

That would get ride of the strange buy buttons, shopping cart icons, and bizarre layout forced by using journal style. It also allows you to use custom JavaScript like a great little snippet my friend wrote that allows your email address to be posted in a way that looks normal to users but confusing to spam bots.

thenimirra · February 19, 2012

You could be right Pupator! I was thinking that myself. I will check out your suggestions as well! Thanks

puzzledpaul · February 25, 2012

A couple of things on home page jumped out at me ...

'Your' came across as four on first glance because of the typeface used.

Is 'premiere' with the last e the correct choice ... as opposed to premier?

As a side issue, I did also wonder if the ambiguities of meaning associated with 'picture your world' are intended?

pp

unfavorable business marketing critique of my website

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