Any comment for my sites?

[goldenhammer]

My sites are composed of two main sections, forum and photo gallery.

Comments are welcome. And actually I would like to have a joint union with other sites which are interested in photography too.

[muijefr]

For now, a couple of comments about your portfolio. The content looks very interesting but for me and my 56k dial up it's impossible. Your loading too many graphics to wait for and individual graphics are huge. Additionally, the line width is just to wide to follow/read without great effort. So, I suggest you reduce the line width to text book page size. Treat each subject as a page with nav to next or a text lead into next. And lastly, compress your images. I have provided a side by side of pretty21 using PSP8 11% compression that reduced the image size from 175K to 45K. Other than that you've got a top notch portfolio.

Pretty side by side (http://www.the-ebiz.net/forum/pretty21.html)


:D

[YvetteKuhns]

OOOOHHHH! I looked at your site when you posted at another thread. The colors are nice. The pictures are beautiful. Everything is very organized, though I had to click a few times just to get to the first image - click to Gallery, then click a category, then choose and click, then choose and click again. But it was worth it.

The page is wide for 800x600 screen resolution, and the images should be optimized. If people are posting images to your server, you will have this. The rarely optimize or resize images. But this is a photography site.

Gee, I thought I had nice pictures. Maybe I need a fancier camera! Wow. What a cool site. I will definitely revisit and recommend this site. Nice job! :)

[muijefr]

RE:

Gee, I thought I had nice pictures. Maybe I need a fancier camera!

:D
You might just need an Echidna adaptor:

Photo Aid (http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=1756&e=2&u=/031014/481/syd10610141653)

:p

[goldenhammer]

Thanks for the suggestion. I planned to relocate the portfolio to a dedlicated HTML page with some optimization.

My sample photos are in general big in file size, it gives the best visable quality, it is worth for the wait.... :D


Originally posted by muijefr

For now, a couple of comments about your portfolio. The content looks very interesting but for me and my 56k dial up it's impossible. Your loading too many graphics to wait for and individual graphics are huge. Additionally, the line width is just to wide to follow/read without great effort. So, I suggest you reduce the line width to text book page size. Treat each subject as a page with nav to next or a text lead into next. And lastly, compress your images. I have provided a side by side of pretty21 using PSP8 11% compression that reduced the image size from 175K to 45K. Other than that you've got a top notch portfolio.

Pretty side by side (http://www.the-ebiz.net/forum/pretty21.html)


:D

[goldenhammer]

Thanks for the idea.

You are welcome to share your work with us and join the photography contests.



Originally posted by YvetteKuhns
OOOOHHHH! I looked at your site when you posted at another thread. The colors are nice. The pictures are beautiful. Everything is very organized, though I had to click a few times just to get to the first image - click to Gallery, then click a category, then choose and click, then choose and click again. But it was worth it.

The page is wide for 800x600 screen resolution, and the images should be optimized. If people are posting images to your server, you will have this. The rarely optimize or resize images. But this is a photography site.

Gee, I thought I had nice pictures. Maybe I need a fancier camera! Wow. What a cool site. I will definitely revisit and recommend this site. Nice job! :)

[rokit_sientist]

I'm just doing some casual posting, but stopped in to see your site. Really nice photos.

[goldenhammer]

Maybe you all will find the "Photos Of The Year" (POTY) galley interesting.

The POTY gallery includes all winning photos and it will be open for public voting in January 2004 in order to select the winner photo for the year 2003... :D

Take a check to POTY at:
http://www.digital-photo-contest.com/photopost/showgallery.php?cat=515

[Nino]

I like your site for its content, I visited it quite a few times in the past 6 months.
My only recommendation is that you give a little thought to navigation and optimization.
You seem to want visitors to remember or know the directory on your web site that they want to go to, and you default by redirecting them to a specific page if they enter your site through its index/home page. This can be annoying if that is not where they wanted to go.
Since your site is based on photography, a vistor can spend a significant amount of time exploring it and admiring the photos, as I have done. But then, I forget where I am within the navigational structure of the website, and how to return to a specific page later on. Unless I create a shortcut on my machine, but then I would be doing that for every visit -- making visitors perform work is never a good thing.
So, IMHO the single most important thing you can do to make visiting your site more enjoyable is to change the default page at
http://www.digital-life-21.com/
Stop redirecting visitors because it's annoying, and add a short description next to the links for the major areas of your site. Describe what will be found in those areas (the highlights).
Then a visitor can decide which area to explore or which area to return to and is more likely to remember where they started in their exploration.

By the way, another interesting photo web site with great content and contests is
http://www.betterphoto.com/
I found that site a couple of months ago. It has some great galleries, a huge user base contributing photos, a monthly contest, tips, etc.
I have not entered any of their contests, but I've anjoyed reviewing the entries made by other users, maybe soon I will also toss my hat in. The current month's contest is approaching 6,000 entries, so there is plenty to look at (the good, the bad, and the ugly :) ).
I think they also have a linking program for other web sites.

Oh, and one other thing that others have already mentioned to you: optimize, optimize, optimize!!!
Please!
A screen can only display a specific number of ppi's (less than 100), so loading pictures onto your site at higher ppi's does not make a difference on how it looks, and is just making life more difficult for those visitors who do not have a high speed connection. If you don't believe this, then take a look at other photo web sites who do optimize their images.

Otherwise, keep up the good work and nice photos!

[goldenhammer]

Hi, that's a nice suggestion. I have just made some better integration of my AD to the existing interface and will go for the cover pages as your recommendation.

The site betterphoto has an unique presentation which is attractive. I also like their comprehensive features.

I think my six-months-old sites will keep on the development. That is another completely different interface and feeling.... :D

GH

Originally posted by Nino
I like your site for its content, I visited it quite a few times in the past 6 months.
My only recommendation is that you give a little thought to navigation and optimization.
You seem to want visitors to remember or know the directory on your web site that they want to go to, and you default by redirecting them to a specific page if they enter your site through its index/home page. This can be annoying if that is not where they wanted to go.
Since your site is based on photography, a vistor can spend a significant amount of time exploring it and admiring the photos, as I have done. But then, I forget where I am within the navigational structure of the website, and how to return to a specific page later on. Unless I create a shortcut on my machine, but then I would be doing that for every visit -- making visitors perform work is never a good thing.
So, IMHO the single most important thing you can do to make visiting your site more enjoyable is to change the default page at
http://www.digital-life-21.com/
Stop redirecting visitors because it's annoying, and add a short description next to the links for the major areas of your site. Describe what will be found in those areas (the highlights).
Then a visitor can decide which area to explore or which area to return to and is more likely to remember where they started in their exploration.

By the way, another interesting photo web site with great content and contests is
http://www.betterphoto.com/
I found that site a couple of months ago. It has some great galleries, a huge user base contributing photos, a monthly contest, tips, etc.
I have not entered any of their contests, but I've anjoyed reviewing the entries made by other users, maybe soon I will also toss my hat in. The current month's contest is approaching 6,000 entries, so there is plenty to look at (the good, the bad, and the ugly :) ).
I think they also have a linking program for other web sites.

Oh, and one other thing that others have already mentioned to you: optimize, optimize, optimize!!!
Please!
A screen can only display a specific number of ppi's (less than 100), so loading pictures onto your site at higher ppi's does not make a difference on how it looks, and is just making life more difficult for those visitors who do not have a high speed connection. If you don't believe this, then take a look at other photo web sites who do optimize their images.

Otherwise, keep up the good work and nice photos!

[goldenhammer]

Just complete some optimization of the front page, forum and gallery.

http://www.digital-life-21.com/

[Nino]

Structurally, it's a big improvement over the last time I saw it.
However, do you really want blue hypertext on a blue background?
And the red text against a blue background looks kind of psychedelic.
I'm surprised you're not using yellow text, since yellow text against a blue background looks good and your logo is set up that way.
Check your Private Messages, I'll send you an example of your page with the colors changed to show you what I mean.

Originally posted by goldenhammer
Just complete some optimization of the front page, forum and gallery.

http://www.digital-life-21.com/

[goldenhammer]

Hi, thanks. I further rearrangement the page.

The blue and red composition give some contrast result that is psychedelic. Maybe it is good for a photographer/ artist? :D

GH

Originally posted by Nino
Structurally, it's a big improvement over the last time I saw it.
However, do you really want blue hypertext on a blue background?
And the red text against a blue background looks kind of psychedelic.
I'm surprised you're not using yellow text, since yellow text against a blue background looks good and your logo is set up that way.
Check your Private Messages, I'll send you an example of your page with the colors changed to show you what I mean.

[Nino]

Oh. Ok, I didn't realize that was the look that you were aiming for.
:)

Originally posted by goldenhammer
Hi, thanks. I further rearrangement the page.

The blue and red composition give some contrast result that is psychedelic. Maybe it is good for a photographer/ artist? :D

GH

[goldenhammer]

The yellow can help for the some spot highlight on my site's domain name, and I finally got the front page fixed, I am quite satisfied with the composition now.

Thanks for your advice.
GH

Originally posted by Nino
Oh. Ok, I didn't realize that was the look that you were aiming for.
:)