Feedback welcome!

[jbell]

My site has been up for quite some time and I've received many compliments from clients and friends. I would, however, like to get some feedback and suggestions for possible improvement from those much more familiar with website design and layout than I. Unlike most photographers I prefer a simple layout to the fancy flash sites.

Thanks for your time and suggestions.

www.jbellphotography.com

[tpoynton]

took a quick look; I like it! on the homepage, some simple css rollovers on your links will provide folks with visual confirmation that it is a link.

[YvetteKuhns]

I prefer simple design as well. I usually don't like too much gray, because it reminds me of a rainy day. But this is a photography website, so the images will stand out against that background more. The links should change color when moused over to make it easier for people to navigate your website.

The home page should be more inviting and define your target audience. If you are a photographer for hire within a given amount of miles of a specific city in your location, say it here. Explain what products or services you do and/or do not offer. I see the email address and phone number, but I do not see the address, so I wouldn't know where I was calling (unless I searched the other pages of your website). Don't make people hunt for information. Internet users look for information quickly.

There is no need to say "welcome to" on your home page. If we weren't welcome, you wouldn't have paid to put your website online. Use a nice graphics logo for your business name to look more professional. Photography websites are graphics websites, so image is everything.

There should be a contact us page. You put that information in the about us page along with personal information. Try to have more business information. This currently looks like a personal website instead of a business website, because the personal information is mixed with the business information. You can link to another web page that contains the personal stuff.

There should be a policy page that contains privacy, payment, refund and shipping information. I managed to find some of this information on the prints.htm page. The Q&A are like the FAQ on other sites. The policy info could go here or contain a link to another page. A link to policies should appear in the links menu.

The links menu could should appear on the top and/or bottom of each web page. I almost missed the Back button you created. In fact, I used the Back button in the browser. It would be better for search engines and visitors if you place the entire menu on each page. Your logo should appear at the top of each page and copyright info should appear at the bottom of each page.

Someone will probably ask you to edit your FrontPage code and use CSS, but if you knew how to do that, you wouldn't be using FrontPage! I usually comment on the overall visitor experience. You can tweak code later. ;)

[ffholy]

The site to me is professional, but I really don't like the grey back ground color. It sort of hurt my eyes abit. My site use to be grey and black, but quickly changed that after receiving a few complaints. The information you have posted is direct, but as Yvette said, there should be more about privacy..payments and etc. I dealt with several photography sites on a few occasions and the simple layout works fine, but maybe you should use some better pictures, that reflect your skill...and intergrate that into the webpage. Other than that, you know best :p Have fun!

Eric

[jatticks]

I would consider reducing the file size for your index photo. It's 246kb at the moment and took a couple seconds to download with my DSL. I found the same photo in your gallery and it was reduced down to 64kb. Otherwise, the site is clear and easy to navigate. You could pepper the site with more photos on every page to add interest and color.

[g4mby]

Jerry,

Your bungalow.jpg picture is over 400kb, far too large for a general web-site graphic. It needs to be reduced in size. As a dial-up user I love simple pages but detest graphic intensive pages and quickly move on if I have to wait too long for a page to load. [I know I should upgrade my connection but dial-up is what I have.]

As some of your paragraphs are only a few lines long some of your pages seem full of line breaks. Have you considered a margin either side of the text? If you forced a text width of 800 pixels or 80% of the screen width you could create margins in a harmonious colour and so reduce the line length. Only a suggestion but I think the layout of the text would look better.

[Kitchensink108]

I'll be repeating some of the things said before.

-Reduce the filesize of the homepage image.
-The links on the homepage look messy. You might consider arranging them a different way.
-The gallery page looks different from the rest of the site.
-The "Gallery" image on the gallery page is really low quality. The transparency isn't done very well.
-I recommend putting a banner of some sort (even if it's just the "J.Bell Photography" text) on every page.
-Also recommend putting a menu bar on all the pages, with links to all the other pages.
-Back to the consistency thing. The text on most pages spans the entire width of the page. I prefer the homepage's ~800px fixed width, centered on the page (note, I don't mean the text should be centered, I mean the 800px-wide container element should be centered).

[jrblindman]

I think you should take the advice above and run with it, if you agree. I think your images are great. This forum helped me to make major improvements to my content site about Texas.

[mddu]

My only problem is navigation. Definitly should have links to your content on every page instead of just a back button. Makes it easier to navigate around your site.

Other than that I like it.

[d1skreet]

Like the page, very simple. A little dark, which can have a "downer" feel to it, but still nice.

I would definitely have some sort of feedback that the main page links are in fact links.

Also, perhaps a navigation on each page, so that you don't have to back up to the original page so much.

- Kyle