Rip it up...

Dobson Central Photography

This site has been up for a couple of months now. I wouldn't mind hearing the likes or dislikes on ways to improve upon this. I've tried to use the KISS (keep it simple stupid) method. Navigation should be easy. Even though it's a photo site, I've tried to keep the photos to 50k or less for dialup users. So far, I think I've stayed in that range.

I still think it needs something. Maybe a css template or something for the main page. Thanks for any and all critiques. I'm hoping to figure out what this site lacks.

Ken

Dobson Central Photography

[YvetteKuhns]

The home page could use a little more pizzazz. The image of the negative is appropriate. A brief description of the site's purpose would be helpful.

The logo is black and the background is blue, so the logo does not stand out. The text links should all be the same font face. Arial is a good font for viewing on the Internet. The web page does not fill the screen at higher resolutions and appears to the left. You may want to center the page.

The pictures are great! The navigation menu could appear at the top as well as the bottom. Your logo should appear on the top of every page. Your contact page requests info in a form and does not include your info!

Is this a personal website or commercial? If you are trying to sell photos or photography services, you will need more info. If this is a portfolio, a page about you would still be nice.

The main focus is the photography and you displayed each with a description which is very nice. Again, I loved the photos and would enjoy seeing them again. The navigation would be a main focus right now.

Very nice!

Thanks for the review. I agree, the home page needs a little more something. I need to get busy with designing a new layout. I was hoping for a suggestion or two. Maybe a movable CSS page or something, I'm not sure. I'm still learning CSS and I haven't made any templates yet.

The text links should all be the same font. Did they show up different on your display?

I would liked to have centered the entire page, but I designed the graphic to go off of the screen. When I centered the rest of the content, it just didn't look right. I think the graphic is what I need to change so the content can contract/expand with different resolutions.

Logo on top of every page? I'm guessing the reasoning here is because any page can be an "Enter" page? I'd hate to have another graphic on a page with a 50k photo, but if the title of the window isn't good enough, I guess I'll have to figure something out.

Personal or commercial page? This is a personal page so far. If I sell photos down the road, that would be great, but right now, it's just a gallery of sorts. I agree with a bio page about me though. Matter of fact, I was developing a page yesterday when you posted.

Navigation at the top of each page? I'll rethink my navigation and work on redesigning my template. So far, I have navigation to any area on the bottom of each page, since everyone scrolls down when they view a page. So my logic was instead of having to scroll back up, to go to another area, it would be right there.

Thanks again for the review. Any other suggestions?

Ken

[YvetteKuhns]

The text links should all be the same font. Did they show up different on your display?

On the home page, News appears in the default I have set which is Arial, because you do not have the font specified for it in your code.

I would liked to have centered the entire page, but I designed the graphic to go off of the screen. When I centered the rest of the content, it just didn't look right. I think the graphic is what I need to change so the content can contract/expand with different resolutions.

I agree.

Logo on top of every page? I'm guessing the reasoning here is because any page can be an "Enter" page? I'd hate to have another graphic on a page with a 50k photo, but if the title of the window isn't good enough, I guess I'll have to figure something out.

You can simply put Dobson Photography as text at the top of every page if you do not want another image.

I figured you were planning to include a bio page. Looking forward to seeing it.

What do you think of this for the main page? I think it's better than the current main page. Any thoughts?

http://www.dobsoncentral.com/test1.htm

I'm having a problem with the right column. I just can't seem to make it go up to the top and be even with the left side. It works right now, but if I was to add anything in the future, it's only going to push the page down, which isn't what I want. Is there a CSS guru in the house that can maybe tell me what I'm doing wrong?

Thanks,

Ken

[YvetteKuhns]

If you used tables, you could use valign=top to get the right column to appear at the top, valign=middle for the middle, or valign=bottom to look as it does now. I think you can do the same in CSS classes for div tags.

The new version looks much better!

Thanks. I think it looks better too. I plan on alternating the photo in the background, either manually every month (or whenever I get bored with it) or use some javascript to alternate it whenever the page is opened/refreshed.

I didn't use tables at all. It's all CSS so far. The problem I'm having is that the left column is going all the way over to the right side for whatever reason, even though there isn't any content after the lettering of the links. It's almost as if there's some sort of whitespace or something there. I believe this is what's causing me not to be able to shift the right column up to the top. {shrug} I'm new to CSS and this is just kicking my butt to no end.

[YvetteKuhns]

The mouseover link effect is not very obvious or noticeable. Maybe you can change the font color instead of the background color.

div.maininnerpad {
background-color: transparent;
color: #484848;
bottom: 0%;
left: 0%;
padding-bottom: 6px;
padding-left: 10px;
font-variant: small-caps;
}

div.maininnerpad2 {
text-align: right;
background-color: transparent;
color: #484848;
bottom: 0%;
left: 0%;
padding-bottom: 6px;
padding-right: 10px;
font-variant: small-caps;
}

This is the code specific to the text links that mention positioning. I am not sure how you want it to look, so save the original code, then make changes to a copy for experimentation. My sister is talking to me on the phone, so I will have to check with you later.

Yvette,

Thanks for the advice on the rollover colors. I had thought about changing the text itself, rather than the background color too. I just went ahead and changed it to white today. I think it stands out better. The color schemes seem to be limited to whatever photo I use in the background. Yellow seems to stand out the best on a green background. I had also changed the background color a day or two ago as well from brown to green, since most of the backgrounds will have green in them. This may or may not stand out so well, but we'll see. See what you think of the different colors.

http://www.dobsoncentral.com

Thanks again,

Ken

[oatesj77]

Just got a chance to look over your site today. all in all it looks nice, the colors wouldn't be my first choice, but that is mainly up to the individual. beacause you have a lot of nature shots a more neutral desaturated look may be more appropriate and create something of a theme thru your site.

There were a few sections that differed from each other. animal/reptiles & went to a menu page where individual photos could be seleced while black & white and desert jumped straight into a photo. i thought i skipped something but it did it again.
also not all of your individual photo pages have <<previous / next>> links eg bear & boa.

i think you are right about having links at the bottom as almost every able person will scroll down a page when they see scroll bars, but it could be helpful to add some sort of navigation to the top as well. I generally put one at top & bottom.

hop this helps

all in all it looks nice, the colors wouldn't be my first choice, but that is mainly up to the individual

I agree. The colors just don't do it for me either since I recreated the main page. CSS can make a site look so much better. Unfortunately, I'm still learning CSS and it's going to take me a while to figure out how to format all the 100+ pages into CSS and make it look good and make it easy to update and create new pages. I haven't a clue where to start on this. I know there has to be a simpler way of keeping my formatting in one file and my content in the other with CSS and be able to use this across hundreds of files in a simple fashion. I just need to develop a good CSS template to start with.

There were a few sections that differed from each other. animal/reptiles & went to a menu page where individual photos could be seleced while black & white and desert jumped straight into a photo

That's just how I created those. It just didn't seem logical to me to need another page that laid out all the photos with individual subjects to select from, since they were in a theme all by themselves. Hmmm. Guess I'll have to rethink this if it's confusing or misleading.

also not all of your individual photo pages have <<previous / next>> links eg bear & boa

You are correct. Only a photo series that has more than one picture in its series will have the next/previous navigation. Single photos don't need the navigation to go to a page that doesn't exist.

it could be helpful to add some sort of navigation to the top as well. I generally put one at top & bottom

Yvette mentioned this as well and I will incorporate a navigation at the top of each page, once I can figure out how to design all the pages in CSS. I really liked Hunans Butteredcat new draft look, especially the neat clean navbar at the top. No javascript is a nice feature. I also like BerksWebGuy's template with the odd shaped box around the text too. Once again, gotta learn more about CSS. Actually, I understand CSS to a point as it doesn't seem all that complicated, but just when I think I'm getting the hang of it, it's the positioning that comes back to fight me for a couple of days at a time. That's really frustrating and a time waster!

Thanks for the critique. I welcome any others, as I still have a long way to go I believe.

Ken