Back for help

**Steve Newport** · 23 April 2006, 10:29 PM

I've been working on getting a website up for the past month as I've been selling my photography at various art shows and needed a place that people could order prints from after the shows if they so desired. So that gave me the initiative to start working on a complete site and a reason to learn flash...

Anyway, it's still got a ton of work to go, but the basics are up and I would like to request any criticism on the general feel, efficiency and ease of navigating the site, so I figured I'd post it here where all my old internet art pals lurk for help! This is the first complete website I've ever made and the first time I've ever made more than a simple motion-tween in flash...

The shockwave-version check will be more customized in the end (it's automatic right now). There's still a lot of fade-in fade-out issues. The print section will soon feature every image on the site to be displayed in the frames and mats, and more frames and mat options (sorry, no illustrations/design up yet!) But tear it apart please!

**Egg Bramhill** · 24 April 2006, 12:50 AM

Hi Steve

Great to see you back! How's the studying going? The site works just fine, very quick and slick. Perhaps I would question the Black background if I was nit picking. It's just that the Black Frames get lost in it.

Egg

**Albacore** · 24 April 2006, 05:03 PM

Hi Steve,
Just about the same comment as Egg, not too keen on the black, some of the pictures lose their bite. Also I thought when you use Flash it was dead easy to centre the your page to suit all resolutions?

**Mickie** · 24 April 2006, 05:53 PM

Steve,

I would change "New Work" to something else. It's going to be read as "New York". Somethings are just so familiar that our minds leap to a conclusion without really reading it...t's lk rding wtht vwls...your mind fills in the blanks...that was harder to type than to read!

I like the simplicity of the icons, but it doesn't say artist to me. Maybe you should keep the simplicity but add some of the style we all know you have.

Mickie

**RTK** · 25 April 2006, 03:43 AM

Hi Steve!

Good to see that you got in finally! Thumbs-up also to Antony for getting it fixed quickly.

I took the liberty of moving your post to the website related forum. Probably a better place to get some feedback anyway.

First - I'm with Egg and Albacore on the background colour. IMO - Black sets off colour really well (make things appear more vibrant)... However, it can also make things seem heavy/depressing/boring/"a-tough-read". If you have good stats for your site, you should be able to see how changing the background to white - affects a visitors pageviews. Play with it.

You make some great stuff, Steve. What you do will sell itself... But as you are doing a lot of art releated things - people will "invest" their time/money/energy/etc. as much in your work as they will, in YOU as an individual. Granted, the site is still under construction, so I'm sure you are working on all kinds of things... But sell yourself also - in writing/and in photographs - help people on their way to quickly find out who/"what" you are - and how great you are!

The site moves along quickly for me... However, as the galleries grow, things might take some time to load (especially for low-bandwidth visitors) - do you have some sort of progress bar in place?

Contact info. phone number/address etc. Have it on the front page also - it's instant credibility.

Do try and make things easy to maintain/update also... I'm sure you would rather be creative - than pour time in to website maintenance?

Icons - I think they work. You do so many things and different styles that matching the navigation of the site to your imagery would be next to impossible.

Going all-out with flash can be tricky when it comes to getting indexed (well) by search engines. The traffic from there might not be all that great. However, if people enjoy what you do - they will link to your site, and tell their friends about it. In terms of sales of your photography - having a good-looking and an "easy to visit" site - will generate more sales/leads from cards that you will hand out at shows and vernissages than plowing in time with search engines.

See it as a long-term project - get it up where you want it to be - and then fine-tune/experiment. It's not static. Small changes can make a big difference.

Great stuff with the frames/prints section!

Ohhh... Don't look at my main site (for pointers...) I realize that it's horrific (and it's on my to-do list to change). Been busy for the last 4-5 days breaking out another well visited part of it (that doesn't fit a "real illustrator persons site"). I registered it this morning actually (might not resolve yet) - Ristoons/RisToons. Still a few things to fine-tune (banners/linking etc.)

I do realize that on the surface - http://www.ristoons.com - http://www.askdog.com - http://www.webtures.com seems like madness and a waste of time, but there is a plan to the madness...

If it works out or not, is an all-together different thing - but there is a plan.

It's been a long day - I'll visit your thread later also. Hopefully more people will have a look at your site.

Again, great to see you again!

**Egg Bramhill** · 25 April 2006, 04:26 AM

Risto wrote: Going all-out with flash can be tricky when it comes to getting indexed (well) by search engines. The traffic from there might not be all that great. However, if people enjoy what you do - they will link to your site, and tell their friends about it. In terms of sales of your photography - having a good-looking and an "easy to visit" site - will generate more sales/leads from cards that you will hand out at shows and vernissages than plowing in time with search engines.

This is a very valid point. I create almost all my sites now totaly in Flash and to get around this I create the index.html page in html but geared almost exclusively for Search Engine optimisation whilst still retaining a grammatical sense. This page then leads to the Flash only pages. Sometimes I also add 'sub-pages' with keywords that just point back to the Flash pages. It might take a bit more effort but it's not the unsurmountable obstacle others would have you believe.

Egg

**zee** · 25 April 2006, 01:43 PM

Hi Steve,

Great to see you back here at talkgraphics. Hope all is going well. Your photos are fantastic! You are a true artist regardless of the medium. Personally, I really like the black theme; kind of gives me the feeling of being in a "dark room".

One problem I noticed is that when you click on the photography icon and then cycle through the prints you are only seeing the prints in the "abandoned" category. I'm not sure that your visitors will realize that there are additional prints to view by clicking on the conceptual, modern structures & nature links.

Also, on the home page I was required to click on the Photgraphy icon "twice" before the prints displayed. It may be a good idea to label your icons on the home page instead of having to mouse over them to see what they represent. The mouse over is a cool effect, but your selling your art, not website design features. Keep up the good work and stay in touch. I'll be watching your site to see how it evolves... I'm sure it will end up great like all the other stuff you create.

Zee

additional note: I just realized that the last print (morning view) in the nature category is a very cool panoramic picture. If your going to have a lot of panoramic pictures maybe it would be good to have a separate panormaic category with a note that tells your visitors to scroll horizontally to view the entire print. Many people visit a site for only a few minutes so it's important to make it "user friendly" so they don't miss anything. Sit down with some of your freinds and "without any input from you" have them navigate through your site. It will help you to understand how other people think and may assist you in designing the site.

**Steve Newport** · 26 April 2006, 01:41 AM

excellent excellent excellent

I knew I missed this place!
So much advice that I would've never thought of on my own.

I've had my girlfriend, brother and other family browse through it to give advice, I'll keep doing that with other people.

I'm in between selling my work, working on my site, working/finishing/starting finals, and trying to start a tshirt business with my brother which also involves building a website, so I'll slowly be working on my site, but I will definitely take all this advice.
I'm still open for more critiques if you have them

Oh, and sorry for the wrong forum, I just wanted to make sure all the TG oldtimers saw the post!

take care