New Website design - Comments wanted

[Jim Becia]

Hi,

Hoping to get some feedback from the forum. I just put up a new website using Visual Server (they are out of Santa Fe.) It's a template driven software program that is very easy to use. I have put up 40 or so images along with a little text. I'm curious as to how it looks to others out there. It seems to look good on my monitor, but then again, I am working on dark age equipment with a 17 inch Dell CRT that has to be 7 or 8 years old. So, I'd like to hear from others as to its appearance. Your comments would be appreciated. Here is the website address - www.spiritlightphotography.com.

Thanks. Jim

[Walter Calahan]

Congratulations. Loads quickly and is very easy to use. One question though, why the gallery button on the bottom of the page instead of with the other navigation buttons? I'd put the gallery button up top, first in line, because you want visitor to see you images without having to hunt for the button.

[IanG]

Works very well on my Laptop Jim, it's excellent, clean simple fast but best of all it scales nicely to fit the screen.

I think I'd prefer the Gallery link at the top as well.

Ian

[memorris]

Overall the site is nice, clean, and simple with no unnecessary frills. Nice site that I find pleasing and would visit more than once.

However there is one thing I found strange. When you view the gallery the page expands to full screen but the size of the image is tiny in comparison. I have a large monitor (30") but this is somewhat annoying. If the browser expands to full screen, I would like it to have a reason, like a large size photo to display.

[Jeremy Moore]

Ditto with a gallery link on the top as I can only get to your pictures from the home page.

[timparkin]

Ditto with a gallery link on the top as I can only get to your pictures from the home page.

Yep - add the gallery link to the top throughout the site

[Andrew O'Neill]

Looks great on my monitor, Jim. Everything loads lickity-split, too. Nice work.

[Harley Goldman]

Fast, clean and simple. Well done. I also would like the gallery button added to the top. No problem leaving it at the bottom as well.

[Lon Overacker]

Jim,

Overall a very clean and well done site. Beautiful work by the way!

A few items for feedback:

1. Agree with others, bring the Gallery link up top. Simply include it with your navigation menu. On a page like the "About" page, you can't get to your images unless you scroll all the way down - and it's not intuitive. Additionally, be consistent by referencing "galleries" and "more galleries" OR "Portfolios" and "More Portfolios."

2. I like the image navigation. The Prev/Next function remains in one spot which means your visitors and scroll through your images without having to move the mouse. Minor, but I think a small and important detail.

3. YOUR NAME! The only place I find it is the tiny copyright at the bottom of the page. Any reason why every page doesn't have the header, "Spirit Light Photography - by Jim Becia" ?? Name recognition!

4. thumbs. personal choice of course, but with all the real estate, I think you could easily double the size of your thumbnails.

5. Recommend reading up on some SEO - search engine optimization. Took a peak at your source and I don't even see a description, keywords or any meta data on your index page. Definitely need that kind of stuff if you want to be found by the search engines and ultimately show up in places like Google...

6. Copyright. You do have the copyright notice at the bottom which is good. But you might want to add some text either in your "about" section or create a new one that makes a simple statement about image use, copyrights, etc. Of course that doesn't do a darn thing to protect you, but... something to consider.

Looks great though. Nice and neutral color scheme and nicely laid out.

Lon

[Jim Becia]

Thanks everyone and especially Lon for all the suggestions. Very much appreciated. Will try and get to it next week as I have to leave town early tomorrow morning. Thanks again. Jim Becia