Complete revamp of my website

[ndwgolf]

Guys and Gals
I have had my photography website now for just over a year and have enjoyed uploading pictures to it and basically showing it off to friends and relatives.
In the beginning I made quite a few sales even though the whole idea of having a website was not to be a business but to be a means of showing off my work. When I first took my website live I posted on this forum to ask what everyone here thought of it and I got a bunch of feedback…………some good and some not so good.
Well I have now had my site completely revamped and have incorporated many of the suggestions that I received from this forum. I have reduced the menu size (just a wee bitty) and removed the grotesque watermark that was right across the middle of the picture. I have hopefully made it a much more user friendly viewing experience by removing the eShop all together and making it easy to go from one picture to the next. I have removed all the (please don't take my picture shots) and concentrated on showing only my best shots instead of the few nice shots mingled in with a bunch of crap.
So please feel free to take a look at it and see what you think, I am still adding serial numbers and comments to the pictures, and to be honest I am finding it very boring doing that, but I have just returned home from work in Nigeria so have a month at home to get that finished off.
There is a tab for Leica Monochrom pictures and it has 3 pictures in that tab but neither of them are from a Leica Monochrom as I am waiting on delivery of my new toy.
Anyway take a wee look and for those of you who can remember what my old site looked like I am sure some of you will see quite a big difference………..enjoy
Neil
http://www.neilsphotography.co/

 

[tinite]

Overall, it looks quite nice.

Some thoughts -

1 - the navigation menus aren't logically divided. You have your main drop down one, and then two links in the top right. The large main menu mostly has links to photos. The two links are to more 'about the photographer' sort of thing. If I were you I would therefore move "PRINT & DELIVERY INFORMATION" to next to the couple of the links in the top right. This would make more sense, and make things a little more understandable.

2 - the main menu is a bit confusing. I think you should really really focus on trying to slim down the number of options. How is the section on 'panoramas' not a gallery? But 'landscape' IS a gallery. This makes no sense to me. If I were you, I would carefully come up with a small number of 'galleries' and have them all listed top level in the main menu. I.e. the main menu would just read 'new stuff', 'landscapes' etc etc

3 - you have orphaned menu items. The top level items 'Leica Monochrome', 'Panoramas' and 'Limited Edition' all have only one item in their submenu - but aren't links themselves. This is confusing. As a user you naturally go to click the toplevel item. It adds an unnecessary confusion/frustration to have to click the single sub-menu item. There's only need for a submenu if you have more than one option! (Although in general submenus should be avoided because they are confusing and tend to put users off).

4 - "New stuff" isn't a very awe-inspiring title. If you want to come across as deeply passionate about your photography (which I'm sure you do), I think "stuff" sends across the wrong message. This should be more than just "stuff" to you - it's your art! Something like "recent work" would be much more elegant.

5 - The menu remains slightly too large (horizontally). On smaller displays, the hide arrow can disappear. (And can't be scrolled to). The text can afford to be smaller, with less spacing around it here.

6 - The galleries, in general, work quite well. However, I'm not sure having a comments section at the bottom is necessary, is it? It's a tad messy is all.

I hope this feedback helps you - good luck!

 

[ndwgolf]

Overall, it looks quite nice.

Some thoughts -

1 - the navigation menus aren't logically divided. You have your main drop down one, and then two links in the top right. The large main menu mostly has links to photos. The two links are to more 'about the photographer' sort of thing. If I were you I would therefore move "PRINT & DELIVERY INFORMATION" to next to the couple of the links in the top right. This would make more sense, and make things a little more understandable.

2 - the main menu is a bit confusing. I think you should really really focus on trying to slim down the number of options. How is the section on 'panoramas' not a gallery? But 'landscape' IS a gallery. This makes no sense to me. If I were you, I would carefully come up with a small number of 'galleries' and have them all listed top level in the main menu. I.e. the main menu would just read 'new stuff', 'landscapes' etc etc

3 - you have orphaned menu items. The top level items 'Leica Monochrome', 'Panoramas' and 'Limited Edition' all have only one item in their submenu - but aren't links themselves. This is confusing. As a user you naturally go to click the toplevel item. It adds an unnecessary confusion/frustration to have to click the single sub-menu item. There's only need for a submenu if you have more than one option! (Although in general submenus should be avoided because they are confusing and tend to put users off).

4 - "New stuff" isn't a very awe-inspiring title. If you want to come across as deeply passionate about your photography (which I'm sure you do), I think "stuff" sends across the wrong message. This should be more than just "stuff" to you - it's your art! Something like "recent work" would be much more elegant.

5 - The menu remains slightly too large (horizontally). On smaller displays, the hide arrow can disappear. (And can't be scrolled to). The text can afford to be smaller, with less spacing around it here.

6 - The galleries, in general, work quite well. However, I'm not sure having a comments section at the bottom is necessary, is it? It's a tad messy is all.

I hope this feedback helps you - good luck!

Sorry not sure what your name is but thank you for your input. After reading your message it all now makes perfect sense to me to re-do the menus. I have also got rid of the "STUFF" its the roughneck in me that uses words like that. As for getting rid of the comments on the bottom of the pages I cant seem to find a way to do that even though I have the "show comments" box unchecked.
Anyway once again thanks for your help.
Note all items updated already

 

[tinite]

Already looking much better - good work!

To remove comments you'll likely want to remove the comment block from your gallery pages - however, if you're not all that familiar with web coding, probably best to not worry about this one.

My name's Jacob - and no problem, glad to help!