critique on my website

andiphoto

andiphoto

Knock-Off Nigel
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Name
Andrew
Edit My Images
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Hello guys,

just redesigned my website and looking for peoples opinions on it.. im not posting to advertise just wanting peoples thoughts on what you like or dislike about it.

http://andy-terry.co.uk

:'( be brutal... not too brutal though as i do have feelings lol :'(
 
Hi Andy,

In general I like the site, although I feel it looks more like a blog as opposed to a photography site. This may be intentional in which case ignore me :)

first thing I noticed was a delay in loading the main (header) image(s) when visiting the page. (using Google Chrome)

I did expect when clicking on the images at the top, that the image I clicked on would be opened in the main page, eg: when clicking on the image of the chair to the right of the Tyne Bridge, I expected the "Death At Tynemouth" image to either move to the central image or open in the page below.

One other minor issue, that caught my eye was the "Contact Me" section at the bottom, You have "Telephone" without a number, I feel this needs to be either left off the page or a telephone number shown.

On the whole though, I found the site easy to navigate and enjoyable to use.

Hope this helps :)
 
The thing that jumped up at me straight away was the translucent banner with your menu buttons is over your twitter icon (Safari), simple fix, get rid of the twitter icon, you have it enough all over the rest of your site.

After looking at all the pages, there seems to be very little new information on each page, 75% of it is the same, but everything seems to reload fully each time and seems pretty slow.

The header does look good, but I agree with the comment above about the pictures needing to move etc.
 
Craikeybaby said:
After looking at all the pages, there seems to be very little new information on each page, 75% of it is the same, but everything seems to reload fully each time and seems pretty slow.
Click to expand...

This. It would be fine just to have the twitter, flickr and login columns on one page only. Once you have seen them for one page you don't want or need to load them again, just diverts attention from the different pages. :)
 
I agree with Andrew, the site looks more like a blog than a photography portfolio.

I've also spotted some spelling mistakes.

Apart from that, very nice portfolio. :thumbs:
 
You did say brutal, so apologies in advance, as i do this for a living ...

You cant really claim it as a redesign, as you've just used a ready made wordpress theme! http://www.wpthemes.com/sophisticatedfolio-portfolio-wordpress-theme/ :D

- So commenting on the changes you have made to the template, I'd lose the extremetracking in favour of google analytics, which will stop the footer background from running out before the end of the page.
- Also, i'm assuming the login form on every page is just for the back-end of the site, in which case you need to remove it. Otherwise you need to explain what it is for and style the heading inline with the theme.
- Logo looks good, i would however consider trying a thinner version of the same fonts if you can, it looks a bit heavy compared to the rest of the site.
- Portfolio pics in the header work really well, but clicking them does nothing, you almost expect them to fip around, or at least goto a gallery of some sort.
 
Karlos said:
You did say brutal, so apologies in advance, as i do this for a living ...

You cant really claim it as a redesign, as you've just used a ready made wordpress theme! http://www.wpthemes.com/sophisticatedfolio-portfolio-wordpress-theme/ :D

- So commenting on the changes you have made to the template, I'd lose the extremetracking in favour of google analytics, which will stop the footer background from running out before the end of the page.
- Also, i'm assuming the login form on every page is just for the back-end of the site, in which case you need to remove it. Otherwise you need to explain what it is for and style the heading inline with the theme.
- Logo looks good, i would however consider trying a thinner version of the same fonts if you can, it looks a bit heavy compared to the rest of the site.
- Portfolio pics in the header work really well, but clicking them does nothing, you almost expect them to fip around, or at least goto a gallery of some sort.
Click to expand...

when i mentioned redesign i didnt mean i designed it i just ment a different design/look to the site.

i will also take all the comments on board and have a fiddle around.

cheers for the input.

andy
 
I agree completely with Karlos, Andy. Also make sure you spell check everything before posting. :)
 
one thing i have just spotted on the twitter update's it says of a death on a road

me personall would of walked from that site as soon as i had seen that

i know it is not your fault but might be worth looking at what the content is from twitter ie not to have news update's on
 
Like it, i was kinda expecting the images on main page to scroll for some reason.

other than that seems ok,

quick bit of adivce, do the search engine friendly urls option in wordpress admin panel. stops urls looking like "http://andy-terry.co.uk/?page_id=2" and makes them "http://andy-terry.co.uk/about-andy-terry/01-01-10/" etc you can pick what it displays like. makes the url mean more and weighted in terms of seo
 
Haven't had time for a proper look but i'd remove the twitter bit.

@Wossy so what's happening the wossy.. U going a different channel... What about the 4 poofs lol http://myloc.me/2GNEN about an hour ago
Click to expand...

That just isn't professional and I personally wouldn't buy an image from a site with that on it.
 
Site:

Cut the bottom down a bit - for extra comments imho it takes up too much room.... Actually having looked at it more - are you using 3 frames / divsions ? If so change the back ground from white to some thing nearer black and where possible use fixed widths / heights...

Fonts - stick to one or even two sets and have a common format.... what I do is write it in a txt file to refer too later if needs be.... eg http://andy-terry.co.uk/my-work/ count the number of fonts / bold / formating you have there.

Twitter:

Get another account for this professional stuff..... you can always auto retweet plus doing that you can set a facebook business page up and have it auto update.

I'm sure I can think of more but I'll let you have a play first.

Terran

EDIT some Wordpress template examples.... plenty of free ones on the Net though - http://www.templatemonster.com/wordpress-themes.php
 
thanks for all the feed back.

with me currently at my full time job at a day centre... i can only change what i can on the web.

all the manual edits ill have to wait till i get home.

i will look at getting a seperate account for twitter...i just put this in for the time being.

does anyone know what the best (free) way of selling my prints online.. ive got wpshop on my website but its not very good..
 
The 'my work' page doesn't really do you any favours at the moment - a tiny mobile phone image of your photo doesn't do them justice. If you are looking at selling to businesses then perhaps changing the name to 'clients' and a descriptive paragraph at the top would work better.

Also, if you are able, I would remove 'checkout page' and add a shopping basket instead.
 
the template is ok but the header image takes too long to load.
Is the intention to have it looking like a personal blog?
If not then maybe consider installing nextgengallery and creating a portfolio of your images, you can then set the home page to be an actual page rather than the blog posts.

so that you dont have home and also the page link leading to the same page you can edit and delete the 'home' tag in the head.php file. then set the blog to be a different section.
 
with me not being a business yet and just trying to see if i get alot a interest in my pictures i want to start it as a blog and once i get the interest i will be then changing it round to a more professional site..
 
I really like the web site, it's very clean and crisp - this is something you dont normally see days as a lot of designers are that wrapped up in making it look that clever it actually becomes somewhat confusing to use or alternatively functionality is impacted.

Yup definitely like it - well done.

Brownie points for the rich content as google loves this type of site.
 
andiphoto said:
with me not being a business yet and just trying to see if i get alot a interest in my pictures i want to start it as a blog and once i get the interest i will be then changing it round to a more professional site..
Click to expand...

good idea, you dont 'have' to make it look like a samey photography site, i like blogs. as long as they are kept professional they give a more personal feel.

id definately build a proper image gallery though.
if you doing the photo52 gives a good place to store those too
 
thanks for the input guys ... much appreciated.

anyone got any ideas on gallerys i can link to and maybe even sell prints from..

as im not making much money at the moment im looking for free options or very inexpensive... to start off with.
 
andiphoto said:
thanks for the input guys ... much appreciated.

anyone got any ideas on gallerys i can link to and maybe even sell prints from..

as im not making much money at the moment im looking for free options or very inexpensive... to start off with.
Click to expand...
I'm using 'Gallery' at the mo which has plugins but its not a pro option....

Terran
 
anyone know much about jquery.. im thinking about changing the front image into a image crossfade.... showing various images.
 
for the gallery why not use the wordpress plugin nextgen gallery and use paypal for instant payments.
an easy free option.

another option is to build a site using zencart, you can create pages using ezpages and have all your images hosted in a striped down version of a shopping cart... bit of a learning curve but is good, and open source.

if sticking with wp though id definatly keep it simple and use the many plugins.
 
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