First Website - Feedback Appreciated

Longimanus

Longimanus

Suspended / Banned
Messages
1,218
Name
Lee
Edit My Images
Yes
Ive been toying with the idea of setting up a website for a while and decided to have a go with Squarespace. Ive been having a play for the last 6 days and have come up with the following, if you get 5 mins please go take a look, any feedback would be much appreciated. Its by no means a finished article, there is still plenty to do!

https://www.lifeatf8photography.co.uk

Thanks in advance
 
Might want to get this sorted out first

37263116472_4004158f6a.jpg
 
No thanks.

If you want people to give you a critique of your website then have it readily available to view.

I am certainly not jumping through any hoops to view it.

Please feel free to count this as your first bit of feedback ;)
 
Keith W said:
No thanks.

If you want people to give you a critique of your website then have it readily available to view.

I am certainly not jumping through any hoops to view it.

Please feel free to count this as your first bit of feedback ;)
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Ok, thanks Keith

I cannot do anything about that at present unfortunately as it's a trial

To anyone else it's one click, entry of 5 letters and a press of enter
 
Apart from the login part the site looks clean, sharp, perhaps a brief description/caption on some pics for example the Quiraing on Skye. One of my pet hates is seeing "Page under construction" messages, if asking for critique the perhaps omitting these pages until their ready to be published.
 
frank said:
Apart from the login part the site looks clean, sharp, perhaps a brief description/caption on some pics for example the Quiraing on Skye. One of my pet hates is seeing "Page under construction" messages, if asking for critique the perhaps omitting these pages until their ready to be published.
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@frank, many thanks for taking the time to have a look, apologies for the login.

I get your point on the pages under construction, I've just been playing with possibly future layouts

I have put some comments on images and agree with you totally on this, just takes a bit of time.

I'm just trying to work out whether to proceed with the full product after the trial
 
Orangecroc said:
It's nice and simple with intuitive navigation. I like the information overlay provided with the images. The server feels slow though and images were slow to load.
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Again, thanks for taking the time to look, I will look into why it's slow, I've not experienced this yet, I will give it a good at work
 
i like the overall look, and i love the images. the page menu on the top left is a little fiddly and to me personally its out of place. have you considered having that centrally located?

not bad for a first attempt, certainly way better than mine was :)
 
Keith W said:
No thanks.

If you want people to give you a critique of your website then have it readily available to view.

I am certainly not jumping through any hoops to view it.

Please feel free to count this as your first bit of feedback ;)
Click to expand...

He obviously doesn't want it published as it's not complete yet - and is asking for opinions before doing so.

"I am certainly not jumping through any hoops to view it." - The irony being you've probably spent more time typing up your comment than it would have taken to view the site in the first place.

Some peoples sense of self importance blows me away sometimes.
 
gremlin16 said:
i like the overall look, and i love the images. the page menu on the top left is a little fiddly and to me personally its out of place. have you considered having that centrally located?

not bad for a first attempt, certainly way better than mine was :)
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Thanks for looking, can I ask if you viewed it on a computer or Ipad/Iphone?

I havent had this happen yet to me
 
ohms12 said:
He obviously doesn't want it published as it's not complete yet - and is asking for opinions before doing so.

"I am certainly not jumping through any hoops to view it." - The irony being you've probably spent more time typing up your comment than it would have taken to view the site in the first place.

Some peoples sense of self importance blows me away sometimes.
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Omar, sometimes you just need to rise above and let it go, but you probably said exactly what I was thinking
 
If you want to know what you website will look like on various screen sizes, mobiles, iPads etc. then use a service such as Screenfly.

Just punch in your URL, hit go, and then you can select varying different screen sizes etc. from along the top.

You should be able to get a good representation of what your website will look like.

http://quirktools.com/screenfly/
 
Keith W said:
If you want to know what you website will look like on various screen sizes, mobiles, iPads etc. then use a service such as Screenfly.

Just punch in your URL, hit go, and then you can select varying different screen sizes etc. from along the top.

You should be able to get a good representation of what your website will look like.

http://quirktools.com/screenfly/
Click to expand...

Thank you, I will check this out tonight, appreciate the info
 
Looks like a great website, easy and clean at first glance, navigation is easy, it flows through each section well and the images look nice with the explanations at the bottom too.

Squarespace is a great platform to put a nice website together without needing web skills, so you can concentrate on the looks of the site instead. So well done, if it's your first go then you did a really good job.

(I design websites so I really hate squarespace, they're ruining my business) ;P
 
g4jsg said:
Looks like a great website, easy and clean at first glance, navigation is easy, it flows through each section well and the images look nice with the explanations at the bottom too.

Squarespace is a great platform to put a nice website together without needing web skills, so you can concentrate on the looks of the site instead. So well done, if it's your first go then you did a really good job.

(I design websites so I really hate squarespace, they're ruining my business) ;P
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Thanks John, sorry about the business :-)
 
A few things. If I were looking at the images on your home page - and liked one, i'd like to be taken straight to the page or the gallery where it's located. So, either tag underneath your 5 images or links to their specific gallery. For example, say I liked your 'mind the gap' image - where is that located? If I can't see it a full size image, why is it there?

I also think a direct link to your social media pages should be visible on every page (or at least the home page), albeit small, at the very bottom. (That is if you have them!). In your About page, i'd add a little more credibility as to who you are, either in a phone number, or at the very minimum, your name. Not sure i'd want to hire someone who wouldn't be willing to give me at least that amount of information about themselves..

A good job, though! Nice and clean. :)
 
ohms12 said:
A few things. If I were looking at the images on your home page - and liked one, i'd like to be taken straight to the page or the gallery where it's located. So, either tag underneath your 5 images or links to their specific gallery. For example, say I liked your 'mind the gap' image - where is that located? If I can't see it a full size image, why is it there?

I also think a direct link to your social media pages should be visible on every page (or at least the home page), albeit small, at the very bottom. (That is if you have them!). In your About page, i'd add a little more credibility as to who you are, either in a phone number, or at the very minimum, your name. Not sure i'd want to hire someone who wouldn't be willing to give me at least that amount of information about themselves..

A good job, though! Nice and clean. :)
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Thanks for the feedback, I agree with your first comment on the front page, I had the same thoughts but as of yet I couldnt get it to work, something I am still looking into

Regarding social media, as this is a trial I cant do this at present, but there would be links in the footers

About page, Im not sure about this, I checked other websites and saw that they spoke in the 3rd person, so was just deciding how to approach it, but yes I will update with my name. Regarding hiring, now that would be good, but as a start I was thinking that this was just a gallery of my work, with maybe a note stating 'prints are available please contact me to discuss'.

Again, thanks for the feedback
 
I viewed on an android and requested mobile and desktop view. I do like the website it's a nice clean layout, I like how the page is responsive and works well for both desktop and tablet.. Love the images, one bit of advice I would say make sure everything is available from your menus. I do love under the water and below the water. However on the homepage I was greeted with the picture of the birds and the one with the 4 fish in its mouth. Then it wasn't in any of the menus again. I know the homepage on a website is generally meant to be as a landing page and not revisited.. Also if you've got them menus. I would come up with a contingency for the future if you done portraits. Because you could have "Below the water, above the water, above the land (for your bird shots etc) but this wouldn't work with portraits and wouldn't fit in.. I'm actually not a photographer. I have an interest in it but I've literally had a dslr for a couple of weeks so I can't critique on your images. But I do actually work as my day job running e-commerce websites and building websites..
 
Longimanus said:
Thanks for the feedback, I agree with your first comment on the front page, I had the same thoughts but as of yet I couldnt get it to work, something I am still looking into

Regarding social media, as this is a trial I cant do this at present, but there would be links in the footers

About page, Im not sure about this, I checked other websites and saw that they spoke in the 3rd person, so was just deciding how to approach it, but yes I will update with my name. Regarding hiring, now that would be good, but as a start I was thinking that this was just a gallery of my work, with maybe a note stating 'prints are available please contact me to discuss'.

Again, thanks for the feedback
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No worries. You make some fair points, glad to see what I've thought isn't totally off base! The About page thing is a personal peeve - I truly hate people who talk about themselves in the 3rd person, like some sort of obituary page. Just be honest, keep it short and make it personable. If this were for a client - they would want to know about YOU, they want to be able to trust who they're giving their hard earned to. Just my two cents, as a business owner.

Best of luck, wether you keep this as a personal gallery, or as something more professional!
 
AndyG123 said:
I viewed on an android and requested mobile and desktop view. I do like the website it's a nice clean layout, I like how the page is responsive and works well for both desktop and tablet.. Love the images, one bit of advice I would say make sure everything is available from your menus. I do love under the water and below the water. However on the homepage I was greeted with the picture of the birds and the one with the 4 fish in its mouth. Then it wasn't in any of the menus again. I know the homepage on a website is generally meant to be as a landing page and not revisited.. Also if you've got them menus. I would come up with a contingency for the future if you done portraits. Because you could have "Below the water, above the water, above the land (for your bird shots etc) but this wouldn't work with portraits and wouldn't fit in.. I'm actually not a photographer. I have an interest in it but I've literally had a dslr for a couple of weeks so I can't critique on your images. But I do actually work as my day job running e-commerce websites and building websites..
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Hi Andy, thanks for the feedback

If I were to take this out of the trial period all the images would be available, I just didn't want to invest a load of time upfront. I have categories like Birds, Insects, Mammals, Sharks and Rays that are currently hidden.

Regarding future proofing, I really can't see myself doing portraits like you suggested, but I take your comments into consideration, at present I just can't think of anything that I may add that wouldn't fit in here :-)
 
ohms12 said:
No worries. You make some fair points, glad to see what I've thought isn't totally off base! The About page thing is a personal peeve - I truly hate people who talk about themselves in the 3rd person, like some sort of obituary page. Just be honest, keep it short and make it personable. If this were for a client - they would want to know about YOU, they want to be able to trust who they're giving their hard earned to. Just my two cents, as a business owner.

Best of luck, wether you keep this as a personal gallery, or as something more professional!
Click to expand...

Thanks Omar, Im with you about the 3rd person thing!

I think I will go live with this and see where it goes from there
 
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