My new homepage feedback please

redmonkee

redmonkee

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PHILIP
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Hi guys i've decided to revamp my website and so far i've managed to sort the homepage and just thought i'd get your thoughts on the design so far.

Here's my current live site http://philcarverphotography.com/

and here's a couple of versions for the new homepage.

1.
home_page_1.jpg


2.
home_page_2.jpg


I want a more minimal professional look than my current site. And as I want to do weddings I want my homepage to show this hence the wedding images in the montage.

I'm torn over where to have the logo. The idea of the second design is the images show my initials, and I might replace the welcome text with an enter button.

any C&C very much appreciated :thumbs:
 
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It is possibly one of THE most important things to maximise and understand when designing a website. It's what determines where you website appears in search engine listings.

I like the idea for a page, but I have some suggestions. I would make that your home page and navigation page. I would remove the welcome text and the enter, and simply have one of those panels showing your logo (like in the second picture). Then I suggest when you mouseover a wedding photo "Weddings" appears in a nice modern font over the photo (perhaps the photo becomes greyed out a bit, to make the words pop a bit). You then click that image to get to a gallery of your weddings. And then, maybe one would be "portraits", another one "sport" etc. And then a self-portrait could be "about". Etc.

That would be very neat, very minimalistic and a very impressive home page. People would get to your site and be instantly presented with all your work, but would also be quickly able to see more of what they are interested in.

By the way, I have done a fair amount of web design etc. so if you ever want a detailed second opinion on anything, feel free to PM me here or drop me an email via my site's contact form. Have a nice day :)
 
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2nd design and go with what tinite has said... Change it to be your main page/navigation, remove the welcome text, leave the logo where it is and have the pictures rollover with links to pages/galleries :) Sorted!!
 
I prefer the second one also. The first is too large and maybe would work better with two rows??
 
I like the themed columns in the second one, which would work well with the roll-over described above. For some reason I don't think the wedding pics should be the first column though. I've know idea why, it just strikes me as wrong.

The shot of the Champagne Pool looks very like one of mine by the way... :lol:
 
tinite said:
SEO stands for search engine optimisation. It is possibly one of THE most important things to maximise and understand when designing a website. It's what determines where you website appears in search engine listings.

I like the idea for a page, but I have some suggestions. I would make that your home page and navigation page. I would remove the welcome text and the enter, and simply have one of those panels showing your logo (like in the second picture). Then I suggest when you mouseover a wedding photo "Weddings" appears in a nice modern font over the photo (perhaps the photo becomes greyed out a bit, to make the words pop a bit). You then click that image to get to a gallery of your weddings. And then, maybe one would be "portraits", another one "sport" etc. And then a self-portrait could be "about". Etc.

That would be very neat, very minimalistic and a very impressive home page. People would get to your site and be instantly presented with all your work, but would also be quickly able to see more of what they are interested in.

By the way, I have done a fair amount of web design etc. so if you ever want a detailed second opinion on anything, feel free to PM me here or drop me an email via my site's contact form. Have a nice day :)
Click to expand...

Some excellent ideas there thank you :thumbs:

i had in mind a roll over here the image turns to the colour version, now I might try that idea with the text like your suggestion linking to a gallery:)
 
duncolm said:
I like the themed columns in the second one, which would work well with the roll-over described above. For some reason I don't think the wedding pics should be the first column though. I've know idea why, it just strikes me as wrong.

The shot of the Champagne Pool looks very like one of mine by the way... :lol:
Click to expand...

Hi Duncan, I think you're right. I think for some reason the darker images need to be broken up by the lighter tones of the wedding images. Therefore i'll put the sports first as this is my main speciality and maybe the weddings third :thumbs:
 
The blog area is just white, Until you hover over it with your mouse then the word "Blog" shows, I think that could do with making the word blog stand out so people know its there.

But overall great!
 
Also, some of the mouseovers turn the image to colour, and some grey it out with text. I think they should all be the same, I'm afraid. I do like the greyscale to colour effect, but I don't think it's working that well. I would change it so that all the images have text mouseovers so you know what you're clicking on. Visitors will be less inclined to click on a link if they're not entirely sure what they'll be getting, I believe. All the two separate mouseover effects make the page feel just a tad disjointed.
 
There's some great design tips above, however I'd have a separate site for weddings.
Although web designers, your friends and other photographers might be interested in the mix of work, Google;) and your wedding customers would probably be happier with a wedding photographer site.
 
tinite said:
Also, some of the mouseovers turn the image to colour, and some grey it out with text. I think they should all be the same, I'm afraid. I do like the greyscale to colour effect, but I don't think it's working that well. I would change it so that all the images have text mouseovers so you know what you're clicking on. Visitors will be less inclined to click on a link if they're not entirely sure what they'll be getting, I believe. All the two separate mouseover effects make the page feel just a tad disjointed.
Click to expand...

I can see where you are coming from. My original idea was for the colour mouse overs to be just that without linking anywhere. Only the text mouse overs were to link to the relevant sections of my site however the guy doing the coding said he could only make the colour mouse overs work if they linked somewhere :|
 
Phil V said:
There's some great design tips above, however I'd have a separate site for weddings.
Although web designers, your friends and other photographers might be interested in the mix of work, Google;) and your wedding customers would probably be happier with a wedding photographer site.
Click to expand...

Hi Phil

I totally agree a separate site for weddings is the right way to go, but having only done one wedding I feel theres not enough yet to dedicate a full site to it.

Once I have a few more under my belt I'll branch that off to a separate one :thumbs:
 
redmonkee said:
I can see where you are coming from. My original idea was for the colour mouse overs to be just that without linking anywhere. Only the text mouse overs were to link to the relevant sections of my site however the guy doing the coding said he could only make the colour mouse overs work if they linked somewhere :|
Click to expand...

I'm afraid, that you most certainly can make the mouseover work if it doesn't link anywhere. Either by using a onmouseover event, or by simply just linking to the page you're on, or to "#". But even still, I wouldn't do that if I were you. People would expect a changing image to indicate a link.

I suggest this: how about combine the two? Maybe all the images start colour (more visual impact when your audience first land on your site) and then with the rollover they go black and white and the text comes up. I really do think that each block should have text come up, so you get a uniform experience on the home page. I reckon some should link to "sports" photographs, some to "Wedidng" photos etc. Also if you are going to have a separate wedding site, one could link to that etc.

Good luck!
 
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