Website redesign now live

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SWP2010

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Edit My Images
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Hi All,

I have just redesigned my website, mainly because I had to change hosts (now that MobileMe is ending). This provided me with a good opportunity to improve the site, improve the navigation and hopefully create a better site.

You can visit my site here: http://www.stephenwalford.co.uk

The first time you visit there may be a slight delay in the images appearing - this is something I'm working on. I need to get the right balance between image quality and loading times, something which isn't right at the moment :bang:

Anyway, let me know your thoughts, any suggestions welcome :)

Thanks,
Steve
 
Just a picture of half a dozen camels showing for me, no links etc etc. Site does nothing else nor appears to be loading anything, got fed up waiting and left. Maybe wait until it is working better before posting the link.
 
Seems ok, great photos, just a few observations on the usability:

The initial screen seems a bit pointless
The images move when you move your cursor, which is disconcerting (to me anyway)
The headings are not marked up properly (doesn't do your search engine visibility any favours)
Slideshow can't be paused

Hope this helps
 
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SWP2010 said:
It works fine, click the logo! I did have a note on the page to say click the logo to enter, but assumed most people would try that anyway?
Click to expand...

Just tried it on Chrome, Opera and Firefox it works but strangely enough on Internet Explorer 9 the logo bit doesn't show, 32 & 64 bit IE. Heres a grab from my screen.

desert.jpg
 
Jez2011 said:
Seems ok, great photos, just a few observations on the usability:

The initial screen seems a bit pointless
The images move when you move your cursor, which is disconcerting (to me anyway)
The headings are not marked up properly (doesn't do your search engine visibility any favours)
Slideshow can't be paused

Hope this helps
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback, very useful :)

I may get rid of the first page (also because of the issues with IE9), as you say if it seems pointless then may be best for the home page to be a photo gallery.

The images move on purpose. I'm not 100% happy with this, but it's currently the only way to have portrait photos without them showing the full image with borders. Need to figure our a better way to display the images.

What do you mean by the headings are marked up properly? Sorry, may be obvious, but I'm still learning a lot about web design etc!

Currently the only way to stop the slideshow is to click a thumbnail. Do you think it would be better to have the slideshow turned off completely and require manuallly selecting images? Tempted to go down this route.



frank said:
Just tried it on Chrome, Opera and Firefox it works but strangely enough on Internet Explorer 9 the logo bit doesn't show, 32 & 64 bit IE. Heres a grab from my screen.

desert.jpg
Click to expand...

Thanks for testing, that's very odd. As mentioned above, may get rid of the first page if it's causing issues (and not adding any value to the site).
 
Nice photos.
My thoughts are that it's a bit slow (as you mentioned due to the large photos).
The links at the top right are hard to read against some of the photos (e.g. the Big Ben Westminster one). Maybe if you gave the link text a pale background then they would stand out against the dark background photos.
 
TopBanana said:
Nice photos.
My thoughts are that it's a bit slow (as you mentioned due to the large photos).
The links at the top right are hard to read against some of the photos (e.g. the Big Ben Westminster one). Maybe if you gave the link text a pale background then they would stand out against the dark background photos.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the comments.

It is a hard balance between the image quality and file size, still don't think it's quite right!!

I agree some of the text is hard to read, and i think your idea is a good one :-)
 
Hi Steve, i like the site and especially the pictures. I wonder whether the impression of slowness is due to the slideshow settings. If i go back a picture, the image should be preloaded and there is still a 1s or so delay where the white screen shows.

The individual pictures do not have their own address, so this may affect SEO. And searching your site in google for westminster shows links to pictures that i cannot see in full, eg this page

Really nice pictures, and a bit of polish this site should be really good.

Edit
I also notice that the pictures being loaded are approx 4000x3000, no need to go this big and allows people to pinch high-res pictures of yours.
 
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