My new site!

[antongorlin]

hi guys
a while ago I was posting about intention to create a new site.
and now, finally, after 5 months of works it up and online!

everyone's invited to visit
I still continue to upload photos.

Please comment, any suggestions are welcome - design, usability, user-friendliness, features etc

http://fotoforge.net

[Greeny]

Very professional looking site ColdBlood ... easy to navigate & well laid out IMO ... you've got some really excellent shots there - from what I've seen so far your desert shots are my favourites ... congratulations & I wish you the very best of success!!

[antongorlin]

thanks Greeny Desert shots are my favs as well for their "silence"

[antongorlin]

like? don't like? don't care? didn't even look? who's the hell are you?
any feedback welcome

[Watchamacallit]

Hey ColdBlood,

Thought I'd chip in and see what value I can offer. A key question I need to ask...

What are you wanting to portray and/or utilise your website for?
And I lied, it's followed closely by...
Who is your target audience? (If you know it)

Aka (Just general sample, not my impression of your site)

• Business to sell photography
• Happy Snappy
• Blogging (and flavours)
• etc

From this I believe others will also be able to provide input to help achieve your goal, or whether it's already been done

[antongorlin]

right, I should have written it at once.

Business to sell photography mainly
and a good place to contain my portfolio

dunno the audience

[Watchamacallit]

One fairly important thing in my view:

• Copyright watermarks across all photos.

Yes, these aren't hi-res photos but you're wanting to minimise any other usage and push your consumer down the line of purchasing a photo, rather than taking your online one photo and maybe just printing 6x4s (or using it elsewhere) - but once again, personal preference on this.

General:

• Javascript error on home page - stating javascript is not enabled in Chrome and Firefox, but not IE6 (Cross-browser compatability)
• Colour Scheme (in a personal view) it does not seem to coincide with your logo/header pallete.
• Update CSS to change your link text, as the dark blue is difficult to read on the grey background (specifically the contact us page and the "Your Cart" in the menu
• Buying can be interpreted as "This is where I go to buy" and is potentially confusing to the user, perhaps a rename to FAQ/Help?
• This huge + sign on the side of the page, seems to be more for social networking/etc rather than the website being viewed as a "business"

Contact Us:

• Remove your ICQ (In my view, not really used often these days)
• Email address could potentially be obselete with your Contact Us form (and may also protect you from space). This is more a personal feel in my opinion. One possibility is also to setup an alias address so it's "info@fotoforge.net" to mask your personal email.

Professionalism:
Some minor typos/grammatical errors (nothing major here)


That being said, I'm not meaning to be overcritical on things - what's been done in the gallery I like. Simple to navigate and change around the photos. Hope this feedback helps. - I'm not a graphic designer, but I work in the IT field regarding designing and building websites/systems (and usually charge lots for those consulting sessions :P)

Now, for some of the other things it will depend on your target audience - so not able to provide too much help here.

[antongorlin]

wow, awesome feedback.
that's what I was after!

1) js error. It should always be shown as it's not an error ) Ok, I understand that it would alarm users and I'll remove it
2) design is the hardest here. I'll probably have to hire some clever designer.
3) ok
4) good point
5) yeah, it's the mean of PR

6) I use ICQ )) and all my friends do. but yes, it's more popular on the eastern europe
7) not so sure. if I can, I use direct emails always without forms - this way I can browse sent emails

8) ok, I'll ask someone with native English to find them )

That's not overcritical, that's a very good criticism
Thanks!

[Watchamacallit]

Design is always the hard part, not to mention also the most time consuming. Do too much, website looks bloated and actually detracts from it's purpose. Put too little, and you won't have enough to keep your audience's attracted. As I said, a lot is personal choice on matters and I should point out that you don't want to lose it because it adds your character. The last thing you want is a site that is "cold."

You're website is already better than most I see out on the web (believe me...) so no worries there. They also grow with time

[Erin]

From a design standpoint.... bevelled typography (beveled ANYTHING) isn't very professional-looking. I'd bin your beveled titles and do something schmick in a san-serif font and maybe some logo work. (I'll put up my hand if you would like free assistance with that - newly graduated here and need the practice.)

Also from a design standpoint, your site has no real flow when it comes to the look of the type against the background. You've got too much going on. I would really suggest you work with the grey colour-scheme and get rid of everything thats orange, blue, bold font and bold AND italic font - I actually find your tags very hard to read. Select ONE typeface and stick with it for flow. I would suggest your active links be a light grey, your headers white and visited links a darker grey. If you must have a colour, select something that's got more grey tones to it like a grey blue or green for active links and grey for visited links.

I don't like the boxes down the side... they're clunky and redundant, especially when you've got the facebook/etc adds down in the bottom right-hand corner, that social pop-up thing is thoroughly annoying. Also what's the point of letting people turn your work sepia or B&W? If you don't intend to sell the image that way, don't let people mess with it.

[antongorlin]

thank you Erin, I will get to all these things right after I make a change to show bigger version of site on bigger screens.
free assistance is awesome, I'd like to have one )