New website, what do you think?

Hey all,


I wanted to change my website for a long time. Mainly because the purpose of the website has changed and it needed a new layout. Bob inspired me to do it when he was working on his own website, thanks Bob! :)


The webadress of my website is: www.actieinbeeld.nl or www.actieinbeeld.com which roughly means: action in the picture. Which was my main goal when I started the site two years ago.


This is the old layout (with pop-down menu for each item, mouse was on macro here):


http://www.actieinbeeld.nl/tdp/oldsite.jpg





I used to have this website to post the galleries that I shot for local sportsevents. The new website will still be used for that occasionally, but I also want to show my favorite photos, read portfolio, with it.


I have been working on it yesterday and I personally am glad that it went so smoothly. I anticipated a lot more work.


The site is still in progress and the portfolio pages are filled with a few quickly picked photos to show you the idea.


I'm really interested in what you think about it! Any feedback (positive and negative) is welcome. If I am redecorating the website I'd rather do it good in one time.


A few things that I'd like to know:

1. How are the loading times? With a 60Mb/s cable I'm probably not an objective tester myself.
2. What do you think about the different photo galleries? I use a different layout for the portfolio and for the galleries.(because galleries could get rather big in certain events)
3. How's the scaling of the background? Does it look properly on your screen? I use a 23 inch full HD 16:9 screen. Perhaps it doesn't scale as nice on smaller or different aspect ratio monitors?
4. What do you think about the background? It takes quite a big jpg file to make it and it must be loaded every time. Is it worth it? A simple plain background would be the faster option.
5. What do you think about the menu? Are the colors alright? Is it clearly readable?
6. What about the logo?

Thanks in advance for all feedback.


Things I plan to do:

• Change the background regularly to either my favorite photo of the month or a seasonal related photo. Perhaps a small slideshow later on(not too excited about that though).
• Add photos to the different categories of the portfolio (I'm way behind sorting and post-processing though...)
• Make some more decent "about" stories.
• Make better pictures ;)

Thanks,


Jan

Just visited your site....Downloading galleries....was a little slow (no problems down loading anything else very quickly). Scaling, backgrounds, colours, menu and logo all look very cool. Congrats to the Paalman Brothers. Home Page: Is that a picture of the Rhine?.


Wally

Heel prachtig.


Loading times on my comp are shocking, my dsl runs through a copper wire in bare earth for 1km (not even in PVC) so I get 60KiB/s on a good day (drops out when it rains), thankyou Telstra. The portfolio shots didn

Jos and Jan -


Congrats on getting your site up and running!


First off, in computer years I

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ddt0725

Also, I think it would sound better "Welcome to our site" rather than "Welcome on our site"

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I think i've been around Dutch people too long, I didn't even notice that. It's the literal translation of "Welkom op onze site", (op = on, amongst other meanings). But yeah, "welcome to our site" is better in english...

Jan,


I like the site, when I can get it to load, which has been only once in three attempts, and then when clicking around, it freezes up. But, from what I have seen, I like the minimalist layout.


Also, "Who are we" under "About" is probably meant to be "Who we are."


Brant

Jan,


Nice job on the site and I really like the "easy to navigate layout". Here are my comments as viewed on a 22inch widescreen monitor:


1. The design, layout, color scheme and text are very nice and compliment eachother very well.


2. In the About (english) section. I personally would like to see a little more info.


3. The homepage loaded fine on first attempt, but failed each time after that


4. The hompage photo was very nice and opened up in full screen on my widescreen monitor--the screen resolution was also very good--I liked it, but it may be slowing down your loading time.


5. The menu opens up in the Left 1/3 of the homepage on my monitor----But looked and worked fine for me.


Hope this helps,

Wow! Thanks for all the very detailed feedback! I

Ok, so I've gone through all of your comments and I've changed the following things:

• A few language changes

• I removed the background overlay grid for now. So the background does not get darker when you view a different page. The background does still get darker when you view a photo though. Please tell me if you like this better or not.

• I changed the layout of the galleries to the same layout as the portfolio. Please tell me if this decreases loading times.

These are the important changes I've done so far. I will continue working on the site when I have had my dinner. I will also reply to all the other remarks then.


Thanks again,


Jan

Ok, so I've updated a few things. Personally I'm not really liking the fact that I removed the grid on the background. The galleries don't stand out so much now. But that's my idea and your view is more important to me, because you view it in a different way.


Hopefully the galleries are improved a lot now. That was my main concern when reading all of your feedback.





To answer all the other questions and remarks:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bouwy

Home Page: Is that a picture of the Rhine?.

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It's not the Rhine. I wish we had such mountains in the Netherlands. The photo was shot in Norway from the bridge to Måløy looking south. Some nice views there ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr Croubie

Background image looks good, although I could
tell it was a bit pixellated from upsizing (my monitor is 2560x1440),
expecially on diagonal roofs in the bottom-right. Taking the biggest
image possible (2560x1600) and down-scaling makes for prettier, but
longer loading. Cropping 1:1 pixels is even prettier, but loses
composition. Loading the background for each click-through takes half a
second, surely there must be a script way around this though?

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Yes, this was a dilemma. I downscaled it to 2000pixels because that's enough for most monitors. The background file is now about 230Kb. If I would resize it to 2560 pixels wide, that would increase the size to about 350Kb. That's quite a big increasement. In my environment I only know 1 person with a screen with such big resolution so I thought it wasn´t worth it to let all other users download more and have slower loading times because of the few people with big resolutions. What´s your take on that?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr Croubie

When looking through the portfolio and the
background dims, it goes a bit blocky, like looking at it through a
screen-door, was that intentional? doesn't look bad, but it's not a real
'simple-darkening' if that's the effect you wanted. When looking at an
actual portfolio pic, the 'screen-doored' background gets a bit darker
again (i presume this is what you intended)

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The "grid" was intentional. I haven't figured out how to change it to "just" darkening yet. I disabled the grid for now to see what you all think about it.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr Croubie

The menu on the left was almost in the middle
of my screen (again, probably from having such a high-res screen). Menu
looks good, well laid out and easy to read. I didn't see your old site,
but if those menus change from mouse-hovering, I don't like that effect,
i prefer clicking, so the new one is good.

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The menu and body of the website together are placed in the centre of the screen. If you open a portfolio page for instance you'll see that there's just the same amount of background on the left side as is on the right side.


Having the menu almost in the middle is the concequence of having a monitor with high resolution ;)


The old menu was crappy and yes it did change with mouse-hovering. I'm much happier with this menu myself.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr Croubie

As for the bilinguality (if that's not a word
it is now): name of (company?) in dutch, everything else in english.
(add the translation and explanation of the name to the 'about us' page
maybe?)

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Very good idea. It's definitely not a company, but I get your point. I will adapt it in the english about section.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr Croubie

I click on the 'Nature' photos, and the
bottom-left says 'natuur-1' in dutch (or is that just the
filename?).

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Yes, that is actually the title of the image, however with importing: the title changes to the filename. Since these photos were just to fill the portfolio temporary I didn't mind. I changed the titles in the "various" portfolio tab so you can see what the future idea is.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr Croubie

The 'about us' page is a bit more
detailed in the dutch version, but then the missing paragraphs are aimed
at dutch people (sports/events photos?), so maybe ok to leave that off
the english page. If you're in Overijssel, any plans to cross the border
for events? need a german page too?


My plan, if it was me, is to create one completely dutch page (dutch
menus etc), default when coming from .nl, and one completely english
page when you come there via the .com, with a way to switch languages
while you're there (flag in the corner or so).

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The about us pages are also quickly made and definitely not done yet. Normally the galleries will only be used for events and sports. With those events I always give high resolution photos for free to the players or the visitors. They just email me with the number of the photo and I'll send them the big file. Since I haven't done any international events I'm not likely to send high res photos to foreign people. That's why I only included that in the Dutch about section. I might also include it in the English one, but I have to think about it. I cannot have just anyone asking for my high res photos. Eventhough with events I'm not likely to get any privacy issues, that might change when I send peoples photos across the entire world ;) I'll think about it.


Your plan sounds great! Better yet, I've tried to create it, but haven't succeeded yet. It's quite a lot of work and I haven't found a good place to place the language choice button yet. I'll look into that in the future, but for now it's more than I can handle.


About the German page: I might get to Belgium or Germany eventually, but I will not supply more languages than English and Dutch. My main base of visitors will be Dutch and all the others will just have to speak English and I know that's not a problem for nearby countries.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr Croubie

Any plans to sell prints? at the least a
'contact us for paper versions' line somewhere is the easiest, print
yourself and post...

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No, no plans to sell any prints. It's definitely not my intention. However your tip sound like a good way to make clear that it is possible. I'm open for it, but I don't want to get too commercially. I like the simple show and tell idea of the site.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr Croubie

definitely looks like the trip to norwegen paid off.

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Definitely! It was the most beautiful country I've ever been. We've done the major sorting, but still need to do the tweaking and the post-processing...the website was priority 1 and Norway 2 ;)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr Croubie

(even more inspiration to get my own site up
and running. I've owned croubie.com for nearly 10 years, and it doesn't
do anything except redirect emails...)

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When Bob started I knew I had to do it myself as well. Inspirational forums :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ddt0725

Your food photography is awesome & I hope you
are going to do more of it. If you are, you should change the name from
various to food & beverage and give it it's own space. Otherwise,
move various to the bottom under sports & events.

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Thanks Denise :D Actually the photos are from a sunday where me and my 2 brothers were at home and we decide to make a big sunday dinner for the three of us with anything we could grab inside the house and started experimenting. It was awesome and we've eaten amazingly good. Everything you see was made out of lose ingredients and fresh herbs from the garden. Delicious, but honestly the frittata tasted horrible :P It was a nice sunday afternoon and evening of cooking though :D We might do that more often, but I'm not planning on shooting foods every weekend. But you never know ;) I've changed the order of the menu.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ddt0725

On your "About Us" page, I'd like to see the photo of the two of you a bit larger.

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Done, tell me if this is big enough. Also do you like it that you can click on the image to see the original or is it useless?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dr Croubie

Quote:

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Originally Posted by ddt0725

Also, I think it would sound better "Welcome to our site" rather than "Welcome on our site"

---

I think i've been around Dutch people too long, I didn't even notice
that. It's the literal translation of "Welkom op onze site", (op = on,
amongst other meanings)

---

Lol! Yea, it's a Dutch problem ;) I know how to write it properly, but it does feel ok to write it the other way :) That's why I asked people who can really talk English.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Kayaker72

I like the site, when I can get it to load,
which has been only once in three attempts, and then when clicking
around, it freezes up.

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I made some changes, please tell me if you're keeping the same problems.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob Williams

2. In the About (english) section. I personally would like to see a little more info.

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Will do Bob, this was just to show what the idea was. Are there any points that would be important to put into the about section?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob Williams

3. The homepage loaded fine on first attempt, but failed each time after that

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Hopefully this has changed after the changes I made. Let me know if you will.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob Williams

4. The hompage photo was very nice and
opened up in full screen on my widescreen monitor--the screen resolution
was also very good--I liked it, but it may be slowing down your
loading time.

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Yes it's a dilemma between fast and beautiful. Since the site will be a portfolio rather than a blog or a place to sell my photos I think people will have more time when they visit. So I prefer a little longer load time over speed. If I had a more commercial vision, I would have chosen differently.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Bob Williams

Hope this helps,

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All of you have no idea how much this feedback helps. It's fantastic! Even little changes in grammar can make a site look more professional.


I think I'm having an above average computer and internet connection so it might look good on my computer, it may be a mess on a regular pc/connection. That's why this feedback is very helpful.


So thanks again for all of your help!





Jan

Jan, One more piece of advice---Though we all are provideing our "best" advice---ultimately it is you and your brother that you have to please. If you don

I hear you Bob. To be honest, about the grain, I like the darkening effect, but I'm not sure about the raster. So I'm in between and I wanted to show you what it is without the grid. It's an easy change and I can afford it because there's no rush. (but secretly I hope I can figure out a way to create a more equal way of darkening without a grid)


By the way, the advice tastes great! :)


Thanks Bob.

Jan,


Congratulations on the site! I think it looks wonderful. I didn

Thanks Rich!


I fully agree with the changes in the about section. I updated it. The about section is still temporary. I will make a final version later on which will take some more thinking.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Richard Lane

I was going to suggest that you remove the Flickr hyperlinks beneath the photos, but it seems like you did that already. Good job, on that one too!

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Yea, at first I liked it, because I initially planned to integrate Flickr into the galleries. I stepped down from it, because the loading times were even worse than the first galleries, so I decided to take all Flickr related links of the website.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Richard Lane

I don't see any place to purchase photos. Is this by design?

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Yes, the website is just our personal portfolio to show to the world so to speak. I'm open for people who specifically will ask for it and will probably include that somewhere stealthy in the about section later on.


I started the website with a friend of mine and he wanted to ask money for certain things. We did it his way, but it turned out to be a lot of work and irritation and I had to arrange everything while he was giving me "orders" on asking more and more(even for charity driven events). It also destroyed a few good relationships we had build up with a few clubs.That's why I don't plan on selling any photos unless specifically asked.


What I now plan to do with the website is:


- Show the portfolio


- Make galleries for certain sportsevents. If a player sees himself/herself in a photo, they simply mail me with the request of a high res photo. I send it to them and the responses I get are worth more than 5 dollars a photo, that's for sure. It has also created some invites to events I otherwise wouldn't have gotten into, which is pretty cool.


Also when we don't ask anything for our eventphotography, we're also much more selective in our selections. The quality of our gallerie is usually a lot better than the photographers who just click and try to sell every single photo. Eventhough we're not able to take everyones photo that way, a lot of people like it a lot more and come back to view different galleries later on while they may not even relate to them.


And since me and my brother are both still in university, we're not looking for a busy photography business.


Obviously we would ask money if someone wants us to shoot a wedding or something. That has happened before.


Thanks for the feedback!


Jan

Jan,

I really like your site and look forward to seeing more of your portfolio there in future. I think the other members have covered most of what I wanted to say. Here are my thoughts:

• Personally, I quite liked the grid that you used to darken the background. The effect was quite subtle and it allowed me to focus on the other pictures. I vote to reinstate it.
• When I hover my mouse over "Hellendoorn Rally 2011", an arrow appears under the "2" of 2011 instead of to the right like in the other menus. Can you make this tab wider, or just delete the arrow?
• The background image doesn't match your theme of action. I was expecting something more, er, active. Please don't take that the wrong way, because I love the image and the memories that it insipes of my own time in Norway, but the tranquil scene might confuse visitors looking for action.

Overall, you've done a good job and I hope the website leads to more opportunities for you and your brother.